We both earn large professional salaries but decided to go to the suburbs for kids. We have 2 beaches within 20 minutes of us, we have parks, cinemas, out door water parks, outdoor pools, skate parks plus half an acre of garden and a big house where the kids can have a music room, a playroom, separate room for computer games and we get a very nice home office. I don't know why anyone would want to stay in the cramped city making their kids live indoors.
We used to do apartment living, it sucked, especially when the neighbours kids started learning instruments.
Driving. We could move beachside but then that extra 40 mins each day adds too much to our commute (I go to the city / office 3 days per week). If I go 100% remote then I can live 30 seconds walk to the beach.
A 20 min drive is assuming a bit of traffic. It's not a big deal though. We are avid surfers and the kids go to "nippers" (Australian national club that gets kids into life saving and understanding the ocean).
As the kids get older, they will either drive themselves or they will get the bus to the beach if they want to hang out with their mates. The driving age here is 17 (that's when you can drive yourself). It's a semi rural area so driving or buses (good quality buses) are the norm.
When we liveed in Sydney, we used to live right next to the beach but the droves of people that come to visit ruin it a little. Where we live now, we don't get too many people coming this way other than locals which is awesome.
Depends on the number of kids and what they do. Playing drums in the same room as someone trying to focus on a high-adrenaline multiplayer FPS would never work (at least not very well). Separating into multiple rooms also allows kids to bring friends over and do stuff without disturbing the other kids. Also; kids needs time to be alone, multiple rooms allows them to do stuff by themselves without having be with others.
The music room has dampening mats on the walls to stop too much sound from escaping. It also has amps, drums, guitar stands etc. A purpose built room is awesome.
The second living room has darkened walls and tints on the windows. It has a project bolted to the ceiling and a screen that rolls down for movies, smash and mario kart (my kids are still young enough to think Nintendo are the only computer games :-)
We used to do apartment living, it sucked, especially when the neighbours kids started learning instruments.