I personally hate communal living. I live in a condo now, and if I can do away with noisy/inconsiderate/unfriendly neighbours, I would. If you're not on the top floor, you'll hear people stomping around upstairs.

Another thing that you may want to consider is: I'm assuming your cats are indoor cats? if they were in a house, would they be tempted to go outside?

I suppose what you could do is try out the house and if you absolutely loathe it, maybe you can at that point look for a spacious apartment. $400/mo is a lot, that's $4,800 a year - you could get a pretty swanky bike for that kind of money!

I feel for you, I hate decision making, too!!