You have to control for the city changing is well because that directly impacts the desirability of the neighborhood. In the extreme case, if a city has increas

You have to control for the city changing is well because that directly impacts the desirability of the neighborhood. In the extreme case, if a city has increased population, such that what used to be considered a suburb is now as dense and desirable as what used to be the city center, while you may be moving farther from the city center, you might not be farther from an area equivalent to the city center from decades ago. In the case of New York, desirability of the city (not just the specific suburb you're comparing) has increased massively. The only way to find a comparable neighborhood, that is a comparable distance to a city center that is as desirable as Manhattan or Brooklyn was in the 1980, is to either look farther out or look at an area near a different city.