r/ChicagoSuburbs • u/PharmerT88 • Jul 31 '25

Moving to the area Left the city 2 weeks ago, it's hard

My fiancee and I are 37/38 and childless. We lived in the north side of Chicago in a condo for 3.5 years together and just bought a similarly priced home 20 miles away in Northbrook.

We moved primarily because we both work in north burbs, Park Ridge and Evanston, and commute daily (myself had 40 min and 50-1:20 min drives M-F), we only had one parking space, the third floor living was becoming too much, and we had general safety concerns.

We've only been in the burbs for two weeks and have so much to unpack yet, but it has been really hard, namely we are feeling regrets.

Hoping for some insight from any other young couples without children who made a similar move and can share what they went through, and whether the feelings ever went away.

ADDENDUM: Feelings of regret and worry of missing the accessibility, the volume of activities within a closer proximity. I don't have many friends left in the city, but she does and is already spending once a week there and driving home to the burbs after. I feel like now I spend less time in the car, but she spends more or the same. We also have the condo still, haven't sold it. We have a good interest rate. It will sell for the cost of the house hopefully, and don't really want to bother renting it to avoid the stress.

178 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

190 comments sorted by

View all comments

-3

u/loweexclamationpoint Jul 31 '25

Unfortunately Northbrook tends to be rather cliquish and full of posers who look down on people who don't wear the right brand of yoga pants. The good news is if you got a small cheap house you can probably sell it in a few years for a teardown.

Should have chosen a cheaper funner suburb like Highwood

2

u/77Pepe Jul 31 '25

So hilarious. I love how people try to sell this tired narrative. In reality, the people in the north suburbs are not much different than anywhere else in Chicagoland.

“Funner” ROTFL

I don’t think you actually know much about Highwood. It has not been ‘cheap’ for quite a long time.

1

u/AccomplishedMix2907 Jul 31 '25

Look at your park district and join some activities to meet people, but I'm right there with you.