This makes me think of Sarah Dessen. She's pretty much created a whole universe (Lakeview, Colby, even a fictional university), and it might be silly but every time I read one of her books I feel like I'm returning to a place I know.
That's probably not at all what you were asking, so basically I would rather have a fictional place grounded in reality (my current MS starts out in an imaginary place in Maine called Liberty Hill, in between Newcastle and Camden)
