He makes as though he's going to say that he's not "settling." He happens to favor "not that depressing." But that's not exactly going to go over well, he has a feeling. So he opts for what (he thinks) sounds like the next best thing.

"If I were settling, I wouldn't have let the city reclaim my family home."

And when he says that, he's intentionally leaving out the "burnt out remains" that's supposed to go in front of it.