As I've lived in the area all my life and my wife grew up here, it makes sense to stay in an area we are happy with, near friends and family. It makes life both nicer and easier - easy to drop round for a visit and on-hand to help out when needed ... which works both ways. It is an area with easy motorway connections for working anywhere within a pretty large area - hence not a cheap, run-down area.
SteveW
I've never understood relatives wanting to stay where they are. My family have moved all over the country (form London to the Highlands). The invention of the motor car allows visits when desired, and also allows you to be away from them!
Anyway, I'm sure you wouldn't have to travel more than 30 miles to find a cheaper/nicer/bigger area.
We can live perfectly separately 3/4 of a mile apart and not see each other for weeks, but also be able to drop in while passing or phone up half way through some work for a helping hand or to borrow a specific tool that'd make it easier. When the children were younger, we could decide to go out shopping, phone to see if it was convenient and drop them off within a few minutes, rather than dragging them around with us when they didn't want to be there. My parents can be round with a few minutes notice if I am already at work and my wife is not well enough that morning to get the youngest to school - she has a chronic illness that severely limits her at times.
Family and friends provide a support network and you provide supposrt for them. Why would you want to throw that away by living further away?
Cheaper - yes, nicer - a little, bigger - possibly. Combinations of those no. Certainly not with the same easy transport links. Currently 15 minutes to travel 12 miles to work (where there are dozens of companies within my profession), but with major problems on a regular basis coming from the other directions. We are perfectly positioned so that for almost all of my working life (at many places, as I am a contractor), I have travelled the opposite way to the bulk of the traffic at both ends of the day.
SteveW
It depends how you get on with your relatives. Some people want to be sure they won't just turn up!
I be talking about towns, not country areas.
I see more gates than dogs.
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