Can "hometown" refer to a place where one did not necessarily grow up, but that feels like home?

Say I was raised in the Philadelphia area. By the traditional reasoning, my "hometown" would be the name of my Philly suburb. But what if that suburb doesn't feel like home anymore? I'm looking to see if the word "hometown" can encompass the feeling of stepping off the plane and feeling like you're home again. So can the term refer to a place where one didn't necessarily grow up, but that feels like home? What if the person in question doesn't even live in this place?

Solution 1:

Yes, hometown may refer to a place different from the one you grew up in:

hometown:

• the town or city that a person is from, especially the one in which they were born and lived while they were young:

  • He was born in Miami, but he considers New York his hometown since he's lived there most of his life.

(Cambridge Dictionary)

hometown:

• the town or city in which a person lives or was born, or from which a person comes.

(Dictionary.com)