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I live in NY metro and my 2 bed apartment has $2k/mo city tax. As cities get denser costs get more expensive. I replaced my HVAC, hot water heater and rebuilt a bathroom and it cost me the same price I could buy a whole detached house in Chicago.

Urban sprawl Houston style is the only way to keep costs low as you suggest, and I wouldn't want to live there.

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New York has been getting less dense though, which is the point of TFA. As demand has outstripped supply, prices of real estate and everything consequent to that (labor, professional services, retail goods, transportation etc.) will increase in price as well.

"Costs" in Houston don't look so much better than NYC when you add the significantly higher transportation expenses to their lower rents. Also, local salaries are a third less, so you have that much less money for everything.

As you pointed out houses are cheap in Chicago and the north side is quite dense, comparable to most of Brooklyn.

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