The Perfect Place to Live

We have lived in several locations over the years; most related to work moves, a few just to check out the place for the possibility of a more permanent set up.  Our most recent move, to Las Vegas, was a complete fluke (we happened to come through town with friends for a poker tournament and at the time houses were extremely cheap due to the housing market crash and a relative who lives here said "just buy a house and use it for vacations or something".  So we did.  And ended up staying due to several factors including great weather, great restaurants, great hiking and running nine months out of the year, ease of access to a major airport, etc).

Now, however, the city is quickly losing its appeal.  Water will be an issue eventually, HOA Hell is a real thing, there are way too many people moving here, crime is off the chain, so to speak, and the building--both residential and commercial--in every direction is unending.

After reading several articles and blog posts about the perfect bug out location (bug out locations because I would rather live permanently in a good location than only use a place to bug out to), I am still undecided as to where to move to.  Among the criteria I am looking at:

• Small town within two to three hours of a larger city/airport.
• Good weather (New England saw four Nor'easters last month alone...my days of shoveling snow are long past).
• Reasonable property taxes (which obviously rules out New England and New Jersey).
• Low overall tax burden. 
• Reasonable housing costs (the explosive growth in Washington, Oregon, and California have pretty much made home prices in these places astronomical).
• Good gun laws.
• Legal casinos (I still like my poker games).
• Good natural resources (water, soil, trees, wildlife, etc).
• Few, if any, natural disasters (Florida, New Orleans, and other low lying coastal areas are an obvious no).
• High speed internet.
• Low crime.
• Educated populace (Las Vegas has the worst school system in the country and it is readily apparent to anyone who lives here how this impacts the society as a whole).
• Good hunting, fishing, and gardening.
• Homogeneous, self sufficient-focused, libertarian leaning population.
• Access to healthcare.
• Access to military services.
• A good library system (Las Vegas has one of the best library systems I've ever experienced so now that has been added to my "nice to have" list).
• Reasonable zoning laws; no HOAs.
• No or low income tax.

...so the search goes on...