Scott Anderson grew up outside Boston and eventually moved to San Francisco, but when he started a technology company in 2001, he moved to New York.

“The opportunity I perceived in New York was far greater,” Mr. Anderson said. “Better talent, fertile business environs, and thriving and vibrant culture to support it all,” he added. He rented an office in the Woolworth Building and settled his family in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

“I have a 10-minute commute to school, to drop off the kids, and then another 10 minutes to my offices in Lower Manhattan, or LoMa, as it is being called,” Mr. Anderson, 40, said.

Nataly Yackanich works on Wall Street and lives 20 minutes away in Hoboken, N.J.

“We briefly considered the suburbs a few years ago, but ruled it out fairly quickly, as we felt we would never see our kids” because of the commuting involved, she said.