Before life in New Jersey, the couple did a gut renovation on a home in Park Slope South, which they purchased in 2008 for just under $1 million. But Mr. Hogan’s job made for a difficult commute. “My husband works in health care and it’s all out in New Jersey,” Ms. Hogan said. “He was leaving at 6 a.m. to beat the traffic. He was supposed to be able to get home early, but that never happened. We were spending $1,000 a month in tolls and we never saw him.”

The decision to leave Brooklyn wasn’t easy, but the thought of not having to maneuver through the New York City public school system for Oliver, 9, and Ava, 5, sealed the deal.

Image Ms. Farnham, Mr. Kim and Ruby near Prospect Park. Credit... Dave Sanders for The New York Times

Ms. Hogan has yet to come to terms with the fact that while there are plenty of day-to-day life advantages in Summit — “I love that the kids can play outside without me worrying and they have a ton of friends on our block. I love that they go to school with the kids that live in our neighborhood, something they would have missed out on in Brooklyn” — there is also a sense of loss.

“It kind of kills me that they won’t have that inherent knowledge of the city like I do,” Ms. Hogan said. “For instance, they won’t know without looking at a subway map how to get from Brooklyn to TriBeCa. I don’t know why that makes me sad. I guess it just feels like street cred or something.”

Quality of life, not home prices, seems to be the main motivator for families that depart Brooklyn for the suburbs. Jonathan J. Miller, the president of Miller Samuel, an appraisal firm, said the first-quarter median sales price for a one- to three-family home in Brooklyn was $747,000. Compare that with data provided by Jeffrey G. Otteau, president of the Otteau Group, an information provider on real estate trends, which showed median prices in Summit, N.J., at $797,500 and in Ridgewood, N.J., at $700,000, and it’s clear that the decision is not necessarily a financial one.

For some families, it takes a clean break from Brooklyn to help them realize there’s no place like the home they already had.