I've moved to North Raleigh from Northern Virginia. Why? My business case said so. If anybody is trying to get out of rat race of getting/keeping highly paid jobs to keep up with high costs, spending quarter of life on crowded roads, long commutes, introducing yourselves to your kids once in a while, what are your options? find a place that is not a rat race and move there. No brainer. You need a place where you can afford a house (keeping mortgage down), where there are lot of companies within short commutes (15 to 30min, keeping Gas costs down), good schools (kids go to universities from home, keeping costs down), shopping areas closeby, indian community, city that is not too big nor too small, weather not snowy nor too hot. You take all this into equation, only Raleigh/Cary/Durham triangle area stands out. On top of that, add the top rankings of Forbes and US News for best cities (Cary, Raleigh), on top of that add best universities within short distances (Duke, Wakefield, UNC Chapel Hill, NC State), on top of that add best wake county schools with ABC scores of over 95 (Greenhope, Cary, Leesville etc.) with honor and excellence awards.

If you take the equity on your house in high cost cities, you may get same or bigger houses here cash down, pay off your cars, you are not only out of rat race, you are debt free and half retired too.

My advise is, crunch your numbers, research the place and factor in long term plans for your family. You won't be wrong moving to Raleigh/Cary/Durham Triangle area. Keeping that way going forward is upto you.