Cecil County, where North East is, is known as "Ceciltucky" for a reason. Definitetly the most rural stretch of I-95 between NY and DC both in land and culture. I saw my first ever pair of truck nuts dangling from a pickup at the Cecil County Fair in the 2000s. If I had to live in Cecil, I'd go with the Rising Sun area (between 95 and the state lines).
Cecil is a mix of Ravens/Eagles, Os/Phillies. There's a mild Terp influence (like RU in south Jersey), you feel more of a UD presence if anything college-wise because it's local. TV will most likely be Baltimore stations, not sure if cable carry both markets in North East. Philly stations pay little to no attention to the Northeast corner of MD unless it's a big news story and the story is described about something happening near Newark, DE which is Philly market.
Northern Delaware has a number of Catholic schools worth looking into. Can't vouch for public school quality.
Other plusses are the restaurants along the C&D canal in Chesapeake City, Millburn Orchards (fruit picking and Halloween stuff if there are kids) and the Conowingo Dam swimming pool (though that is on the other side of the Susquehanna in Harford County). And of course, Royal Farms fried chicken. You can take the MARC train into Balt and DC from as far out as Perryville (easier to drive there IMO). There is a casino off 95 in Perryville and soon a Great Wolf Lodge near that location. Sports betting should be legal in MD now but I DK if that casino has a sports book or not. If hiking and fishing are a thing the Fair Hills NRA in Rising Sun and White Clay Creek State Park in DE are great places for that.
Also close to North East, maybe consider southern Chester County, PA (the stretch of Route 1 between Kennett Square and the MD line).