It honestly depends on what you do for work too. I'm a researcher. I'm sandwiched between just about all of the Ivy Leagues and other big schools, in an area with the second biggest concentration of tech in the country. Not a bad spot to be for that. Down in Texas it's Austin or College Station or bust for this type of thing. Even then, you're really super isolated and jobs/conferences/community are limited.
Last week I went up to a conference in Montréal. It's about the same drive as going San Antonio to Dallas. And Bam. You're in the second biggest French-speaking city in the world. It's about the same time to go down to Washington DC, or a 1 hour flight. NYC is 3 hours by train, bit more by car depending on traffic. Getting out to Toronto is like going El Paso to Dallas. Plus it's only a 6 hour flight to Ireland/UK, and 7 hours to Germany. About the same as going Boston to San Francisco or LA. And Baltimore, Philly, etc. etc. are just a couple hours' drive - icing on the cake.
I suppose what really weds me to it is the water. I'm in a town on the open Atlantic. One town over I can catch a ferry to the islands. I can catch my own clams, crabs, stripers when they run, go boating, to the beach, work a hard summer lobstering in your youth, and do all that fun stuff. Yankee culture's really tied to the sea. Whole family is full of navy men since my grandpa got off the boat over here and got a chief's slot at Normandy since he'd worked in the shipyards. Naval academy's Annapolis, and Naval War College is Newport. They still build out the sub fleet at Quonset and Groton.
It's not that you don't have a sea culture down south. I just think it's a different relationship. Closest I've seen to something similar was a guy I met who referred to himself as a "coonass" from south Louisiana. There was a man who knew his way around a boat from growing up on one.
It's easy to get jealous of the cheap living and nicer / bigger homes down south. In truth, we never built like the Europeans did, and just to keep up the old homes from the late 1600s and early 1700s in the center of town costs a boat load of money. The rest of the 1800s homes around are expensive and in poor shape a lot of times too.
But even in my little town, I can walk 5 minutes to the grocery store, 3 minutes to the local main street with a couple bars, coffee shops, a convenience store, a gym, a tiny downtown car dealership, a bank, a post office, 4 restaurants, ice cream parlor, an insurer/lawyer/doctor/dentist office building, a hardware store, a furniture store, etc. etc. And I have Amtrak right in town and Boston commuter rail one town over to get around. It's nice not having to rely on cars/driving to do everything. And it's nice having local townies who own all the little independent stores. The nearest Wal Mart and Home Depot are about a half-hour drive away, and I haven't been in years. Meanwhile I can walk into the local hardware store without a car, keys, or wallet and take stuff on credit just by having Jim scribble it down in a notebook. It's worth something. Don't know how much. But something...