I am also in the US and have a similar experience although my grandparents came from working class and then my grandfather was a partner in a large firm. My parents went backwards to working class.All of them stayed near family. Now my husband and I are professionals and live in his hometown (far from my family), however, his siblings live around 2 hours away and not near any family and are also professionals. In our town there are many working class families, I would even say the majority of households, and I think some of why they stay put is due to lack of perceived opportunities and a sense of doing what they know. I think a lot of people kind of just do what they were brought up to know. Similar to financial literacy.