ME:
I'd go quite a bit bigger. We started out, after renting a couple of times, with an older 26' Class C. An absolute disaster! We took a financial hit selling it and waited a couple of years to save up a bit. Our last rig was an '02 32' Class A that we bought in 2010 in a private local sale for $38,000. It was in cherry shape, with only 12,000 miles in 8 years.
We finally got to a point where, on a retiree budget (I'll be 74 in September), we were digging into our savings to fund the lifestyle. we sold it last December for about $24000. It had 18,500 miles on it and was in superb shape.
After a long time in the US since we first emigrated (Jul 1968) and a 3-year job in Hampton, Virginia, I'd really emphasise that the western states are where to be. AFAIC, the east Coast is unacceptable because of climate, crowding and expense.
We live ina a smallish (18000 pop) town in NW Washington State. It's a predominantly retiree population, so I wouldn't recommend it for you. However, within 60 miles or so in Everett, with the big Boeing plant and a large number of supporting vendors.
South of us are Seattle and Redmond with all their high-tech and computer-oriented companies. There are also all kinds of traditional manufacturers in the central Puget Sound region.
There's a strong ex-pat European (particularly British) presence in Washington State, stemming from the factthat Boeing hired over 10,000 engineers from the UK, which made our initial integration very easy. My recommendation is to not get locked into the Eastern States.
