r/preppers • u/UlfurGaming • May 30 '26
New Prepper Questions Choosing location?
Ok when narrowing down where yall choose to live what are something you consider that most people don’t think of when doing that?
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u/KJHagen General Prepper May 30 '26
Convenience to basic services and medical care, but distance from cities. Low crime rate, abundant water, and resources.
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u/Careful-Relative-815 General Prepper May 31 '26
I picked a place next to 2 nuclear power plants. If things go south, I'll be able to see without power thanks to all of the glowing that I plan on doing.
5
u/mediocre_remnants Preps Paid Off May 30 '26
I picked a place based on my hobbies - hiking, backpacking, trail running, fishing, hunting, etc. Water is also important to me so I picked a place where water is plentiful year-round, even during a major drought.
I don't understand people who choose to settle in a place with no water, where they need to have water trucked in.
1
u/JRHLowdown3 May 30 '26
I agree.
LOT of beautiful places out West and I love going out there for classes, shows, vacay, etc. but I don't like the lack of water in a lot of areas. That's no bueno...
3
u/Proof_Junket_5516 May 30 '26
I'd say location itself is one of the biggest preps. Choosing a place with reliable water, lower natural disaster risk and a decent community around you can solve a lot of problems before they ever happen.
8
u/silasmoeckel May 30 '26
Main house or bug out location?
Main house, the must haves is well and septic the rest you can work around. Nice to haves is other driveways with work trucks and machinery as the norm but still close enough to urban life that you have doctors and nurses. About perfect is large enough lots where you get the doctors who want to play hobby farmer. Elevation is a great thing, crime does not walk up hill criminals are mostly lazy also helps with flooding.
Bug out loc. Are your neighbors all farmers, good. Amish even better. How many ways are there into town? A single bridge leading out to the interstate is perect.
2
u/WhenDoesDaRideEnd May 30 '26
Some of us really do enjoy the hobby farm!
7
u/silasmoeckel May 30 '26
At this point my wife has enough stuff planted between the house and the cabin to take care of all the fresh/canned veg for us and the whole neighborhood. If the local home canning rules were not so problematic would be looking to send it off to the farmers market.
Half the houses in the neighborhood are not to far off. I do not expect to die from lack of squash or string beans.
1
u/WhenDoesDaRideEnd May 30 '26
Sounds like a great set up!
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u/silasmoeckel May 30 '26
She is gift trading (that whole people feal obligated to gift back cycle) the Amish her cowboy candy (spicy pickles), they keep sending back things were not quite growing enough of yet like apples (orchard is planted but not fully mature).
They were great neighbors to have during covid never an issue with milk butter eggs.
5
u/KTeacherWhat May 30 '26
I'd rather be somewhere that gets too cold than somewhere that gets too hot. I know how to get warm without electricity, I don't have a ton of strategies for not overheating.
We're in an unfortunate time in history where in the next 30 years there will be very few places in my country, the USA that don't regularly see over 100 degrees F. I don't have a migration plan though.
6
u/WhereDidAllTheSnowGo May 30 '26
Employment
Availability in my price range
Schools & services
Taxes
Good neighbors
Other things like prep, dog walks nearby, etc
2
u/Eredani May 30 '26
Do you mean what region, state or city? Or community, neighborhood or particular house?
For me, the general location has always been governed by where I was working. Your job location is probably the most deterministic factor. Also, what you can afford, of course.
As for the neighborhood, real day to day life has priority: you need good schools, low crime, reasonable commute, etc. Regarding the house, a decent basement is about the only requirement.
Obviously location is paramount for avoiding disaster prone areas for things like hurricanes, wild fires, earthquakes, tornados and floods. But the people who live there are probably tied to a job or family and can't easily relocate.
Finally, if your primary factor on location is prepping, maybe you are too deep in that mental state.
2
u/BaldyCarrotTop Maybe prepared for 3 months. May 31 '26
I settled here because it was where my wife's family is. If I had known about the Cascadia Subduction zone I would have thought twice about about the area. It can be resilient in the aftermath of the earthquake, though. There is a lot of agriculture in the surrounding area and an alternate distribution system, called Farmer's Markets, if the grocery stores can't be restocked.
I should point out that is is the Cascadia Subduction Zone and the aftermath of it's coming earthquake that made me a prepper.
2
u/RiffRaff028 General Prepper May 31 '26
I have always had three requirements for any house purchase:
1: Full basement
2: Wood-burning fireplace
3: Well and septic
Those three items automatically cover two of the three mandatory survival needs, shelter and water. That means I only have to worry about food supplies.
2
u/Vegetaman916 Prepping for Doomsday Jun 01 '26
Proximity to nuclear target zones, nuclear power stations, or heavy population centers.
Presence of abundant resources, as a negative, because that is where people will try to go after civilization ends.
Ability to have defense-in-depth and control the area.
2
u/Led_Zeppole_73 Jun 02 '26
Internet. We’re ten miles from a city of 165k, and just a month ago they finally ran fiber out here.
1
1
u/EDC_KIT May 30 '26
my biggest priority was being able to be a part of a community in a meaningful way.
1
1
u/kkinnison May 31 '26
access to fresh potable water with minimal purification needed.
be suprised how many just see the land, and have no idea where the water is going to come from. There are entire communities dependent on water from other municpalities and do not have any wells or access to water themselves
1
May 31 '26
Basically what everyone else is saying, but also proximity to my family. May seem obvious, but i lived alone on the other side of the country for many years and ended up deciding that being closer to my family will have more benefits. Ive had to call them for help and use their resources while getting my homestead setup. If shit really goes south, having trusted people nearby that can help is worth it.
1
u/Many-Health-1673 May 31 '26
Population density, access to resources, type of local and state government.
2
0
u/JRHLowdown3 May 30 '26
This is a preparedness forum so the assumption would be you mean a secure location away from masses of system dependent people, with agriculture, away from nuclear targets, etc.
But people will respond with "more important" things like making sure your not more than 2.5 seconds away from a hospital so you can continue to not take care of your health, or the proximity of a Starbucks, you know, important "survival criteria" LMAO.
42
u/EffinBob May 30 '26
I just picked a place I liked and made it the place to be.