I lived in Germany for a few years. Love the ease of walking to things and being able to catch the bus or street car or subway. It was great but if you ask everyone living in apartments if they could own a house with a backyard (if they could afford it) the vast majority would ditch it for a house in an instant. Europeans have no choice. We in the USA do. Plus living in a city is very expensive which not everyone can afford.


But to your central question can you live a European lifestyle in the USA ? Without everything that Europe has to offer from healthcare to retirement to transportation to the actual people then the answer is a big No. you can live in walkable parts of a city. Take public transportation. Go to cafes and shopping and museums. But the other half we’ll never have. If you want all that then move to Europe.