Lakewood has the advantages of affordable housing (at least compared to Monsey or Brooklyn), a huge yeshivishe community with many choices in Yeshivas and Bais Yaakovs, close to major job areas, close to many peoples friends and family and established systems for yeshivishe families. Everything is centered around Yeshiva life and the various gedolim who basically have final say in anything that goes on.
All that being said, I can never see myself living there like many other members of my family chose to do. There is a huge boom in children that resulted in massive competition to get into schools. Homes are built cheaply and often have major maintenance issues. Properties are tiny and it results in a sever lack of the type of tznius not taught in most Bais Yaakovs. There is a ton of “frummmer” competition with everyone worried about what everyone else thinks, much more that out-of-town places, that results in everyone attempting to “fit in” to some weird standard of frumkeit. Most high schools don’t have secular studies (although that should change once the Lakewood babies start hitting 14). Traffic is utterly miserable.