Relocating, ID, MT or WY? (Idaho Falls, Hayden: rent, house, employment)

[offandaway]

I currently reside in the East and my company is closing their offices in the east. My husband and I have a pick of 4 places to relocate:

1. Casper, Wy
2. Bozeman, MT
3. CDA, ID
4. Idaho Falls, ID


A little background:
We will rent where ever we choose at first to make sure its a good fit for us, so i dont care about housing yet.
I am willing to commute up to an hour
We both love outdoors, hiking, camping ect
The cold does not bother us
Husband hates constant rain (unsure if CDA would have that due to the proximity to WA?)
We hate crowds. alot. Our dream would be to live on a 20 acre ranch with the only neighbors 10 acres away... We're quiet folks
Husband would probably want to find work on a ranch as works on a farm here.
We'd want to live near mountains.

WY seems as though its an obvious fit for us, but our issue seems to be that we love the Powell area of WY and Casper is way to far of a commute for that so we aren't sure of the benefits of Casper?...or the other above places

[rock_chalk]

I really like all of these states.

For rain:
http://hurricane.ncdc.noaa.gov/climaps/prec0113.pdf
http://hurricane.ncdc.noaa.gov/climaps/prec2613.pdf

Much of Washington State is actually desert. However, CDA is the wettest of these locations. The largest amount of precip falls in winter, so some is snow. Nonetheless, it can be a bit rainy.

CDA is mining and tourism. Bozeman and Idaho Falls are highly educated, Bozeman with the university and Idaho Falls near INL. I believe Casper is a center of activity for energy development in Wyoming.

Some agriculture maps:
http://www.nass.usda.gov/research/Cr...mples/id09.png
http://www.nass.usda.gov/research/Cr...mples/mt09.png
http://www.nass.usda.gov/research/Cr...mples/wy09.png

You can get away from it all at any of these places. I don't know about land prices/availability, though.

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Originally Posted by rock_chalk

CDA is mining and tourism. Bozeman and Idaho Falls are highly educated, Bozeman with the university and Idaho Falls near INL. I believe Casper is a center of activity for energy development in Wyoming.

Well...in view of the fact that CdA is a college town, I wouldn't exactly call it uneducated . And Bozeman gets its fair share of tourists headed to and from Yellowstone. Same thing with IF, in fact. Always tough to attempt to generalize in a few sentences.

OffandAway, you're not saying anything about whether you'll be relocating with a job, or whether you'll be looking for work. That, to me, would be one of the most important questions. And your husband looking for ranch work--take a look at the threads about ranch work in the Montana and Wyoming forums--there is very little work to be found, even for seasoned ranch hands.

Property values have been lower in North Idaho than in Western Montana, so 20 acres might be more within your reach in Idaho. But if you want to live on a 20 acre ranch, it won't be nearly big enough to run as a working ranch. Or did you mean that you'd just like a ranch style house on 20 acres, maybe with a few horses? That's doable.

[offandaway]

The offices out east are closing but not out west so I do already have a job I just have a choice between those 4 above so employment isn't an issue.
My husband can live off my income so the ranch job isn't necessary, just something hed enjoy so we aren't really concerned with that.
And yes, I more mean ranch as in enough room for horses and that's it.

When you say college towns, does that mean that there's a lot of "young energy" and thing geared towards their ages? Or do the kids keep to themselves and the college?
Where I live, college town means you better get out of town by 7pm or your stuck in a crowd of wasted inconsiderate kids (not generalizing, just what our college town here is like)

Would it be easy enough to live a half hour away from if and cda and commute? Or because of weather would it be best to live right in town?

[NWbyNW]

I would choose the CDA in Idaho. You get a great scenic location, surrounded by trees and mountains, lakes, recreation, but you are not subjected to as harsh of weather climates as seen in the other areas. Also Coeur D' Alene has a promising future for growth. You are also close to all the services, and culture in Spokane, WA. CDA-Spokane is considerably drier then the western portion of Washington that is green and rainy. Spokane is a mix of the two, with less trees, but still green none the less. You also get rivers, lakes, and many recreation opportunities. In the winter, there will be some snow in the CDA. CDA has lots of good shopping, and even more in Spokane. CDA is about 30 minutes from Spokane. It is a real nice area with urban, suburban, and rural areas.

[elousv]

Hate crowds too. In North Idaho (NID) you can be away from crowds in a few minutes. Also, don't confuse it being near WA as equating to rain. Seattle has rain. I know lots of people in this area that have moved from the west coast because of it. Sure it rains here, but you have to pay something for perpetual green.

[offandaway]

Thanks for the input!
Rains a lot where I live too but not enough to make it dreary so I'd presume I'd is the same.
What's NID weather like compared to mt and wy? Would you be easily able to commute to CDA or IF? I don't want to live in an acual "big" town so I'd be looking for smaller outskirt towns to live in. What are some "outskirt" towns around cDA and IF that a commute is still possible?

[rock_chalk]

Idaho Falls is not in north Idaho. It is on the Snake River Plain, across the mountains from the northern panhandle. That is very pretty country, but not at all the same as CDA. More desert and farmland, less forest.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/us_20...o_ref_2001.jpg

[offandaway]

I only have 2 options in idaho, CDA or IF, so I'm really only looking for outskirt towns near those two as I do not want to live in town.

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Originally Posted by offandaway

Thanks for the input!
Rains a lot where I live too but not enough to make it dreary so I'd presume I'd is the same.
What's NID weather like compared to mt and wy? Would you be easily able to commute to CDA or IF? I don't want to live in an acual "big" town so I'd be looking for smaller outskirt towns to live in. What are some "outskirt" towns around cDA and IF that a commute is still possible?

In general, NID winters are milder than MT and WY. You can have cold snaps in the single digits, but usually not for extended periods. Temps in the 20s is a normal, cold winter's day (right, NID'ers? of course I have only spent summers in NID so far! ). In Bozeman and Casper you can count on harsher temps, for longer periods--the elevation is much higher. But IF is indeed not in NID, and the winter temps are (I think) usually lower than in NID--more comparable to MT.

You'll be pleasantly surprised when you explore CdA--it is not a "big" town at all. The bigger town is Spokane, 30-40 minutes away. But you do get the modern types of suburb communities here and there. You might consider Dalton Gardens or Hayden, less than 30 minutes away from CdA.

Commuting to CdA: The only thing you need to worry about is rush hour traffic on 95 north (unless there's a winter storm, or ice--then any commute is bad!). The road planners didn't quite anticipate the growing communities north of CdA, I guess, so you can get stuck in traffic getting into CdA in the morning, and going home in the afternoon. But it is still nothing like the traffic jams in big cities.