Chance to move back West

[Mojave]

How much house are you willing to buy. That would answer the question. Average homes in Mountain View towns are $650000. Prairie towns are $450000. For 35000-150000 population towns in the northern rockies.

 

[manitou1]

Yeah $500K would be a starting point in our area of WY. You probably already know this but those dink airports can be pretty pricey to fly in and out of. Our daughter priced flights to get here in June of this year and what used to be $350.00-$400.00 is now over $1K! Going crazy!

 

[Mojave]

Someone said Idaho Falls, this is a $500,000 1500 square foot home kind of place. Almost every mountain or near mountain town in the Northern Rockies is at this level or more. Anything of the 25,000-150,000 variety is this price or double it.

People all want to move to Idaho, Wyoming or Montana, but they forget they are going to have a $500,000-1,500,000 mortage for a house that would cost $250,000 where they are from. Now at least at 5percent interest.

We live in Southern New Mexico, and our mountain towns are dirt cheap by comparison.

 

[jimh406]

I suggest going to visit the areas you are considering in both Winter and Summer ideally, or at least, look at the climate data. The weather can vary dramatically depending in most of the states both East/West and also North/South.

You won't be able to go very low population and still have direct flights to all of those locations. You may be able to get a few of the airports. I think Missoula gets most of those locations including Vegas, for example. One hour drive can get you a lot of places from Missoula Airport. I think the same is true for Kalispell that is close to Glacier, but also close to a lot of Grizzlies.

I don't know how dependent you are on internet, but only the main roads have fiber type speeds. Otherwise, there are options like Starlink using Hotspots, etc. Living off grid isn't as bad as you might think if you have a solar setup and a well. Many people use wood or propane for heat.

Good luck with your search.

 

[Billinsd]

Prime views of mountains of meth, fentanyl and inversion layer. Amazingly bad traffic, the most overvalued real estate in the USA and plenty of foreign refugees.

Sounds like LA

 

[Yoteassasin]

I’d go to Joliet or Columbus in a heart beat
If my work was that mobile. Just about an hour to Billings and you’d maybe have to go there for a hospital job too . I know there is a Billings outlier hospital in red lodge
Oh and really good century link internet in the area

 

[FLATHEAD]

I used to want to move out West.

 

[Mojave]

These post make me laugh. I think about all the people that think we live in some kind of paradise.

We have the same problems that everyone else in the country does.

Our public land is our savior and our greatest point of contention.

It makes private land valuable, because there isn't much of it available to develop.

We have ruined the countryside by millions of little 1-3 acre mini-ranches in the 1980's that are now being further developed or the farms between them are into the same suburban hell that many folks are trying to leave.

Our realtors will sell you $500,000 1500 square foot houses on a 1/16th of an acre. If that is your dream.

We deal with meth, gangs, eco-environmentalist idiots and an ever increasing population turning what was once western Mayberry into California and Pheonix.

 

[Indian Summer]

Somewhere between Alpine and Afton Wyoming. Has it all. A friend just bought a beautiful place there last year for 380k. But he was already living in the area renting and so able to jump on something like that the day it listed. Get yourself a good hard working agent and look in that area and you’ll be fine.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Coworker lives in Spirit Lake about 40 minutes to coeur d'alene. Loves it.

 

[Sherman]

I live in Fort Morgan, Colorado. Eastern plains. Affordable housing. 1 hour from DIA. Local hospitals and many more within an hour. 1.5 hours to the mountains. Local whitetail and mule deer heaven. Goose and duck paradise. Abundant turkey population. Close enough to Wyoming for their awesome trout lakes in conjunction with everything the Rockies have to offer for fly fishing within two hours. If you have children, the schools are decent with above average athletics. We won the 3A state championship in football this past season and currently have two guys in the nfl as well as a few retired. Very conservative County surrounded by conservative counties.

 

[Kurts86]

If you are traveling regularly you really need to be close to a major airport to do it efficiently.

Early in my career I traveled a week a month with a coworker from NE Wyoming that flew out of Rapid City while I was traveling from Chicago. He effectively lost 2+ days per week just traveling because everywhere he went involved 3 flights and I could usually get by on 1-2 flights to anywhere in North America in just a few hours. He was a great worker but we lost 25% of his time just by virtue of where he lived.

Smaller airports in my experience are a revolving door of carriers, connecting hubs and flight maps. Pretty quickly their headaches aren’t worth it and it’s easier to drive a few hours for a direct flight or more frequent flights throughout the day.

There is definitely is value in proximity to major metro areas if you travel for work and if you are early in your career and want to advance. The unfortunate reality is that you need to move companies or locations within a company to climb a career ladder at a less than glacial pace. The cost of those larger metro areas is because there is value in the economy and they are some of the few places in the west without heavy reliance on just resource extraction or recreation based economies.

Since you posted this in the elk thread I’ll say that Wyoming Residents have the best elk hunting opportunities year over year. It’s also maybe the hardest place to find a job in many fields.

Southeast Wyoming with the intent to drive to DEN for travel is probably my recommendation based on what you have said. Just barely into SW Wyoming or SE Idaho from SLC is another option.

 

[elkocd]

WY is the choice hands down. Compare every metric and you'll see it wins each one. It's not really even close! Just don't buy my property before I do. Nothing but suckers spending money on real estate right now.

 

[Mojave]

Somewhere between Alpine and Afton Wyoming. Has it all. A friend just bought a beautiful place there last year for 380k. But he was already living in the area renting and so able to jump on something like that the day it listed. Get yourself a good hard working agent and look in that area and you’ll be fine.

You could fly out of Jackson or Idaho Falls, but like discussed earlier you will lose a lot of commute time on that plan.

Your best bet for Wyoming is Rock Springs or Cheyenne. Then you are 2 hours for Denver International or 2 hours from Salt Lake.

I think Idaho Falls is 3 hours from Salt Lake.

 

[peterk123]

Billings, Helena, Livingston in MT? Cody, WY?

I will have to admit it, but only to my rockslide friends, Livingston MT is awesome. I just got back from a couple hours at the Yellowstone. Brought home dinner. The fish I have caught the past three months have been unbelievable. Screw the post runoff fishing, Spring is where it's at.

We get a fraction of the snow that Bozeman gets. Some great hikes, public land, mountain creeks, etc. It's truly a special place. Yes, the pass can be a challenge at times. But I only go to Bozeman if I really have to. I hate that place. I gladly will pay a little extra to support the local stores. We have pretty much everything we need right here in town.

 

[Indian Summer]

You could fly out of Jackson or Idaho Falls, but like discussed earlier you will lose a lot of commute time on that plan.

Your best bet for Wyoming is Rock Springs or Cheyenne. Then you are 2 hours for Denver International or 2 hours from Salt Lake.

I think Idaho Falls is 3 hours from Salt Lake.

Lots of truth to that. Where I live now is an hour drive from anything I need to do. But I never regret it because it’s a place of peace. Rock Springs is logistically better but to me it’s not the kind of place I’d move to Wyoming to live. I’d rather immerse myself in the truly magnificent splendor of the Wyoming mountains and pay the price anytime I needed to travel. The Star Valley and Alpine is good for the soul. Rock Springs could be a town in any state.

 

[Mojave]

I think Rock Springs, Wyoming is technically part of Elko County Nevada.

 

[cnelk]

Rock Springs is worse than Laramie

 

[Jacob Chapman]

I will have to admit it, but only to my rockslide friends, Livingston MT is awesome. I just got back from a couple hours at the Yellowstone. Brought home dinner. The fish I have caught the past three months have been unbelievable. Screw the post runoff fishing, Spring is where it's at.

We get a fraction of the snow that Bozeman gets. Some great hikes, public land, mountain creeks, etc. It's truly a special place. Yes, the pass can be a challenge at times. But I only go to Bozeman if I really have to. I hate that place. I gladly will pay a little extra to support the local stores. We have pretty much everything we need right here in town.

I like Livingston for sure. Could always stay in Bozeman at a buddies if the pass gets closed in the winter I suppose.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

I will have to admit it, but only to my rockslide friends, Livingston MT is awesome. I just got back from a couple hours at the Yellowstone. Brought home dinner. The fish I have caught the past three months have been unbelievable. Screw the post runoff fishing, Spring is where it's at.

We get a fraction of the snow that Bozeman gets. Some great hikes, public land, mountain creeks, etc. It's truly a special place. Yes, the pass can be a challenge at times. But I only go to Bozeman if I really have to. I hate that place. I gladly will pay a little extra to support the local stores. We have pretty much everything we need right here in town.

Livingston is an amazing town and area. Bad ass rodeo too!