It's that plus the schools, at least in this city. If we lived in the city, it'd take ~2-2.5x as much money to buy a house with one fewer bedrooms than our cur

It's that plus the schools, at least in this city. If we lived in the city, it'd take ~2-2.5x as much money to buy a house with one fewer bedrooms than our current 'burbs house has (two of our kids could have bunk-beds I guess) and probably 500-100sqft smaller overall and in kinda so-so shape, and that's outside the heart of the city and not in a ritzy neighborhood (but also not a slum). Then we'd also have to hope our kids got into one of a couple good waiting-listed charter schools, or else pay another $2-3K/month for private school. We couldn't afford that at all, and even if they got into the charter schools we'd be living like paupers thanks to the much-higher mortgage (or rent). So, lifeless, boring 'burbs full of seemingly-intentionally-ugly houses it is.