I live in Penguin having only recently moved from Latrobe. Both towns are great but house prices are not all that cheap because of them both being a great place to live. Depending on what work you are both looking for would also determine where you are looking to set up home base. The reason we moved was that our kids are now both adults but will probably be at home for a few more years yet and we wanted a place with a bit more space. We were looking for any place along the coast from Latrobe to Penguin as my wife works in Devonport (and occasionally Burnie) and I work in Burnie.
Once you go inland too far, your commute to the cities becomes a bit of a pain while the towns along the coast are all close to a brilliant dual lane highway.
Latrobe is riding distance from some of the Wild Mersey trails, Railton is smack in the middle and Sheffield is on the southern side. Once again will depend on where you work. Sheffield and especially Railton have a high population of bogans too.
Devonport has some trails at Kelcey Tiers which you can ride to from town and it's not that far from the Wild Mersey trails too.
Ulverstone doesn't really have any trails in riding distance but either Wild Mersey or Penguin is 15/20min drive away.
Penguin so far has been a great move for us, it's 10min longer for my wife's commute but knocks off half an hour each way for me. I've been involved with both the Wild Mersey trails and with the Cradle Coast Mountain Bike Club who are responsible for the Penguin MTB Park and Dial Range trails. The bike park is a 5 min ride away and as I run a lot of the trail maintenance it's really handy not having to drive half an hour to do a trail inspection. Also, the club has quite a few plans for park upgrades, and future trail development in the Dial Range.
Once you head west as far as Burnie, you are getting further from any decent trails although they have a pretty good pumptrack and jumps area.
I kind of think that the Latrobe to Penguin strip along the coast is the sweet spot.