Try the Midwest around rail commuter routes. Most of them developed small yet thriving downtowns that are quite quaint and affordable
For example check out Geneva Illinois
For example check out Geneva Illinois
The story behind the estate is very interesting, iirc Fabyan was obsesesd with finding hidden codes in Shakespeare, thinking he could prove Francis Bacon was the real author. By the time World War I broke out, he had gathered a library of historical cyphers and had a team of codebreakers working for him, who quickly changed course from Shakespeare to the War Department.
It's a frank lloyd wright house with a well done japanese garden right on the fox river, worth taking the tour :)
The average temperature barely gets below freezing and rarely get more than a couple inches of snow.
Geneva, IL and its neighbor to the north (St Charles) are really, really nice. But they're not a cheap places unless you are comparing them to coastal towns. Try this: make a list of all the counties in all the eastern states. Find the county seat of each one. Look at a satellite photo of the downtown area and if it seems solid, check out the street view. If that is also promising, look at real estate prices. Narrow it down to a list of 25-30 towns. And go visit them.