I'm firmly in the "I don't want anyone living on top of me" camp now. I'm in an older building (built in the early 1900s). I can hear the people upstairs talking at a normal level. I can hear their TV at a normal level. I have to wear earplugs to avoid getting woken up by the creaking of the floor (they are not as ... svelte as the previous people). I hear their phone when it buzzes if they have on the table. This is definitely a HCOL area, and my rent, which I think is substantially under market value, would pay for a mortgage on a nice house pretty much anywhere else in the country. So, I'll be moving when my lease is up, and it will be a SFH unless the property can demonstrate that I won't be able to hear my neighbors. (Plus, I want to plant a nice English country garden in the back yard.)