Your budget is great. No need to worry about finding a house.

Fairfield County* Fairfield -Train to New York. Great schools. Plenty of restaurants and so on.

Trumbull-Less expensive than Fairfield. Restaurants, mall, and a movies. Great schools.

Shelton-Very low taxes. Good schools. Walmart, restaurants and farms.

New Haven County*

Milford-Train to New York, restaurants, movies, the mall, and beaches. Good schools.

*Hartford County

Hartford has an airport, but if you have kids you'll want to live in a surrounding town.

West Hartford-Fastrak bus stop to get to Hartford. Restaurants, and the Westfarms mall is close. I forget if it's in West Hartford or Farmington. A movies is over in Hartford and Plainville.

Newington-Fastrak stop to Hartford. Good schools. Safe neighborhood.

Bristol-Lake Compounce, FasTrak stop to get to Hartford, and ESPN. Good schools, but one high high school is deemed the better one.