We are hopeful property values will drop enough in NYC to afford to purchase.

Everyone always jokes about moving to Canada, but considering they have the pandemic under control and their people are polite and wear masks, we've made the decision to leave Brooklyn for a while and join the Canuks.

Technically we are not moving out of a city, rather we are moving into the heart of the city - sort of a reverse exodus. NYC is resilient and will bounce back soon, why not take advantage of great mortgage rates and drop in housing prices?

When the pandemic started, my husband and I took our 5-year-old to the midwest to stay with his parents. We stayed 102 days. After living in NYC for 19 1/2 years, this was the longest time I'd ever been away from the city. When we returned home to Brooklyn, I was SO relieved to be as happy as I was to be back. 911 was scary, but it never occurred to me to leave. I've lived here through the blackout, the recession, the hurricanes, the changes in administration. But after having a taste of what the other life is, I now know it's not for me. I am NY strong. This too, will pass.

Lack of childcare

I currently live in Brooklyn, NY and work in Manhattan. I have two small kids and with the cost of private school/childcare on top of decreased earnings it's becoming increasingly hard to justify paying for apartment living especially living with two small kids and needing room to roam. We always talked about moving West but COVID heightened that for us. We are planning to move a year from now. We want our kids to grow up with a backyard, in a house and in a place where people are less transient so that they can develop life long friendships. I'd hate to rob them of that experience because it's one my husband and I both had. The city is great but we aren't taking advantage of everything it has to offer and don't foresee all of that returning anytime soon. It's time to move on but it's been a great 15 year run.

We had been talking about moving back to the Midwest for a few years now. We have two small boys in a tiny Brooklyn apartment. They deserve safe access to the outdoors. We also want to put down roots, own a home, have a backyard with a garden and a less transient community to become a part of. Large cities are great for young professionals.

We felt so helpless when COVID happened. We couldn’t store up reserves of food because of space and high prices. We couldn’t find any cleaning supplies even rubbing alcohol. Had to get my in laws to drive some in from NJ. Even taking the 4 year old for a walk around the block was a high risk because the sidewalks aren’t wide enough to distance. Just going to the elevator or getting mail was dangerous because of tight spaces. Now we just moved to the suburbs and I feel like we can finally control (more or less) who we come Into contact with. Having a car to mitigate casual contact with people helps. I feel our privilege very strongly. I’m grateful we can pull this off.

We are moving around the corner from where we are but upgrading to a two bedroom. A 1 bedroom has been challenging with 2 people working from home.

Born and raised in Oakland but moved to NYC for college in 2011 and have been living there for about a decade. My fiancee Lucy and I have always planned to move back to California long term (she's also from the bay), but COVID sped up our timeline by 2-3 years. Our jobs closed their offices in early March so we bailed from NYC and have been staying with family and friends in California. Being out here made us realize how much we love the bay and how much we do not want to go back to NYC, especially in this new era. What we love most about NYC is the nightlife (I play in punk rock bands), and it will be a loooong time before NYC nightlife returns to anything close to what used to be "normal". Our lease is up at the end of July so we're flying back next week, packing up our apartment into a 16' Penske truck, and zipping across I-80 in a 7-day road trip. See ya later NYC ✌️

It’s not me that’s moving, but rather my roommate (who doesn’t read the Hustle...), as well as another friend who’s been in Manhattan and is also moving to Los Angeles. I think being inside during the pandemic made him finally consider just how much he hated his café job and how he’d rather pursue his tv writing more intensely. Hence LA. I’m the dumb fuck who got a teaching job here in nyc so I’m stuck at least for now. At least in SF you can fuck off to Bolinas for the day and feel like a human again. Will the country be happy now that millennials are finally settling down and buying houses in the country? Follow up thought—what opportunities will be granted to the people who stay in cities now? Like those that don’t sell their stocks in fear when the market dips. I’m hoping opportunities will pop up as the population drops.

I plan to move but in the next 12 months. My oldest son is going into 5th grade this year and I want to wait so that he can have a smooth transition into middle school.

Since lockdown in March, both of us have been working from home in our tiny apartment. A bunch of people have fled NYC and that has opened up a lot of apartments that would normally never be on the market for a decent price. Now is the time to take advantage of high supply and slightly lower than average prices.

We struggled with leaving NYC and felt like this is where we belong and need to stay. But, we have a 3 year old, two careers, and a caregiver we've been picking up since May in a twice daily, close to two hour round trip saga. It became untenable to stay where we were and keep her employed, which was a priority for us. Meanwhile, our landlord was attempting to raise the rent, making the decision to move a little easier. We found a house in the Rockaways with a yard two blocks from the beach, and are now 35-40 mins round trip to our care giver. We're calling this our Beach Year, and hope to make the most out of something different for a while. We struggled with this choice but feel good that we can (technically) stay in the city and try something new for a while. We plan to move back to Brooklyn when a vaccine becomes available or the pandemic is otherwise more contained.