Housing blocks vs housing districts

[Pilgrim]

I'm curious to learn from other people's experiences and thoughts when it comes to housing solutions. Do the benefits of expanding the housing districts rather than building more districts outweigh the costs, especially in the early game? And what about housing blocks? At what point are the blocks more efficient than building more districts?

[HatlessHorseMan]

I mean, you need to expand housing districts to build all the special residential building like researchers, hospitals, watchtowers, etc. I'll typically build housing blocks when I have a huge influx of population and expand housing districts otherwise.

[Anonymous2013]

It's more benefic to expand a Housing District if you plan out and manage to squeeze in some HUB's for a few Trust bonuses and Fight Arenas for less Tension build-up.

For example, you can't put anything in a simple District, so if Squalor, Disease or Crime get too high, you can't combat them efficiently. They'll only offer shelter to 20 population (about 2.000 people) but nothing else.

Expanded Districts lets you add in buildings like Hospitals, Air Vents, Guard Towers, Prisons, etc. and that helps you out. You also need some Research Institutes in a few Districts to speed up your research speed in the Idea Tree (like how you'd build multiple Workshops).

So my advice is to expand a District as soon as you are able to. Especially Extraction, Food and Industrial Districts for more recource output and building slots for improvement.