Desirability

Link to official Crate Game guide - Desirability section

Desirability is a key component of Villager happiness in settlements of any size and is also one of the requirements for Shelters to upgrade to higher tiers of housing, increasing both household tax revenue and Villager requirements.

While certain amenities, workplaces and decorations can increase desirability and are beneficial to put near housing, other production and service buildings can have a negative impact on desirability and should be kept away from residential areas.

Note: Disabling buildings (such as the Healer's House) will stop their positive boost to desirability in addition to their upkeep cost, if any.

Between placement of negatively-impacting buildings and disabling of services, it is possible to reduce desirability below a building's upgrade threshold. If this occurs, Homesteads and above can become Abandoned and residents will move out until desirability improves, potentially causing housing shortages.

If left long enough, Abandoned buildings eventually become Condemned and are no longer recoverable, requiring The Player to manually salvage the Shelter to reclaim that location.

Building Impacts
Building impacts on Desirability are limited to a specific radius with diminishing impacts on shelters depending on range.

Some Amenity buildings only provide impact the first time a house gains access, duplicate amenity buildings may not provide stacking impacts to Shelters.

Negative impacts from workplaces, however, can almost always stack.