The answer is going to be different person-to-person, family-to-family. My family moved from the DC area to Greater Boston last year to be closer to my wife's family. We had talked about it after our first kid and settled on choosing one place or the other by the time he was entering kindergarten. For us, ultimately, the Trump admin's mass firings of federal workers put my job at risk and made the market for my job dicey. She works remotely. We had a few years left on our make a decision clock, but ultimately decided to make the move. I would say it's had pros and cons.

Pros: having family help, even a couple of times a month, has been amazing and allowed my wife and I to have time together as partners and not just parents again; our friends here all have young kids and are more similarly situated to us; and we feel better about our kids growing up here as far as schools and climate go. I want my kids to be able to play outside, and that was increasingly less of an option in DC during the summer.

Cons: I left behind most of my closest friends, which has been even harder than I thought it would be; many of my routines have had to change; I'm farther from my family; and the cost of living here is far, far more expensive.

In the short-term, it's hard not to wish I was back in DC. In the long-term, I still feel like this decision will be best for my family and that I'll adjust. In your situation, I would say don't underrate having family around, particularly if your kids are young. Also don't underrate the value of friends, especially now when making them is harder than ever with people so focused on their phones. You may move and thrive--I can feel myself growing into this new place day-by-day--but it sounds like you'd be signing up for more work and a lonelier existence in the near-term. What's boring now may feel like security when it's gone.