RD,
If you and DH are very attached to family, a distant relocation really deserves long, serious thought. I enjoyed 'escaping' family, but I ended up being the one who whined the loudest and spurred us to move back home...
I don't know how you feel about these/cost of them in your area, but have you thought about a modular house? At one point, we checked into them. They are a stick built house, built in modules, and placed on the foundation of your choice. They vary from simple and plain, to quite 'fancy', and several plans we looked at had lots of character - the one I fell for looked just like an old farmhouse! Price-wise, here at least, they were slightly higher than a doublewide and well below a traditional stick built. We also checked into panelized homes. A local company would convert any plan we had into a panelized home. Once in place, both of these options are considered 'traditional built' homes.