East Coast US - best shoreside location for a US base?

[Island Time O25]

As far as cheaper vs more expensive areas - I don't think there is a free lunch. There is a good reason why some place in the Virginia boonies is 1/4 of the price of similar set up in MA or NY. Medical care, available entertainment, being close to what we call "civilization", etc. also play a role. A whole county that has only 12,000 souls can get boring pretty quickly. And unless one has a knack of keeping busy with one's own projects it will get boring very quickly. Kind of like living on a small scarcely populated island - great in theory but not so much in real life.