Cars Lining Up To See Our Next-Door Neighbor’s Suburban House For Sale

Talk of the block and wishful thinking

Did you see what they listed it for? Someone in our neighborhood asked me.

I told her yes, and we talked about how the price point was a little bit lower than what we had both imagined. The market is crazy and prices are off the charts in our area. So to see this particular house not off the chart was odd. Almost like something was wrong with the house.

But that is beside the point for today because, in a little while, we’ll see what the house sold for; someone would’ve outbid everyone, most likely a lot over asking price.

What I want to talk about is the showing, and the cars lining up for it. First, a disclaimer, the photo is from a different town because as much as I love sharing my life here, I’ll give my neighbor some privacy.

Suburban lifestyle

A beautiful spring morning, in classic suburbia, middle class, tipping upwards. Add a garage sale or two into the neighborhood and the setting is idyllic for those looking to relocate to that particular lifestyle. Lots of kids playing, adults talking, coffee mugs on the go. Couples working in the yard, getting the mulch into all the garden beds.

I walked downstairs a little after 7 a.m. to start the day.

As I was looking out of our window, I could see several cars parked along the street. And as one car was leaving, another one was coming. Showings this early in the am, the market really must be nuts, were my thoughts. As my husband was running out to do an errand 20 minutes later he yelled not to worry because the cars parked were not for the showing, they were for the garage sale.

Oh, the garage sale, I forgot about that. The Facebook group for the neighborhood had been advertising the sale and somehow it had slipped my mind. My kids have asked if we could do our own garage sale and I asked them “Do you want to get rid of your toys?” Then they were like: “Umm, no.” We don’t have all the stuff to sell. But I said we could take a look at other people’s stuff.

As we were walking out to do just that is when I saw cars lining up for the showing. A suburban with five kids and a dad filling it. A sedan with a young couple with their baby and toddler. An SUV with what looked like three generations; grandparents, parents, kids. There was even a car with license plates from Texas! A pickup truck with a couple and two young boys.

Throughout the day, almost every 30 minutes from the morning until 6 p.m., someone new lined up to check out the property. I am hoping there will be a family with children the same age as my children moving in next door, but that is my wishful thinking.

Someone with a sense of humor will do, too.

Attractive, maybe?

The pandemic gave suburbs a real boost. Houses with a yard seemed like a dream, especially when everything was shut down. In what felt like the blink of an eye, a big home in the suburbs costing the same each month as renting a tiny city apartment made the burbs feel much more attractive than before. Then came the more permanent version of remote work. Although many of us have returned to work in person, many are also still working from home. Several large corporations are allowing it, with no plans of having their employees return to the office. So now you can live in the suburbs while having a job you probably wouldn’t have been able to two years ago. This may be attractive for people who didn’t consider moving to the suburbs before.

According to an article in The Washington Post, the preference for suburban locations is evident from Realtor.com’s online searches, in which 62 % of views were for properties in the suburbs. 38 % looked in urban areas, and the number of home shoppers looking in the suburbs is a little over 42 % higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic.

A confession

I used to make fun of suburbs. If there was one place I would never, ever move to, it was the plastic fantastic suburbs of the US and A. It was arrogant of me to not look beyond the facade. I only saw the “culture” of strip malls, fast-food chains, cookie-cutter houses, picture-perfect yards but messy homes with dark-brown dining sets and a mix of carpeted/linoleum flooring.

There is a lot of plastic and there are a lot of fast foods and all that in the suburbs, but there are also people. Nice people. Right now, at our stage in life, I can’t imagine a better place of raising my kids than where I’m currently pinned down. It’s not because of the house or the yard, it’s all about the people. People having time, or taking the time to talk with you and your kids, not rushing off to somewhere important.

I’m sure they all have important things to do; we all do, but they still take time to show care and compassion. People looking out for your kids if they fall on the sidewalk. People bringing you food when you’re sick. People taking the time to care not because they have an agenda or are part of some charity organization but because they’re your neighbor.

They simply want to live the good suburban life, getting along with you and do the occasional block-party barbecues.