By Janet Eastman | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Jon and Alli Lawson swore they would never live in the suburbs. How could they?

For six years, they used their rented 600-square-foot condo in Northwest Portland’s Slabtown as a launching pad. Jon biked to his job as a bar manager as Alli worked in downtown’s Big Pink building.

The couple, in their 30s, walked their hound, Leon, at the dog park and met friends at restaurants.

“We were never at home,” said Alli early Saturday morning as she and Jon were relaxing in their new four-bedroom house in Milwaukie, a suburb 10 miles southeast of their former stomping grounds.

Now, the couple is driving to big-box stores to get the tools they need for their refurbished 95-year-old house. They each have an office for private Zoom calls and they installed a gym downstairs.

Their 5,000-square-foot lot in the Island Station area is tucked between the Willamette River and Kellogg Creek. They paddle board and hang out at Elk Rock lsland park and stroll to buy groceries on Sunday at the Milwaukie Farmers Market.

They’re surprised they didn’t have to give up walkability to live outside of Portland and the extra space, indoors and out, makes life better.

Even for Leon. He has a new companion, a rescue puppy named Lucy. Both have the run of the backyard and are taken on walks along the river and on nearby trails.

“During COVID, everything changed, this place popped up and we fell in love with it, and here we are,” says Jon, who adds that he still feels out of place at Home Depot.

Interest in suburban living, with larger homes on larger lots, has been growing for a few years, say real estate professionals, but the coronavirus amplified the desire for more size, comfort and livability as well as a relaxing backyard to replace weekend getaways.

The Burbs are Back

“Home shoppers are asking during the coronavirus, ‘How can I live while lessening my contact with other people?’” says Israel Hill, the office leader of John L. Scott Real Estate’s Portland Northeast office.

He says less populated areas, including suburbs and second-home markets like Bend, are tempting to people who can work at home, enroll their kids in web academies and have restaurant food delivered.

Sarah Grumbling of Living Room Realty spent most of Friday showing residential properties in Beaverton, Tigard, Gresham and Troutdale to clients who currently live in inner Portland.

“Since COVID, people definitely want to get out of a condo with a shared elevator and common space and into a house,” she says. “Folks are even looking past the suburbs and want to be in Corbett or even toward the coast.”

She and other agents know well-priced, single-family homes are selling fast. Sometimes a bidding war breaks out regardless of the location and condition, due to low inventory and pent-up demand.

So far, the Lawsons are enjoying settling into the suburbs.

“If I have to spend 45 minutes commuting to work in traffic once the office opens again, we may rethink this,” says Alli Lawson.

Until then, they’re learning the lay of the land from their neighbors: a retired skateboarder, a couple from Washington, D.C., and a couple from the San Francisco Bay Area.