Sharon Astyk answers the question of when one should move

When You Should Not Adapt in Place by Sharon Astyk (EB archive)

I think the following is the beginning of any impulse to relocalize:

2. If you have young children or are elderly and have close ties somewhere but are living far away from them in a community that you are not invested in. Not everyone has people (family biological or chosen) who will give you a place at the table, thin the soup to make it stretch, let you sleep on their couch and otherwise cover your back. But if you do, recognize that these people are the beginnings of your tribe. Not all of us have tribes in one place - and some of us have multiple tribes. But if you aren't rooted where you are in some deep way, if you live there primarily for a job, and you can get back to your people think about it seriously.

The people who will most need the support of their family are young families themselves struggling to make do and older people who may need some help. Sometimes these people are even usefully related to one another . Not all family is good, not every friendship can go this far, but if you have these ties, they matter, and they are essential.

3. If you have children or parents you need to care for far away. Again, this is ymmv, but if you are going to be dealing with your parents' decline, or if you don't have custody of your kids but want to spend time on them, you need to set it up in a way that doesn't make anyone rely on airline or other expensive long distance travel. That means that if they don't come to you, you go to them. It was once perfectly viable to live across the country from your kids, and say, have them spend summers with you - it may no longer be viable. I realize this will be enormously painful and disruptive to families, but if you are the resource for people very far away over the longer term, you need to find a way to be closer to one another, or accept that you may not be able to take on that role.

Given Uhmerican mobility, it may be that one's parents have left "home" for a retirement state with more pleasant weather. It may still be a good idea nonetheless to move close to them. Besides, one's links to one's hometown and the community there may be rather weak, if everyone else is moving instead of staying. Re-establishing the extended family seems to be the "natural" first step of relocalizing.