its actually harder to find affordable housing in the parts of mass that are as you describe. if you want to be in south eastern mass, it is the most expensive part, although this is where most of the population centers are, most of the jobs are, most of the kind of cultural stuff you are into would be. there are some bubbles of cheaper prices, and affordable rents, but this is definitely a you get what you pay for situation, in that many of those areas arent desirable to live in for cultural reasons and general way of those bubbles.

my hometown area, around bristol county, used to be more the way you describe, a pretty short hop to a lot of interesting places, between the cape and boston, and closest to providence which is a fun little city, but much cheaper and nice towns.

since the T went in, many decades ago now but after i was growing up here... it definitely changed, especially in price. theres still some reasonable deals to be found, depending on what you think of as reasonable, its definitely far better than boston, the cape, but the nicest parts of that were really rural and more affordable back then, acushnet, freetown, rochester are all neat places, and then marion, mattapoisett and plymouth have nice coastal areas. since the middleborough t came in though, and it was a commute to boston on train, it definitely changed and the population and prices went way up.

Plymouth and Carver and Wareham are some neat places, almost on the cape, but still some better deals and more open land.

but i think the western part of the state is the best, being a rural woodsy type myself, and definitely worlds away in price, land is downright cheap in western mass, upstate new york, southenr vermont and that general region. there are some expensive bubbles, but compared to the rest of mass, doable and what even i would call affordable all the way to rock bottom cheap. although some of it is deeply rural theres a lot of population centers, and culture, in amherst and North Hampton, all the way down to springfield. Westfield is a neat small town i like, off to the side of all that, or up from there in the north is greenfield. this is pretty rural, but saved some cultural and in opportunity by proximity to north hampton and amherst. ah some ideas. this is my favorite part of the state, although i like woodsy area and sleepy town, though i do enjoy a good coffee shop and some peeps to talk with, live music and art.