Nathan Smith and Megan Jones-Smith enjoyed living in Austin, Texas, for 13 years, but it never really felt like a forever home.
“Especially with the last election, it can be very hard to live in Texas sometimes if you’re a progressive person,” said Mrs. Jones-Smith, 53, who works in the arts in client services.
Last year, they considered moving up to British Columbia — Mrs. Jones-Smith is from Canada — but “it would have been a whole lifestyle change,” said Mr. Smith, 50. They now had two school-age sons (Noah, 15, and Liam, 12) to think about, not to mention Mr. Smith’s job as an executive at an American agricultural company. The immigration process seemed daunting.
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So they turned instead to Chicago, where the couple first met two decades ago and still had a warm familiarity. It was also home to a branch of their sons’ school in Austin, which would allow them to continue the curriculum. The initial goal was a single-family home that could fit a family of four (plus a dog), and was within walking distance of the school.
The Smiths also wanted to plant firm roots for when the boys left the nest. “I had friends whose kids were older, and when they moved right after their kids graduated, the kids didn’t have a home to go home to,” said Mrs. Jones-Smith.
They reached out to Joe Zimmerman, operating principal at Keller Williams One Chicago, who had helped them buy their first condo in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood years ago.
Hunting online from Austin with a budget of around $900,000, the Smiths homed in on North Side neighborhoods including Bowmanville, Ravenswood and Lincoln Square. Mr. Zimmerman warned that in those areas, “single-family homes are limited and highly sought after,” often sparking bidding wars.
Indeed, the Smiths found that available single-family homes listed at around $800,000 or $900,000 would move fast and sell for well over $1 million.
“You can get a nice condo in Chicago that’s three or four bedrooms that has the same square footage as our house did in Austin,” said Mrs. Jones-Smith.
Time was of the essence: They had to wrap up a deal before the new school year started. Their only requisite, besides location, was a top-floor unit, so there’d be no risk of hearing neighbors above.
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