Moved back, no – but I do go visit there and around the area a few times a year. In the 60s it was like 1920s America. Now its like say the late 80s. Time and all the modern world is catching up with the various problems that brings with it. But it still has a “feel” or “pace” that is different and comfortable to me.
I live just over five miles from the house where I grew up, so I am “home.”
Interestingly enough, I have always lived within walking distance of Warren Buffet…
Well, we visited my hometown today. First time I’ve been there since 1991 when I attempted to attend the 100th Anniversary of the school…but I ended up being a day late back then! 
The town has, geographically speaking, doubled in size…and is now known as ‘Old Hometown’ and “New Hometown” divided down the middle by a road or two. Population-wise it’s gone from 3000 when I was a kid to around 12k permanent residents. That number doubles (or more) again during holiday season.
Old Hometown still retains a beach-side character, but with many more boutique coffee shops and organic grocers. Funnily enough, one of the stores that I remember most from my childhood was STILL THERE, and still functioning in it’s original role…so we ordered Fish and Chips from a shop that was identical (except for the prices) to the one I used to hang out in when I was five years old.
Being a holiday weekend, it was packed to the rafters with tourists and travellers, and parking was at a premium! Still, I remember the locals bitching 50 yrs ago about the ‘bloody tourists’ and how they take over the town! Some things don’t change.
Two of the houses I lived in are STILL THERE! The first was demolished many years ago by a chain supermarket in the main street, but the other two are alive and kicking, much to my amazement. The one I have the most memories of was a fibro beach cottage, and even 50 yrs ago it was a bit of a dump. It’s still a clapped-out dump, but STANDING and being lived in! Two eucalyptus trees that my mum planted back then are now over 75’ tall, but the front fence she built is now a bit ramshackle. Far out! I seriously would have thought the place would have been bulldozed and a McMansion put up in its place by now…bit of a nostalgia trip wot.
So all things being equal, and with some more homework etc, I might be ‘moving home’. I understand, it’s not really home…no extended family there, no local landmarks or streets named after my ancestors, but it did feel a wee bit homely.
Oh, and there’s a coffee house with a gorgeous barrista who made a divine double-shot latte…if anyone needs a better reason to move house, let me know!
Sort of, three ways.
Moving back to my parents’ house to help care for Dad when he was dying went as well as could be expected, which is to say, more badly than not.
Buying a flat in a small town close to the town my paternal family hails from, much better than my closest relatives credit. Yes, the locals are weird - but guess what, it’s the kind of weird that comes natural to me They accept me as “from the area” and, since so many of the homes there are occupied only when their owners have vacation, mine isn’t a rarity.
Barcelona, where my mother is from, where we spent so many childhood Easter and Christmases, where I went to college: it’s great. I even have what my mother calls “pre-made friends”, both in having a large and active Mensa group which has something going on half the days of the month and in that it’s easy to find groups for my kind of hobbies. I haven’t tried to re-establish contact with my old college friends, as there is neither point (many are living elsewhere) nor need (see above re. pre-made friends).
I lived in the hometown area for 38 yrs. and then left the state and lived in two other states for 20 yrs. Both were very different from home. Finally went back when I was getting older and tired, to be where the earliest memories were and make peace with the ghosts from the past.
It felt good to be home where I knew what to expect from the people. They hadn’t changed much in character, except for the younger generation. The place was built up more with much business and wider highways, but the old neighborhoods were still the same. Couldn’t find more than a couple of old friends. Everyone had either died or moved away like me but I’m glad to be back. It has been different but I think I made the right choice.
I’ve “gone home” using Google Streetview.
Classic style down here - I almost thought it was the in the development down the street from me, except I’m too far west to be called Fort Lauderdale.
I’ve done that for my University. I live about a mile from my childhood home. I drive within a block of it every few weeks.
Oh, I forgot to say earlier…
‘Gone home’ is a euphemism for ‘died’.
I have.
My old neighborhood has gone downhill.
I’ll leave it at that.
Being homeless at the North Pole would be preferable even to considering moving back to the West Texas hellhole I grew up in.
I have to say the same about central Illinois.
Left Illinois In '75 with my mom after her divorce from my dad. Colorado here we come.
Went back in '91. At 31 years old. I drove back and spent 6 weeks there. Learned a lot about who I wanted to be. Seeing those around me, that wasn’t it.
Maybe not as bad as West Texas. But central Illinois is/was SO conservative that it would have killed me.
Just did this as well. I left Kentucky for Chicago, Il in 1985, moved back two months shy of 2015. Like most things, it’s got pros and cons - the conveniences of a big city are gone. There’s no place to get a gyro of 5 a.m. (actually, I haven’t seen a place to get a gyro, period), not nearly as diverse but much more diverse than when I grew up here, etc. The cost of living is much better - my 4-bedroom house cost less than a 1-bedroom condo in Chicago, taxes are lower and gas is much cheaper, it’s twenty minutes to anywhere, and fun roads for motorcycling abound. Then there’s family everywhere, both a pro and a con. 
Well, I’m home!
We moved here three weeks ago into an ancient house (circa 1905) that looks over the surf beach and I’m in heaven. Sure, the town has changed since I moved out back in 1970, but there’s still enough architecture and geographical artifacts to make it somewhat familiar. My old Sunday School is still there, as is my primary school. My grandson is now proudly enrolled in Prep there and loving it!
I’m not feeling the pangs of nostalgia, but looking forward now to embracing the ‘new’ town as a chance to establish ourselves as locals. And that’s not proving hard either…it’s a friendly town with folks happy to engage in smalltalk and frippery!
And as I look out my window over the most azure blue sea with waves breaking against the shore, I wonder why I didn’t come home earlier.