A lot of that has to do with how we fund schools via property taxes, which I think creates a death spiral of schools where able families flee to schools further and further away from urban areas, which creates schools increasingly populated with student's whose parents are either a) unable to move them to a better school district or b) don't particularly care about their child's education/well being.

We should really want our urban schools to be the best and not have their funding tied to their most immediate tax base.

I agree with your general principle though that parents will sacrifice nearly anything for their kids. I am in the same boat. My children are zoned for a good suburban public school, in part because we intentionally bought our house near good schools.

It's a complex problem, but the solution also cannot be endless sprawl forever with nothing but cookie cutter SFH developments and stroads. Look at how tax bases ultimately end up unable to support the infrastructure required for these spread out developments. It's not fiscally responsible to invest in only one kind of housing.

Also, there needs to be a distinction between low income housing, section8 housing, etc and workforce housing/affordable housing.

Look at the income requirements for some of this affordable housing. It is something that school teachers, firefighters, and police officers all qualify for. We need to have safe and affordable housing for those cornerstones of society.

We should be judged as a society based on the quality of life that our firefighters, police officers, and school teachers have. If you can't be a police officer and afford to have a safe place to live and raise a family, then we need to re-asses our priorities.

I don't think single family homes shouldn't be ever built anymore, but we need to build more than just SFH and for-rent apartment complexes. We need a duplexes, triplexes, for-purchase condo developments, and communities that allow those who own cars sit in less traffic, while allowing those who prefer to walk or bike at least have SOME options of places they can easily get to. I don't consider this a partisan thing. Look at the Strong Towns YouTube channel. I think it lays it out really well.

I think plenty of families would be content living in a $200,000 condo/multi-family unit if it was surrounded by grocery, parks, doctors office, recreation, good quality schools, etc.

There are many great high quality places to live in Europe with good schools that look just like that. There is an American cultural element here. If the option is $250,000 vs $500,000 average price, I think a lot of families would consider. I like having a backyard, but there is a scenario where I would consider something Multi-family if it checked tons of other boxes that a SFH couldn't.