I have a 15 minute walk to my kids' school - not a bad one either, a 30 second walk to the bus stop, a 3 minute walk to the grocery store, a 7 minute walk to the fancy grocery store near the hardware store. My religious group is a 2.5 mile drive/bike. We are approximately one hour from grandparents.
I have an old house with a small backyard and gardens, a neighborhood stuffed with kids and a community that values kids. In addition, I can save money.
Absolutely none of that is possible for my (quite decent) income in Seattle (closest tech hub).
To move me to a par Seattle house with par livability, par neighborhood, and par mortgage cost (but further away from grandparents), would be on the order of a +1M outlay - maybe +750K (but I haven't checked recently). (Wedgewood, Ravenna, or Magnolia neighborhoods, if you're curious).
In short: moving to a tech hub would be a radical downgrade to the quality of life.
As another posted:
> ... There is one side that is unambiguously pro-family, pro-environment, pro-church involvement, pro-bowling league, pro-parents in kids lives, pro-marriage, pro-divorced child raising. ...
concur.
I would also note, pointedly, that if you're a bigshot in a major tech company in a metro hub, you should be having very serious discussions with the city government about workforce housing for the > 30 set. It is actually possible to have a good metro life - if the city is designed for it.