That doesnt sound bad at all. Where I'm from in Va, you cant even really look at buying a house unless you can afford a 150k+ mortgage(sp?), which is way outside of what I'm willing to spend for what I will get. At my old job, rush hour traffic would turn a 20min drive into a 2hr drive, 45 mins I can deal with.
Basically, I would like to be a little away from everything, but close enough that I can be around things without having to drive a crazy distance. A mild winter would be nice, I absolutely hate snow, and I couldnt imagine it could be THAT much hotter in NC than in VA during the summer...gets damn hot in VA july/august.