The 32-year-old joined the National League side following his release by the Cumbrians at the end of last season after a two-year spell.
Sweeney, who is originally from Stockton-on-Tees, spent 13 years at Hartlepool, making 444 appearances.
"It obviously was a factor," Sweeney said of the region's appeal.
"I've got a young family at home, but it wasn't the be all and end all. I was quite happy to move away if needs be but luckily enough I didn't have to.
"Everything fell into place here and I'm quite confident we'll have a decent season and it'll prove a good move."
Sweeney was manager Neil Aspin's sixth addition this summer, which has now risen to 13 following the addition of left-back George Smith.
Chairman Richard Bennett who along with wife Julie took over the club in May 2015, have targeted the Football League and maintained the club's full-time status.
"It's always been a club - with me being from the North East - that I've looked out for on the results and followed," Sweeney added.
"I sat down with them and he [Bennett] discussed the plans he wanted to do and they matched my own ambitions, which I've made no bones about.
"I still feel I can contribute in league football and hopefully that will be with Gateshead."
The Tynesiders began their pre-season training on Wednesday as they look to push for promotion to the English Football League for the first time in the club's history.
Sweeney, who spent his entire career playing in the Football League, says success in non-league can be transfer to the higher tiers of the English football pyramid, as Crawley, Stevenage and Fleetwood Town have previously shown.
"Its momentum, it's all about momentum", admitted Sweeney.
"If you can get out of this league, I'm not sure there's a great deal of difference between League Two and the National League.
"So if you've got that momentum and you go into that league, you can carry that on quite easily."

Dylan Marcus Edwards, 50, from Llanrwst in Conwy county, admitted causing suffering to Cali the cat which was put in a bag and hit with a piece of wood.
Llandudno Magistrates' Court heard the cat defecated in the Royal Oak Hotel kitchen in Betws-y-Coed in December.
Edwards was sentenced to 18 weeks in prison, suspended for two years.
Tudur Owen, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said the cat had also bitten and scratched other members of staff.
Colleagues had penned the cat under a fridge using chopping boards.
Edwards and a colleague entered the kitchen saying "we're going to have to kill the cat" and came out with the animal inside a black bag, carrying a piece of wood and saying "we'll have to put it out of its misery".
The court heard the pair were challenged by another colleague but Edwards was concerned the cat would return if they chased it away and said to her: "We don't have a choice."
There had been a furious local backlash following the cat's death and an online petition calling for those responsible to be prosecuted attracted more than 35,700 supporters.
Melissa Griffiths, defending, said Edwards had been dismissed from his job after 32 years working at the hotel.
"He's been vilified since and has become a hermit in his own home, afraid to go out because of the strength of feeling against him," said Ms Griffiths.
"He's been verbally abused and refused service in his local village. He wrongly believed the cat was not a protected animal because it was feral."
Edwards was ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work and pay Â£865 costs.
The court also heard the case against another 36-year-old man had been dropped.
Speaking after the case, RSPCA inspector Phil Lewis said: "The cat was put in a black bag and hit with a piece of wood. To me it's a heinous act. This was premeditated, pre-planned."
Gateshead midfielder Antony Sweeney is pleased to be returning to his native North East after leaving League Two side Carlisle United.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
A former chef at a Snowdonia hotel has been given a suspended prison sentence for killing a feral cat which had wandered into a hotel kitchen.