I'm here to tell you that crossing the bridge and moving to the suburbs is not as scary as it sounds...

I remember the day when it hit me, living in Center City was EXHAUSTING. I was standing on the sidewalk in Rittenhouse Square, pregnant with my second child. I had just come from the grocery store when my then three-year-old was having a temper tantrum because he didn’t want to get in the stroller or walk. Without him sitting nicely meant that my stroller was toppling over due to the ridiculous amount of grocery bags I had piled into it. I couldn’t hold him at eight months pregnant and ALL I wanted to do was sit down, close my eyes, and take a LOOONG nap. The walk back to our house in Graduate Hospital felt like it was hours even though we were a short 10-minute walk away. I came home that night and cried/told my husband that I was craving convenience and was ready to start looking for a house in the suburbs.

It was time for a change!

I grew up in South Jersey so while we always had talked about moving back at some point to be closer to my family, I was DRAGGING my feet BIG-TIME. I had lived in cities for 17 years (Washington, D.C., Seville, Spain, and Philly) and I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT. Our friends, who were more like family, lived mere blocks away from us. We had always taken advantage of everything the city had to offer. How could we ever leave? I realized, just like a light switch, the day had come where it was no longer convenient for our life now and it was time for me to be honest about it.

My husband, who is much more of an introvert, had long been craving a backyard where he could have his own garden, a large kitchen where he could cook, a large dining room where we could have dinner parties, and a driveway where everyone could park. Given that I grew up in the South Jersey area and I was a REALTOR®, I figured the move back would be easy peasy…Boy, was I wrong!

To start, I really wasn’t sure which town I wanted to grow my roots in. I searched the internet for all the community information that I needed to make an educated location decision and I was so frustrated by the lack of information out there. I kept thinking about all the people that settle in the area and have no idea about the specifics for each town. What do they do? How do they find the information they need? I realized that I wanted to help highlight the area while providing the information that I was craving. Thus, the concept for New Roots was born.

How to choose a town? We knew we wanted to be in a great school district and have a lot of land but beyond that, we really weren’t sure where we wanted to live. We decided to look at houses in Cherry Hill and Voorhees due to their proximity to Philly and the Shore and figured we would end up wherever we found the house that was right for us. We settled in Voorhees where we could have the acre of land that we had dreamed of and the privacy that we craved. 10+ years later and I have been completely blown away by South Jersey suburban life. Visit my YouTube channel for hidden gems in South Jersey and videos about real estate and life here.