Queer friendly, moderate cost of living, blue state

My wife and I currently live in Chicago, but we've realized we are priced out of buying a single family home here. Where are some places we should consider?

• Our most important criteria is that it must be a solidly blue state, not just a blue city (for legal protections).
• Based on our financial goals, we want to keep our monthly mortgage payment under $2,700 (we can afford more, but we have a big age gap and we're trying to save aggressively so we can retire at similar times).
• We both work remote jobs, so we can move anywhere within the country.
• My wife also HATES the extreme cold and I HATE the extreme heat, so bonus points if the climate is not too extreme in either direction.