We live in Silicon Valley. It's been a good place to live (we've been here 20 years) and build wealth. my wife quit her job to raise the kids (and escape tech) and I plan on staying in mine a few more years to get to our FI number.
The challenge is then what? We like the weather, the progressive attitudes, the access to culture, the many many things you can do. We're not sold on the schools, not so happy about the traffic and congestion, and the biggest thing we struggle with is the rampant "type A" mentality here. For so many, including us for a while, it's all about career. Since having kids and discovering MMM career just has less appeal. While there are many good people here, the "type A" mentality, in our estimation, seems to lead to far fewer causal meetings or time when things can just happen. It's all scheduled and calendars and sorry but we're booked in June. More than HCOL vs LCOL, the ability to find a slower pace where people are not so rushed is what appeals to us most about moving to another place.
Just haven't figured out that other place yet. Probably would have been FIRE by now if we had. Now what?