Abstract In many postindustrial cities in the Global North, increasing families seem to choose to stay in the city rather than move to the suburbs. This might imply that residential preferences of young families shift from suburban to more urban. In this paper, the moving behaviour of young families in the four largest cities in the Netherlands is analysed. The moving behaviour is measured with register data and analysed with the Oaxaca‐Blinder decomposition technique and with logistic regression techniques. The results show that young families broken down by residential biography and income have very different moving behaviours in their choice for staying in the city or moving to the region around the city. The changes in the outmigration of young families from the city to the region are not necessarily related to changing residential preferences, but more related to changes in the composition within the group of young families. The growth of higher‐income families in cities seem to be primarily explained by the changing composition of city dwellers before family formation and not so much by a more urban orientation in their moving behaviour. Changes in moving patterns through time and the differences between the four cities seem to be related to the differences in the urban economy and housing supply. Especially in Amsterdam, the lack of larger family home drives young families to the suburbs. When cities and suburban regions want to be attractive for young families, the size of the available dwellings is the most important aspect.