I have a 2003 Honda Element with a 2.4L engine and live in Massachusetts. My driving is 50/50 highway/city. I ran Exxon 5W20 dino for the first 25,000 miles which was rumored to be what Honda oil was at the time. I also have used Chevron, Havoline, Motorcraft Semi-synthetic all 5W20 at 5-8K mile intervals. Basically, I changed the oil at 6 month intervals.
Oil changes basically cost me $10 filter included. Those were the days.
I had the opportunity to look at the cam lobes and check how clean the engine looked when the valves were adjusted. (I recommend you do this at 75-100K. Exhaust valves can run tight and you won't hear it.) Really pretty amazing how clean everything looked. No wear on the cam lobes, no sludge or varnish anywhere. These engines are very easy on oil. Currently, I am running 3+ quarts Chevron 5W-20 and a quart of Mobile SYN 5W-20. At 7K mile oil changes I burn no oil.
Personally I don't think synthetic is necessary unless you want to run extended OCI's of 10-15K miles. I spend the money I would have used on synthetic oil to change the brake fluid ever other year, the manual transmission fluid at 30K miles, the clutch fluid and power steering fluid every 50K miles or 3 years.
If you prefer to run synthetic, Pennzoil or Mobile 1 synthetic at 10K intervals with a good oil filter would be great. Lot's of people follow this routine in the used oil section with great results.