I appreciate the information, everyone. We went and looked at a few places this weekend, a couple of which we liked. Nothing 'perfect', which is not surprising of course. It does seem like inventory in the 350K-450K range is a bit lacking, at least for what we want. There are several nice, relatively reasonably priced homes in southwest Lexington (Firebrook, Dogwood Trace area) that are appealing. I'm just trying to decide if those are too far out.
As far as renting to decide if we like it, or this 'making friends' conversation goes, we already like Lexington and do have some built-in friends and family relationships both there and in Madison County so that's not as much of a concern as it might be for someone with no ties to the area. Certainly noted, however.