I also live in the Bay Area, and my neighborhood is primarily made up of tightly-packed single family homes as well. Your description reminds me of an article from City 190, written by Robert Fishman. In it, he describes the rise of the "technoburb" in the Bay Area, which he defines as a suburb that has developed services and amenities that are normally associated with cities, and don't need to be connected to an actual city. In that way, technoburbs are quasi-cities - they don't really qualify as urban but they also aren't a typical suburb. Do you feel like Albany could fit this description?