Picture an upside-down capital "T." The central north / south corridor and the entire coast east to west is where you'll find a house that is absolutely not more than 25 minutes to every amenity you could ever want. The northeast and northwest are more rural and lack some of the infrastructure and conveniences you might want.

In CT you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a pre- Revolution home, and we still have quite a few from the late 1600's. If you aren't a very good craftsman, any work you do on an older home might open a can of worms that will cost thousands to fix. A friend wanted to add an electrical outlet. Opened up a bit of wall and found old corn cobs had been used as insulation. Job took longer than expected, and old corn cobs sucked up the humidity and began to rot. Had to open up the entire wall to remove old "insulation" and redo everything. A new plug ended up being a major renovation.