1/2 acre in a very nice suburban subdivision.

I mention the "very nice" portion because this provides security in peace time and danger in a collapse. The following isn't meant to be perceived as bragging, but is designed as "food for thought" (pun intended)....

Our house is on a semi private "loop" (one way in and one way out). The HOA is EXTREMELY proactive (you receive notice if your automatic yard light isn't working or if your trash cans aren't taken into your garage the evening of trash pick up or if a vehicle parks on the street in front of your house instead of the driveway). The HOA also has a 12 person team that walks the 7 miles of roads late at night. The public lakes (owners / members of the HOA have access ... Not the public at large) are watched and patrolled by a five member "shore watch". Now this all sounds great, but we're talking about volunteers (retirees, stay at home moms, etc). We pay the local Sherrif's Department to provide two Deputies on Halloween. We stock the lakes so a food and water source is available in a crisis. The subdivision is slightly outside of town.

Overall, it is a very safe place to live. IN PEACE TIME.

The downsides are:

1) The population density is extremely high. We have over 1200 people living along 7 miles of road. (I believe the minimum lot is 3/16 acre and I have one of the largest). This will deplete resources (lake fish) quickly. Hungry people are scary people. Contemporary American homes are not securely built.

2) We will be a target for looters. However, I've already observed a number of home owners with firearms in our short time here. We have a hunter across the street, two AR15 owners within 8 houses of ours, a retired Army Ranger (retired LTC with a sophisticated security system) across the street, and another Hunter within 12 houses. This was all observed without broaching the topic of a mutual neighborhood defense. The stark reality is this won't matter once people get hungry.

3) We have enough land to produce more than enough food for us. However, the covenants prohibit visible in ground gardens and animals. Therefore, we'd have to cultivate virgin soil in a crisis. This is very challenging (especially while trying to defend against hundreds of hungry sheeple neighbors and outside looters). We're building an earth box garden as a result. We will also add a semi-commercial grade green house in a few years (if I can get approval from the building review committee...and based upon my vocation I'm fairly confident ).

The reality is this isn't a sustainable location unless enough like minded individuals cooperate to create mutual defense and labor sharing force. See my early comments about kumbaya...