Elizabeth and Nick Flint were apartment hunting in Brooklyn two years ago when a friend suggested they consider Jersey City instead. The couple, who were renting in Williamsburg, wanted to buy a place.

“By the time we found something in Brooklyn, it was like 13 stops on the L, so we started to look at other places,” Ms. Flint said. They soon realized that Jersey City had a vibrant downtown with an accessible waterfront. It was also a short commute to Manhattan.

The Flints focused on Jersey City Heights, at the city’s northern end. “We found this area of the Heights that was untapped,” said Ms. Flint, 36, a yoga instructor. The sleepy enclave had a mix of one-, two- and three-family homes and large apartment buildings. While some blocks were handsome, others seemed rundown.

The couple, who now have a 3½-year-old son and a newborn daughter, paid around $385,000 about a year and a half ago for a house with three bedrooms, two and a half baths and a small yard on Jefferson Avenue. Ms. Flint misses the energy of Williamsburg; where she lives now “kind of reminds me of Greenpoint five years ago,” she said, referring to the Brooklyn neighborhood.