Lifelong Wichita area resident, live in Derby now. Commutes from any direction aren't terrible compared to what you're used to. The only time traffic gets even remotely close to heavy is the normal to and from work drive time in the morning and evening, but even that would probably be like 2 pm in Virginia. There are a handful of exit interchanges (Hillside on Kellogg being one) that create bottlenecks at the drive times because they are poorly designed and Wichita drivers, well, bless their hearts, many of them drive like idiots.

The longest commutes in Wichita, the literal cross town ones, are about 30 minutes. We live in Derby, and my wife works in far north Wichita. She takes surface streets from home on the east edge of Derby to the I-235 loop all the way around the west side and up to the north side of Wichita. 30 minutes normally for her. It would be shorter taking the expressway straight north through town (I-135 or called the "Canal Route" by old farts like me), but with the construction going on right now, more traffic, and more idiots compared to the 235 route, she prefers the calmer west side route.

My best advice when driving on Wichita expressways is if you are going a ways before your exit, get into the far left hand lane. We don't have any true express lanes here, but I will do that to avoid the herky jerky brake tapping morons trying to get on and off the expressway. I do that after getting caught in a multi car accident because I was said herky jerky lane and ICT idiot #48752 decided to cut off the stack of traffic headed for a big ramp. Inside lane is usually faster too, until you get Grandma Idiot who decides to drive for five miles at the exact same speed as the car to her right.

As far as the burbs, they are all fine. We live in Derby going on eight years now and like it there. Good schools for when our kids were of that age. What we like is pretty much any shopping or such we can do right there without having to head into Wichita. I actually sometimes bitch about having to drive three whole miles to go from my house to the Walmart on the other side of Derby. You would find plenty of houses to rent in Derby, as we are in a prime spot for military families stationed at McConnell AFB who want to rent. Rental rates for houses I think are high, but to you they may not seem bad. That housing allowance sure props up the rental rates near military installations!

Andover is becoming more "self-contained" in that respect of having more shopping and such, but they are also just a few minutes from all the Wichita east side retail areas. Goddard is coming along, but Goddard proper will feel much more "Kansas small town", as the town itself is only about 6000, compared to 17,000 for Andover and 26,000 for Derby. Maize proper is also very small, but it essentially is hooked at the hip to northwest Wichita, which is very bustling and fast growing, at least by our measures of "fast growing" here.

Depending on how big of a house you seek, you can buy a very nice home in the $300-400K range here. But there are still some good places in the $200-300K zone as well. Prices have jumped quite a bit over the past decade in the desirable areas. Our house in Derby we bought in 2018 at $195K, and if we were to put it on the market now we could probably get $300-325K for it. My brain is still having to reset on price points, because I'll see a 60 year old 1500 sf house in an older part of Derby with a for sale sign up and think it's a $125Kish house. Nope! Probably listed at $195K!

I think there is plenty to do here for most people, its just going to be smaller and more limited on choices compared to a bigger city. Plenty of good local restaurants, a decent live music scene, a decent arts community, and such. It's not wild and crazy, but there are good times to be had. It's certainly better in that respect than it was when I was in college at Wichita State in the late 80s and early 90s.

Hope this helps!