Americans may aspire to single-family homes, but in South Korea, apartments are king

While the classic American dream often revolves around owning a standalone house with a yard, South Korea tells a different story. For the middle class there, the ultimate symbol of stability and success isn’t a suburban home—it’s a high-rise apartment. Cultural preferences, urban density, and economic factors have made apartments the gold standard, reshaping what "homeownership" looks like in a rapidly modernizing society.