Manchester has good areas and less good areas. Just look around before you buy. I'm less familiar with East Hartford but it's probably the same. Glastonbury and West Hartford are on par with each other as far as the WASP-y definition of "nice" goes. I'd check out Windsor, Newington, Berlin, Middletown, South Windsor.

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Traffic-wise, 84 East and West tend to jam up much more frequently than 91 North and South... for that reason if it were me, I'd stick to a town on 91.