There is a middle ground between single family housing and high density housing, it's just not less common in the US than either apartments or single family housing.

Medium density housing, duplexes, quadruplexes, and town homes.

And yeah crappy apartments with little to no sound dampening are really common. At my brother's apartment I can hear his neighbor's coffee pot turn on both outside and inside the apartment building. Shit's got tissues for walls I swear.