around town or around towns? [closed]

"Recently, many housing estates around town have seen a dip in home valuations."

This is the first sentence of an article. Is it because town has a specific meaning so singular form (uncountable) is used in this example? Are there other common examples like this case that we know a noun is countable but at the same time use singular form for a particular meaning? Please help cite as many examples as possible. Thanks a lot!

Solution 1:

It's not that town is uncountable here (although town can uncountable). It's that one particular town is implied.

When people say "around town" they mean "in various parts of the town", and they are almost always talking about one town, which is implicitly understood by the hearers. Maybe it is the town they are in, or if it is written in a local newspaper or said on a TV station then it means the town the paper is for. Or it is implied by context:

"Recently, many housing estates around town have seen a dip in home valuations" said the Mayor of Toronto when we interviewed him.

"Around towns" is valid, but it mean "in the vicinity of" towns in general.

Land prices are rising around towns in Canada.