It’s also possible it’s like that because the city and apartments they are familiar with suck. I used to live in a small, admittedly rich, city, and had all amenities within 7 minutes walk, park within 3 minute walk. The city policy is that there is a primary school within kids walking distance. We had 4 apartments in the city with these characteristics, and didn’t hear the neighbors (much) except for the above neighbors heels in one of them.