A quiet neighborhood full of empty nests!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I posted this elsewhere too, but, I walk through our neighborhood and it’s eerily quiet these days. All the neighborhood kids, who once upon a time played outside for hours together, are all gone. Lots of high school & college graduates among them this year. The houses aren’t turning over yet.

I may need to move to a neighborhood filled with kids running around!

You can't be serious.

?

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I look at our old neighbors in their 80s and go, someday, we will be like them. Walking around at random times, coming out of their house when they see us outside, peeking into people's yard to see what renovation is going on, asking for help to fix phone and computer problems, asking us who our visitors are, watching our house at all times, telling us they have alot of free time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in one. It's fantastic.

Same. We have a lovely neighborhood of SFH. We all bought there for low prices years ago. It has woods, trails, shopping, access to major highways, entertainment, culture, fed officer, close by. At the same time, it has low performing public schools. As a result, most of the kids ended up going to private or magnet schools. When homeowners sold their houses, it did not attract people looking for good schools. Inevitably, people who moved to our neighborhood were those who sold their homes in great school pyramids to move to the much spacious homes here for 1/2 the price.

Now, we have a closeknit neighborhood of lovely homes with empty nesters….but, lo and behold, many adult kids moved in during COVID and even now grandparents are proving babysitting to little grandkids while the parents do remote work. So in the daytime, we have a lot of babies inn strollers around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you have kids? Is that why you want to move to a neighborhood with kids? Otherwise I don’t get it.

The suburbs are made for kids. Everything about them - the schools, the parks, the kinds of restaurants, etc - have families in mind. We loved living there when we had our kids, but when they flew the nest we sold asap and moved to the city and started making our own fun. Now our adult kids join us there and we we have adult fun.

Life goes on. Go with it.

That’s funny, because we did exactly the opposite. Lived in the city when we had kids, because you could walk everywhere when they were young, and then they could talk public transport to their games, etc when they were teens. Moved to the suburbs when they left to enjoy the peace and quiet.

[Anonymous]

We love the peace and quiet. We've noticed that more wildlife are visiting the yards and gardens.

[Anonymous]

It’s okay, I feel old too (I’m a 35 y/o AC). I recently saw a large family that I used to babysit. All of the children are at least 14 years younger than I am, but they are all at least 7 inches taller than I am.

[Anonymous]

Cycle of life. We moved when our kids were tiny, to a street full of kids, many of them our kids' ages. Now my oldest is going to college, and no one has played in the street for years - half are already gone, and the rest are old enough to have activities and homework. But everyone's holding on to their homes, so there haven't been many new families. Maybe in a few years when the few grandparents start leaving.

[Anonymous]

Neighborhoods go in cycles. We actually bought our house when our kids graduated high school. And for a while, we were in our 50s with our neighbors older, 60s, 70s.

Now we are in our 60s, plenty of people our age, some older, but a lot of young families moved in especially in the last 8 years. It's a large happy group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I posted this elsewhere too, but, I walk through our neighborhood and it’s eerily quiet these days. All the neighborhood kids, who once upon a time played outside for hours together, are all gone. Lots of high school & college graduates among them this year. The houses aren’t turning over yet.

I may need to move to a neighborhood filled with kids running around!

OP, you might like living in a neighborhood surrounded by schools like I do. Within walking distance we have private and public from preschool to high school so young families are eager to move in. We've lived here since the late 90's when our kids were in elementary. It's a nice mix of neighbors, a few have lived here as long as us and we're still close and all our adult kids pop by for visits, some have grandkids now. More than half of the houses have sold over the years and have younger families from babies to teens. The only real con is that at certain times it's busy with extra traffic and parking on our side street. We back onto a private elementary and it is loud when they have recess and lunch, but some of it is cute to see and hear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never moved out of my “starter home” and we have new families moving in all the time.

Maybe you bought a non starter home so no young families.

Same. We're the former young parents from the late '90s-early aughts who are priced out of moving anywhere else. The new young families must be bringing their generational wealth as well as their little kids.

I really thought the people who paid 100-200k for a house 30/40 years ago and now worth 1m+ would take the cash and run to somewhere with a lower COL. But it hasn't happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I look at our old neighbors in their 80s and go, someday, we will be like them. Walking around at random times, coming out of their house when they see us outside, peeking into people's yard to see what renovation is going on, asking for help to fix phone and computer problems, asking us who our visitors are, watching our house at all times, telling us they have alot of free time.

I love this about our retired neighbors, we have a lot less crime than our surrounding neighborhood because they watch people like a hawk, it's awesome!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Be careful what you wish for! Our neighborhood is changing over and there are kids everywhere and are pretty loud. A little peace and quiet to enjoy nature isn’t the worst thing in the world.

Us too! Way back in 2010 when we moved in we were the "young family with littles". Another couple years and there was major turnover and it was great- lots of kids. Well they have all made it to high school and the people who were super old have no passed and several really young families have moved in. It blows. Kids screaming,crying, etc., etc. all day and evening long, esp now with the nice weather. We can't even enjoy the back yard without our three terror neighbor kids (5,7 and 8 years old) out back screaming and fighting all day long. I hate it. I am officially a mean old lady.

[Anonymous]

Our neighborhood is primarily empty nests or teens. It gets lonely for my youngest kids although they do enjoy befriending the adults in their neighborhood

[Anonymous]

There has started to be an uptick in houses for sale so now we're starting to see younger families make their way back into the neighborhood. Love it, even if it's a really upset 5 year old.