I think you need to evaluate your need / wants. Is it a racing sailboat or a cruising sailboat you are looking for? I have sailed both the M242 and T-bird 26 a lot and have had a J24 as a marina stable mate. They are fast racing machines but defiantly not cruising sailboats. They are very tender and wet with very limited cruising facilities, and difficult to single-hand because of all of the sail controls.
I had a Hunter 23 wing keel and found her to be very easy to single-hand with a tiller pilot and furling/reefing headsail. She was surprisingly fast, similar to a Cat-25/27 but not as fast as a M242. She could take a surprising about of heavy weather with the two mainsail reefs. In the ten years that I owned her, I have single-handed crossed the “pond” to Nanaimo in every month of the year including in winds up to 30 kts and waves to 1½ metres. Average speed about 5 kts (6 hours from T-bird marina) with a max of 9 kts surfing down the back of some long rollers after a NW storm.
I now have a CAL 2-25. This in not the old flat-top CAL 25 of the 1960’s but a modern design that has a longer waterline length than a Cat-27, stand-up headroom, large berths, enclosed head, Yanmar diesel and interior room about the same as a Cat-27. She is still economical to maintain, berth and single-hand but a much sturdier sailor.
Probably a better bet for both racing and sailing is something like a C&C-25 or 26, Mirage-25, Kelt-7.6 or Cat-27. For racing only, you should add the older CAL-25 and SJ-24 to your list but of the two you are considering I would cast my vote for the M242.
This is a good time of the year to buy a boat as the prices are very low but in our area you have to consider the availability and cost of moorage. You may want to get your name on a number of marina waitlists (some will want a fee to be waitlisted). Don’t look at only one marina and don’t wait until you buy a sailboat as very few boat come with a marina berth. A good sailboat like you are considering should cost about $10,000 to $15,000, insurance about $300 to $400 / year and moorage about $3000-3,500 / year +/- 20%. You should also budget on repairs/upgrades that could be very minimal or very extensive (expensive), depending on the initial condition and your racing requirements.
we used to do weekends with two coupples when we werre in are twentys 