Why We Moved from the City to Suburbs

I’ve never gone into detail about our move from city to suburbs. We met in Chicago, spent years in various apartments and our first home, our condo, and in 2019 we made the move to the end-of-the-Metra suburbs. Three and a half years, a pandemic and a baby girl later, it’s time to open up.

Had to go into the vault for most of these pictures, so I hope you enjoy the throwbacks, I know I have!

When Were You Ready to Move from City to Suburbs?

I was not mentally or emotionally ready when we first decided to move.

I’m speaking for myself because Kevin’s story is slightly different (he claims he was ready in 2017, though I never recall him complaining or mentioning moving quite so early on).

I’d just turned 30 and was just recovering from the mental and financial toll planning a wedding takes on you. Not only that, but I was finally in a place where I felt like I could really enjoy the city. We not only didn’t have the obligation of children yet, but I’d just been promoted to my would-be final role at my now former company and was making better money finally. Freedom and finances, the perfect ingredients for a cosmopolitan life in a large, urban city.

How could I possibly go from city to suburbs right now?

Clean Condo Kitchen — *Our beautiful Evanston condo kitchen*

I’m also a data-driven, methodical person, and with all of the facts in front of us I knew moving when it came up would ultimately be the right move.

The short answer is, I was never “ready”, I just knew it was objectively the right time for us.

If You Weren’t Ready, Why Did You Move?

When we stumbled upon our home, we just knew.

In addition to feeling like we’d found our home, we were ready financially and knew we’d be able to come out ahead financially if we sold our condo.

How we found our house is a funny story, though. We didn’t actually get in the car that day with the intention to house shop.

How We Found Our House

We were ‘back home’ visiting our families in the suburbs for Thanksgiving. It was the day before the holiday and being that we’re from out of town, I waited to get the groceries for my holiday cheesy potatoes until we were local. When we left the grocery store, Kevin mentioned there was a new-build subdivision nearby he’d seen online and asked if I wanted to drive by. I’m always up for an adventure so I said let’s do it!

Five hours later (with my groceries going bad in the car), we’d been in four different houses in this subdivision, including what would be our future home. I had some specified criteria in mind for a house if I was being plucked out of the city, and this house filled nearly all of it.

My New Home Criteria

Dark hardwoods on first floor
White kitchen
3-car garage
Upstairs laundry
Soaker tub
First floor home office for me (optional, but ideal)

While we didn’t hit the mark with the soaker tub, our current house has literally everything else and more that we could possibly have wanted. We back up to an open field, the neighborhood has a park with a 1/2 mile walking path for Bickell and the house was marked down to move FAST because they needed to sell this one to build more. Kevin always wanted a basement office too, and we have a nice big basement that we finished for that reason, so that checked a big box for him.

Seeing the house had all of this and was right in our price range, it was pretty hard to ignore the sign in front of us. That sign said, “BUY ME, FOOLS”.

It’s a good thing we acted when we did, too. The houses in our neighborhood were flying and had we waited any longer to commit I think we would have missed our exact home and would have just kept looking.

When we eventually returned back to Kevin’s parent’s house they were definitely curious why we took four hours to get groceries so we filled them in.

Making the City to Suburbs Decision

Kevin and I spent a lot of extra time at night talking the decision through. He knew this came out of basically nowhere, especially for me, and that my process is weighing the pros and cons heavily. We both knew we wanted to move back eventually but had not once talked about a timeline yet, and somehow here we were looking at cutting a large check to secure a house we didn’t even wake up knowing we’d see that day.

When it came down to it, the only con was that we’d miss the city and our friends there, but we knew that alone didn’t outweigh the benefits. We’d have three times the indoor space, a third of an acre of land for us and especially Bickell to enjoy, a huge garage and the biggest perk to us of all: we wouldn’t share a wall with neighbors. We had our share of very noisy neighbors and were kind of over it.

Together, we came to the conclusion that this was the next step. It was time to make that semi-scary leap.

Home Depot Moving Boxes City to Suburbs — *Baby Ashley circa 2019*

We talked it over with all the parents that weekend and everyone was super excited, especially since we’d be local again. Our condo was an 80-minute drive away so we didn’t see family as much as we’d liked. We took everyone through the house that weekend, even the siblings who were in for the holiday. By the end of the weekend we put down our earnest money!

Why I Think People in the Suburbs are Happier

Since being out here I’ve come to a few conclusions.

The biggest being despite the stigma around moving to the suburbs meaning your young life is over, or the fun/party is over, people out here are SO much happier. Like, a crazy amount. It’s almost like Mr. Roger’s neighborhood everywhere you look sometimes.

Why is that?

First and foremost, there’s more space. Looking back at city living, everyone is packed in like sardines, oftentimes without dedicated outdoor space in which to unwind. While that may not phase everyone, I think it truly makes some people miserable. That was a big point of contention for Kevin. He’s 6’6″ and feels like a giant in many spaces to begin with, nonetheless smaller than average urban dwellings.

Patio Gazebo — *Our backyard gazebo, an extension of our living room*

Secondly, the commute. Admittedly, I miss the train time to get work done while someone else takes me to my destination. However, if you want to get in your car and drive somewhere a mile away it will likely take you less than 5 minutes. Good luck saying the same about most areas of the city.

Thirdly, and probably most obviously, there’s a fraction of the crime in most suburbs compared to what you hear about from large urban cities. Less crime means more freedom. You feel able to be out later, to call an Uber without as much worry, to let kids play outside more than an arm’s length away, to simply be out and about in your community without feeling like watching your back is a full-time job.

How We Feel About Our Move 3+ Years Later

We wouldn’t change a thing.

Now, we moved in March 2019 which was a blessing we didn’t even realize at the time with the pandemic coming just a short year later. Even so, without that dark cloud considered we would make the same decision over and over again.

Cost of living is less expensive, space is abundant and we’re in the perfect spot to see stars on a clear night but are able to drive into the city in one hour if needed.

The decision to move was both hard and easy. Hard to leave friends and the life we grew together in our first home, but easy in virtually every other aspect. I encourage you explore the possibility as much as possible if you’ve been curious. Maybe stay with some family members in the suburbs for an extended period to get a real feel for it, first. If you’re on the city to suburbs fence, take that leap of faith! You can always move back, but I truly don’t think you’ll need to.

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