Ah, yes. It sucks when such bottlenecks are legally enforced.

I mean, in case of the USA it's a clear legacy of racism, not just zoning laws, but also laws made to make spontaneous (I don't mean squatting and undocumented slums by that, just populated areas growing more naturally) development hard. Also how trains are perceived, it seems, there.

Say, if I can bear 2+hr long commute (would be like 1.2hr on the train, 0.8hr on the subway, and some waiting and walking in between) in case I need something in Moscow, buying a crumbling house in a literal village (with a train station nearby) is the cheapest thing (but not cheap) one can do. It's just - with such a property you need to think, because if you run out of firewood or diesel or whatever you use, you may literally freeze (or at least crush the pipes). You also need to fix stuff yourself. And you need to get to know your neighbors and be on good terms with them.