4 OBVIOUS REASONS WHY PEOPLE ARE MOVING BACK TO GREATER ROC
- Mar 5
- 3 min read
There’s hometown pride, then there’s a laundry list of reasons to move back. Greater ROC has both.
The grass is always greener on the other side? Yeah, we call BS.
Sure, we all should go out and see what the world has to offer, but don’t be fooled by the promises of success. There’s plenty to be found at home.
Easy for us to say—we live in Greater ROC.
We're not the only ones saying it. Boomerangs are the ones who've gone out, seen the world, and still chose to come back.
We tracked some of them down to find out what exactly brought them home, and here are a few we can’t help but share.
When opportunity knocks …
For Richard Nguyen of Webster, NY, it was the chance to be a part of something bigger. As a Navy veteran, he was no stranger to traveling the world, but decided Rochester with its tech corridor was the right place to provide stability and opportunity for his own family—particularly his daughter.
“I looked at Rochester, the whole capacity that it is. Can it meet each one of those pillars in my life? And it did. I'm super excited to be here. It’s a smaller town with a big heart where people can achieve really large things.”
Go touch grass
For others, like Alex and Paige Lavell, being closer to nature was the big draw. Having lived in places like Boston, Austin, and New York City, the young couple were ready for a change of pace. Alex grew up in Rochester and would often come back with Paige, a Philadelphia native, for family retreats to the Finger Lakes. Then it dawned on them.
“We were on Canandaigua Lake during peak foliage, it's beautiful out and Paige looked at me and said, ‘Why don't we just move up here? This is where we come for vacation. This is where we come to relax. It's peaceful and tranquil and everybody here is so nice.’ And I was like, ‘Let's do it.’”
Affordable L-I-V-I-N
Opportunity and nature are nice, but at the end of the day, it’s money that does the talking.
Take a look at our cost of living: according to Payscale, the cost of living in Rochester is 31.2% lower than Boston, and 57.3% lower than New York City. As for our housing market? We’re ranked #2 in the nation for 2026 according to Realtor.com.
Putting “unity” in “community”
All of these are practical draws to the place we call home, but for many boomerangs, there’s something deeper at play. Take Sheila Baynes, who moved back to Greater ROC after graduating from Harvard and living in New York City, Washington DC, and the Alaskan wilderness.
“Part of the magic of coming back here is that it’s my family's home going back for multiple generations … there's a lot of rootedness and connectedness that comes along with that.”
That connection isn’t always driven by family. Sometimes it’s a sense of duty to uplift the region. Richard Nguyen added, “Rochester gave me the fundamentals and the building blocks for the rest of my life. I wanted to help the community and do the same.”
Boomerangs came back for their own reasons. What ties them all together? Greater ROC. It’s safe to say our grass is greener.