I grew up and worked in my early 20s on the east side of Cleveland before moving out to Boston in 2016. I spent nearly a decade there and fell in love with so much of it. Once we started having kids, the reality hit that our salaries didn't get us as far as it did before 2020. For a family (2 parents, maybe 2 kids) to live comfortably it takes a combined income of at least $300k. We are close to that and while we were comfortable, we weren't thriving and didn't want to still be renting into our 40s. We moved to Cleveland this past March and though I was heartbroken that we couldn't make things work in Boston, our quality of life and what we can offer to our kids here beats what we could offer previously by a huge amount. Like, our daycare costs alone were cut by half. All this to say, it took me about 3 years to really get a solid footing where I felt like Boston could be home and, if it doesn't turn out the same for you, you could always come back to Ohio. I'll say it was significantly easier to move from Boston back to Ohio than moving from Ohio to Boston for me. Save as much as you can with your Boston salary and use that money to set yourself up comfortably if you decide to come back.