Historic Jackson Heights or Astoria Waterfront? A Chicago Transplant Considers Queens.

By coincidence, Linda Hughey Holt’s two daughters settled in Queens after spending most of their lives in Chicago. “Two Midwestern girls met guys who both grew up on Long Island,” she said.

Five years ago, after plenty of visits, Dr. Holt, an obstetrician-gynecologist who is 70, made a stab at relocating to be closer to her daughters and their husbands. But she found herself unsettled by New York’s steep housing prices and small spaces.

“I commented to friends that I wouldn’t pay $800,000 for 600 square feet in the Taj Mahal, much less Queens,” she said.

Besides, it was easy enough to fly back and forth from Chicago. Dr. Holt had lived there her entire life, save for four years in Connecticut, where she was part of Yale University’s pioneering Class of 1973, the first in which women entered as freshmen.

She and her husband, John Holt, a retired medical researcher, downsized a dozen years ago, trading their suburban Chicago house for a condominium after the youngest of their three children left for college.

“We have a family place in Maine, and my husband refuses to budge from Maine,” Dr. Holt said. “I don’t have any interest in wintering in Maine.” She heads there for summers and holidays. (Mr. Holt is glad for her to be close to the children and grandchildren, but dislikes traveling.)

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But the pandemic changed Dr. Holt’s attitude toward New York. Not only had flying become difficult, but both daughters were now pregnant, one with twins. She had also signed up as a locum tenens physician, temporarily filling in for other doctors, which gave her job mobility.

And she felt compelled to give Queens another try. “Somehow my budget and housing expectations became more realistic,” she said. She contacted William D. Moye, a real estate agent with Bond New York, who had helped her hunt five years earlier and had helped her daughters buy their homes.

“She was in no hurry,” Mr. Moye said. But now Dr. Holt was familiar with the territory, he added: “We did the legwork five years ago.”

As Dr. Holt put it: “I’ve been stalking New York real estate for years.”

Her impulse was to buy a “two-flat” — a Chicago term for a two-family house — for rental income. “I was naive about this,” she said. Her daughters convinced her that she didn’t want to be a landlord.

With a budget of up to $850,000, Dr. Holt hoped to find a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment, so she could have overnight guests. “One nice thing about being in New York is that people want to come visit you,” she said. (Her son, who has two small children, lives in Cincinnati. “If he were an only child, I would be in Cincinnati,” she said.)

She hoped for a place with a washer and dryer or at least a convenient laundry situation, and she dreamed of having a parking spot. “I am a Midwesterner and can’t give up my car,” she said, which she needs for driving to Maine and to work upstate.

She focused on Jackson Heights, where her infant granddaughter lives, and Astoria, where her identical 7-month-old grandsons are.

Among her options:

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