Plug for my town - Holden, Ma even though I am sure some people will shit on it. Our town touches Worcester, so you get somewhat rural living with city close by. High school is regional, but elementary and middle schools are in town. Without looking, I would say average home price here for a 3 bedroom 2000sq ft house is probably around $600K. If you go a little further out (more rural, but still close to Worcester) you get Rutland, Barre, Hubbardston, etc.. Housing is slightly cheaper there.

Politically, there are definitely right-wing people here (most of my immediate neighbors), but generally speaking, they're not assholes about it.

We've lived here for almost 7 years (was closer to Boston before that), and we really love it. The schools are great, and you can get anywhere relatively quickly. Holden main street traffic sucks because it's essentially the only route to get to the more rural towns if you're coming from the east. I've gotten used to it though and try to avoid it at peak times.

ETA: for reference, Rutland is the geographical center of the state, which is 1 town over from Holden.