How did everyone end up where there at?

Lived in PA all of my life. Getting tired of the winters, but we dont have any type of natural disasters except for an occasional small tornado.

The farther away from a big city, the lower the housing costs usually. You can save a lot of money if you dont mind driving an hour to work.
This is especially true of farms. Near a city, the farms get bought up and become housing developments, so the farms become more valuable.
In small towns, the farms are just farms, so they go for a lot less. At least that's the way it is around here.