Chris --
In answer to your question, yes and no. Spanish suburbs (not the neighborhoods of Arguelles and Hortaleza as MikeTheMan mentions) are very similar in many ways to American suburbs, but they also have their distinct differences.
Since housing and utilities are much more expensive in Spain than comparatively in the USA, by far the most popular style of housing here are the pisos/flats. These are housed in "apartment like" buildings and often create communities of their own with common gardens, playgrounds, or swimming pools shared by and paid for the owners of the pisos. The concept of owning a piso is similar to owning a condo in the USA. It´s your house, but there are shared expenses that you have to pay for. Pisos are by far the most prevalent housing in the city of Madrid.
In the suburbs of Madrid, the housing is even MORE expensive than the city (particularly true for the northern suburbs). Generally this is where the folks that "have a little more to spend"
live. Here, pisos are still common followed then by "casas adosadas" (row or townhomes), casas aparejadas (twin homes) and "chalés" or "chalets", or "casas particulares" (single homes with gardens/yards).
Frankly, I don´t care for most of the housing in the suburbs of Madrid. I refer to them as clones because developers must follow strict guidelines set forth by the individual "townships" in terms of design, size, color, building material, etc. The homes all end up looking like clones of each other.
In many of the suburbs of Madrid, they started out as small towns with unique characters of their own, but when the housing boom here in Spain started, and people started moving out to the burbs, the mass expansion (suburban sprawl) pretty much did away with any concept of town in the newly developed areas...and just like in the USA, you need a car to get anywhere, including the grocery store.
The charming concept of "quaint Europe" ... you know the image that we all have/had, small corner fruit stands, local baker, local butcher, local cheese shop, coffee shop etc... gets totally thrown out the window when it comes to the suburbs. Essentially, what I find them lacking in is culture, just like most American suburbs. The shopping, family life, entertainment, etc. gets taken care of in the huge centro comercial located in just about every town in the northern suburbs of Madrid. These centros comerciales are anchored by a hypermarket, usually Carrefour (think Wal-Mart... one stop shopping where you can buy oil for you car, clothes, and the week´s groceries and pay at the same checkout), and a McDonalds or Burger King. Many of these centros comerciales sport megaplex movie theaters (showing the latest American films), some also have videogame rooms, skating rinks, and a host of smaller stores (kinda sorta like a shopping mall on a slightly smaller scale). Because these towns "lack culture" the townships usually have some sort of "Centro Cultural".. a cultural center where residents can go to see amateur theater, take painting classes, aerobic classes, singing lessons,..whatever the center happens to offer.
The suburbs are a very popular place, but with their own challenges, particularly in public transportation. The metro does not go out to the vast majority of the suburbs, and not all the towns are located along a train line. Many depend on "interurbano" buses to take them into Madrid for their jobs. As an indication of the challenge that this can represent... this week, all the interubano bus operators (private companies with a special contract with the city of Madrid to provide scheduled routes) went on strike leaving millions (literally) of people without transportation. I commute daily to Madrid (by car)...a nice 65 km run from our town just outside the "Comunidad de Madrid" in the province of Segovia. These past two days, what normally takes me 45 minutes, has turned into a 2 1/2 hour nightmare door to door. Of those 2 1/2 hours, 2 hours of the delay started at just 12km outside the city where the most heavily populated suburbs are.
Sorry for such a long winded response, but I found your question interesting as it is one that I get alot from friends and family "back home" in the states!
Saludos!