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A lot of it has to do with the reason suburbs exist, which was oddly enough proposed by Michael Moore of all people in his movie Bowling for Columbine. Basically, he sees the suburbs as a sort of refuge for the fearful. There's an amazing subculture of fear and paranoia in the United States, which eventually entangles itself with isolationism. Even in their own homes, with their own families, many Americans seek isolation. It's not being an introvert, either, but rather an unfortunate result of social fears going unchecked. Even though you're surrounded by nice people, you'd rather be alone, not making the effort to connect lest you embarrass yourself or get hurt.
The nice thing, though, is that the cure for this kind of situation is open and sociable city folk like us. Once I finally did give my neighbors a howdy, things went fine. They opened up, and now our beagles are the best of friends, and the humans are following suit. All it takes is a nudge.
And a barbecue. Everyone loves a barbecue. If I were nearby, I'd offer to swing by and grill up some of my world-famous lamb kabobs.
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