Do you ever hsve the urge to live in your home town?

No because there's not much there and very unreliable public transport for when dd is older, and I refuse to be her taxi!

I don't but in my early 40s and i started being more nostalgic and wistful of a time and place that doesn't exist anymore. Your hometown is not the same as what is was growing up..

That said, maybe we're inbuilt to go through a mid life crisis to force us to reconnect with our roots and heritage. Reconnect and reminisce a bit with family and friends if it helps. But my life is no longer there, it is where i am now and future will be near where DC are.

Absolutely not! I lived in a place where there was nothing to do and nowhere to go to. To get anywhere like School or shops or later on to work you had to be driven everywhere or get a bus. I grew up feeling very lonely and isolated. Even School friends were a drive away and everything had to be arranged.
My parents are still there and a couple of not close cousins. I would probably visit them every few months. There is just nothing there for me and I don't think there ever was. It's just a bit of a nowhere place. I doubt after my parents pass that I would have any other reason to go back.
My children on the other hand have had a completely different child hood in a thriving community with lots going on. In contrast now where I live is great and I can't see me moving from where I am now.

Hell no! Couldn’t wait to escape from insular rural town in NZ, 3 hours from the next largest town and 7-8 hours from Auckland or Wellington; hence living about as far away as you can get. You only had social cachet if you played rugby, liked souped up V8 cars or surfed. Girls/women were only allowed groupie status and couldn’t actually do any of these things. Fucking awful place. I left almost 40 years ago and have only been back once in those 40 years. Hasn’t improved at all.

Opposite to my husband who lives 3 miles away from where he grew up and his brother lives in the next street to the family home!

I moved back to my home town and live six streets away from where I lived as a kid. Makes me feel grounded.

and it helps it’s a fab place to live and by the sea. I love the sea

will never live anywhere else

Yes! I returned to my home town last August for the first time in 19 years (no family/friends/roots there anymore). Myself, husband and 2 children absolutely loved it.
Although we love where we currently live it doesn't have the same feel as my home town.
However, due to school/jobs etc a move just isn't feasible. We'll definitely be visiting again soon.

I don't even have a home town. I do envy people who are now retired and are able to catch up with school friends in town.
But I also quite like having lived in several cities.

No.I go back to visit my one remaining relative there(my sister) and within minutes (well,seconds really!) of setting foot in the town and looking around me I'm reminded of why I needed to leave.I left to go to university in the 1970's and never looked back
DSis has been talking about moving away from there for years and years,but finally in her early 60's it looks like it's really going to happen and I'll never have to travel there ever,ever again.

I moved away from mine when I went to uni but ended up living in a city 20 miles away and then a different town.
I never wanted to live here again but when my relationship broke down, my son and I moved back in with my parents (just before lockdown) and we've ended up needing their support so now we live in our own house here! And it's actually really nice and I can totally see why my parents chose here to raise a family.

Lord no! It's famous for being ugly and I no longer have any friends or family there.

I'd move in a heartbeat. But DH would never live there (too 'city', even though it's in the 'burbs) and it's become ridiculously expensive. These days we could never afford to buy even a little tarpaper shack next to the railroad track. My cousin bought our old 'home place' about 30 years ago and it's increased over 400% in value and property values are still going up.

But it's a great place to live. Everything you could ever want, 35 minutes from the beach and 40 minutes from the mountains.

I don't think anyone can guarantee anyone else will feel the same...I couldn't wait to get away from the area I grew up in, and at 18 was able to move away. I moved to another part of the city, had a whole life there of my own away from my parents...then inexplicably sold up & moved a mile away from where my parents live. I never thought I'd see the day.

The whole time I was there, I was kicking myself for moving, yet loved the house I was in and had spent a lot of money on it, so didn't wish to move. Added to which, all my work was local. In hindsight, I should never have bought a house that was located where it was, but I fell in love with it at first sight.

After about seven years, fate eventually intervened, by sending me some appalling neighbours, which meant I had no qualms about moving. I was torn between moving to a much better part of the same district, or moving back to the area across the city, where I felt I'd carved a life for myself when I was a late teen.

I went for the latter, but the problem was I couldn't afford a house there (I'd had a flat before, and even they had rocketed in price), so went a few miles further out, and from the day I got the keys I hated everything about it, not least because all that I now knew and needed was the other side of the city. Within weeks we decided to move - 12 months later we'd sold and moved to the better part of the area I grew up in. Only due to the costs involved we settled on a maisonette, which has not gone up in price like the houses have.

It's been well over 20 years since I first moved back to this area - I still can't believe I ever did, and I am by no means in love with it (plus I still have all the horrible memories of growing up here) but it's where I feel safe, and above all, I know the area well. The older I get, the more I fear having to move to a place I don't know.

Regrets? Plenty. My only advice to you OP would be to make sure you have your reason "why?" and that you crunch the numbers properly.

Yep. We moved out two years ago as we couldn’t afford to buy there. We are desperate to move back. Only 20 minutes away but we hate where we are now.

No. I am fond of it for brief and occasional visits to family but it is a significant journey to make. This is home now. I remember feeling acutely claustrophobic as a teenager and never went back for more than a few days after I left for university. I always, always knew I would need to escape from a very young age. It always felt small and suffocating. I wanted more. I was 💯 right - and 40 years later am grateful to my younger self for for having the presence of mind to do it when many around me stayed.

Occasionally I have an anxiety dream that I have to move back. If I think about it too hard in my waking moments it makes me feel anxious too.

My life now is so different to the life I lived growing up that I genuinely couldn’t go back. Career, lifestyle, the sheer variety of people/places/culture, amenities, education, healthcare, hobbies, social life, There are so many daily joys and opportunities here that couldn’t and wouldn’t be replicated there.

I had occasional pangs, despite it only being my parents left there and none of my friends. It intensified once I had kids, and a few years ago I moved back after twenty years in London. I love it. It feels like home.

No, and not just because I live in Australia.

I have family there, a run-down old mill town though memorably, my brother after going on a cruise, compared it to Palermo. So you can imagine how shit Palermo is - never been there but it made me laugh.

Ha! Hated my home village - thought it was unbelievably boring and limited. Lived in London for 13 years, abroad for 5 years after that, then ended up moving back in with my mum and 2 kids when I got divorced. Ended up buying in home village. I absolutely love it ! It’s a bit boring, overpriced, not very pretty, but for some reason (and maybe this is me not there - “wherever you go, there your are”) I feel real contentment. It is my home. Ugh 😩 ha ha

Bedford? Hell no its a shit hole. I live on the coast in the west country now.

My parents and sister have moved away. No family there but some friends from school. I go back every few months.

It’s a commuter town fairly close to the city I now live in.

my friends are all happy living there - it is quite pretty but everyone knows everyone and people are very focused on appearance and money. It’s very, very gossipy and judgemental.

it didn’t suit me at all and I am glad I left.

No. I can't afford it, neither could my school friends and it's dull. It wasn't particularly interesting when I lived there, it's more dull now and it's just a dormitory for the nearest city (which has also changed drastically in the last 25 years)

It does have nice trees though. Great place for tree appreciaters

My 'home town' is a very small, remote island. I can't say I feel the urge to move there, I don't think my teens would be up for it either.

Yes I moved home last year after 9 years away and sooo happy I did. Only wish I moved back sooner!

Yes I'd love to move back. Can't afford it though.
My mum is there.
And my siblings all there. But I won't let that put me off.

Me too! Moved away at 18.

I'm always happy to go back for a visit, but pretty much everything I loved about the place growing up has gone. It's now little more than a bland dormitory town for Leeds - there's little real sense of community, almost all local industry has gone, and house prices have skyrocketed.