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-Great schools, especially high schools (ranking high on college readiness, etc).
-Within a 1-3 hours drive of at least 1 good college.
-Place with a population over 35K but within 30 mins of a larger town and/or 1-2 hours of a medium to large size city.
-Median resident age somewhere between 35-48 yrs old range, not too young, not mostly retirees. Families & singles mix.
-Somewhat educated & friendly community.
-Fairly equal male to female ratio.
-Not overly religious.
-Gun owner/CCW friendly.
-Doesn't have to be extremely diverse but enough so that multiracial kids would be welcomed & accepted.
-More conservative than liberal (or at least close to an equal balance).
-Does not have months of really hot, super humid, or desert like climate. Snow in the winters & not too hot in the summers is best.
-Beautiful area with access to nature, outdoor activities (hiking, horse back riding, biking, boating, sledding, skiing, etc.) close by.
-Has a nice downtown area with good shops, restaurants, bars, entertainment options.
-Can still find a decent 3+ bedroom single family home with a yard (0.5-5 acres) that is not in a cookie cutter neighborhood, no HOAs, etc. Or a small ranch (under 15 acres) for $450-675K.
-Very low violent & property crime and not an unusually high drug issue.
-Preferably in the West.
Some thoughts on your list:
-You're not going to find many areas that are both conservative and mostly secular. This is strongly associated with "the left".
-The larger the portion of educated people, the more liberal they are on average.
Which is not to say there aren't educated, irreligious conservatives. They're just one of the more rare combinations, and are rarely found in groups.
A big challenge with this is the combination along with price. You can usually find a few of them on one end of the scale but loose others at the other end. The entire combination is not a typically found together in the west these days and when you do, the prices are not within your range..
However, with that said, there are a couple places in CO that may come close that you would want to investigate. In northern CO, Brighton, Ft Lupton, Greeley areas may be on track for some of this. These are all east of I-25 between Ft Collins and Denver. In southern CO you have Black Forest, Peyton, Ellicott, and the Fountain-Security-Widefield areas. Again, east of I-25 and near Colorado Springs.
Since I don't live in NorCo, I can't really comment in much detail on those areas. IMO, Colo Spgs hits on nearly all your targets except population size and real estate costs.
In Colo Spgs -Within a 1-3 hours drive of at least 1 good college. Colorado College and the CU extension campus of UCCS are right in the city. DU, Mines, Regis, CU, and CSU are all within 3 hours north of Co Spgs
-Place with a population over 35K but within 30 mins of a larger town and/or 1-2 hours of a medium to large size city. Co Spgs is almost half a million, so way over your limit, but the towns listed above may be within it but miss some of your other requirements.
-Median resident age somewhere between 35-48 yrs old range, not too young, not mostly retirees. Families & singles mix. Yup, that is Co Spgs. We have attracted one of the highest percentages of millenial in migration in the country as a balance to our middle aged and retiree populations.
-Somewhat educated & friendly community. Co Spgs has a higher than national average college educated workforce.
-Fairly equal male to female ratio. According to suburbanstats, the 2010 census put Co Spgs at 51% female, 49% male.
-Not overly religious. Yes, we are home to some large evangelical organizations, but it is important to note these are not home grown, they all relocated here as a business decision, and their reach is primarily with a global audience, not a local one. Co Spgs church attendance is at or below national averages.
-Gun owner/CCW friendly. Yes, we've got that covered.
-Doesn't have to be extremely diverse but enough so that multiracial kids would be welcomed & accepted. While Co Spgs is 75-78 white, it also has a higher percentage of mixed races people than even Los Angeles.
-More conservative than liberal (or at least close to an equal balance). Generally speaking, yes, Co Spgs is conservative. The core of Co Spgs tends to be somewhat liberal with an outer ring of libertarian and the it gets progressively more conservative the further into the county you go. But I'd also break liberal/conservative into three distinct areas-political, social and fiscal. Many people I see may be liberal or conservative in one or two of these areas but not always all three. Co Spgs tends to be politically and sometimes fiscally conservative. Socially we are much more middle of the road.
-Does not have months of really hot, super humid, or desert like climate. Snow in the winters & not too hot in the summers is best. We do get occasional days of 100* and winter storrms can put us below 0*, but neither are for extended periods and generally the temps tend to be mild and range from 30s in winter to 80s in summer.
-Beautiful area with access to nature, outdoor activities (hiking, horse back riding, biking, boating, sledding, skiing, etc.) close by. This we have. With Pikes Peak looking over the entire area, and our being a tourist destination for over 150 years, we have a wide variety of things to do.
-Has a nice downtown area with good shops, restaurants, bars, entertainment options. We have this and it is undergoing some improvements as well. Several mid rise apartments have gone up recently, the Olympic Museum is under construction and several longer term renewal programs are moving forward.
-Can still find a decent 3+ bedroom single family home with a yard (0.5-5 acres) that is not in a cookie cutter neighborhood, no HOAs, etc. Or a small ranch (under 15 acres) for $450-675K. This will be your biggest challenge. To find property in this size and price range you have to get further out in the county which takes you further away from some of the other items you describe as desirable.
-Very low violent & property crime and not an unusually high drug issue. This is tricky. If you look at composite stats for the city, it will appear to be above average. However, under closer examination, you will find that almost 50% of this occurs in only 4 of our dozen+ zip codes. We also have very aggressive reporting structures due to the military bases that tend to tilt some crimes into higher ranges. However, there are some areas that have virtually no crime at all.
-Preferably in the West. Got that covered.
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