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.

This was the case for Jihan Kim, a 46-year-old art director who finally capitulated and left Brooklyn, his home of 20 years, after his wife, Hannah Farnham, a 44-year-old design director, made a repeated and compelling case for Brookline, Mass. A New Englander from Connecticut, Ms. Farnham was ready to escape the stresses of city life and was particularly drawn to the idea of raising a family in the suburbs. A job offer in the Boston area, which Mr. Kim jokes that his wife secured before informing him, made the decision to leave Brooklyn easier.

“I had to acknowledge that I love her more than New York City,” Mr. Kim said. The couple’s daughter, Ruby Kim, now 13, was initially against the move. “She was 7 years old at the time, and her wails were as sorrowful as I’d ever heard,” he said.

The family committed fully to the move, selling their co-op in Park Slope and trying their best not to look back. “Psychologically, we cut the cord,” Mr. Kim said.