Moving to the Rupert/Burley Area??? (Boise, Idaho Falls: fit in, real estate, 2009)

[Thoroughbred]

My husband and I are looking at properties in the Burley/Rupert area and would like as much feedback as possible regarding the area (community, schools, etc.). We have 2 girls (7 & 11) .
We currently are in Utah and want out of the hustsle and bustle. We sold our horse property in September and have been searching for the right area to raise our kids and enjoy our horses. We race thoroughbred horses and one of the reason's why we are looking at the Idaho area is due to para mutual wagering (gambling). We always travel every race season between ID, WY & NV to race anyway. It is a hobby that our family enjoys doing together.

Property where we are at, is so ridiculous in price that we just can't afford to stay here, not only that the horse property is dwindling down to nothing. There are subdivisions moving in all around, on every piece of land possible. They have already developed the property we had and a 1/3 acre lot starts at $300K (that is just the lot...CRAZY).
Another thing that concerns me is that here in Utah the LDS religion is so high and we are not. My kids have never played with any of the neighbor kids in the almost 10 years we lived there because the other kids were not allowed to play with mine because we did not go to church with them. I do not feel as if you go to church you are better than anyone else. We have strong values and try to raise our kids to be GOOD people. I hope that where ever we do move that this will not be an issue.
My husband's work will allow us alot of leniency as to where we move but I will need to find a job once we do move there... any ideas of the best options for job hunting?
Any information that anyone could provide will be very helpful...
Thanks for your time

[busone]

We moved here (burley) 8 months ago from Denver. Before that we lived in a small town outside Portland (yuk). Out of the two big cities we have fit in here the best. We are not LDS and we have had no problem fitting in. We have made lots of friends, more than we made in the year we lived in Denver.

We were able to find a nice house with an acre and barn for a very reasonable price. My wife is in the real estate business so we keep up to date on housing prices. Although they keep rising they are still reasonable. If you go west 30 miles the prices are much higher around Twin Falls.

I have to say after living in Oregon and Colorado I love it here. We never have traffic jams or even a rush hour.

Some people love to complain about this area, of course most of them have never lived anywhere else so they have nothing to compare it to. The price of electricity is much lower than many parts of the country and water and sewer are not too bad. Burley is building a new wastewater treatment plant, which caused the sewer bill to double though it is still less than what we paid in Oregon.

Some people complain about the Mexican population here. All the Mexicans I have met are hard workers trying to make a living. In Denver it was the types that were into drugs and welfare. There are a lot of cows/dairies here so if you don't like cows this is not the place for you.

You can paint your house or install a new porch light and the code police will not come ask you where your permit is. You can have a car on your driveway that is 10 years old without getting harassed either. You will not find much of the yuppie types here.

As far as schools go I have no first hand experience. My child is not of school age yet. Many of our friends have school age kids though. Most of them are happy with the schools. All our friends that had kids in school in the Portland suburbs thought the schools were crap. I have not heard that here.

As far as jobs go there is a lot of AG related jobs here in Burley/Rupert. Dutchman (travel trailers) just opened a manufacturing plant here and a large cheese company from Ohio is opening a plant in Rupert. For more white collar jobs you would probably have to commute to Twin Falls (30 miles from Burley) it is not a bad commute at all. It takes less than 30 minuets at 75MPH. Remember no congested interstate.

Some people say this is a dying area but that is simply not true. Reputable business would not be opening up plants here if that were true. The city would not be investing in a new wastewater treatment plant either. Most of all, property values would not be going up.

[my3arabs]

Let them say it is dying then the prices will stay down.

You should come out and look around that area to see what you like. There is a ton of open space and yes the prices are lower. There isn't a lot of work around there but like busone said you can drive to Twin.

The power is very cheap here. Ours for last month was only $45 but if you are on natural gas then look out. You would be in a nice central area and not too far from Sandy Downs or whatever track in here in Twin.

[Thoroughbred]

Thank you so much for the advise regarding the area. We came out to the area last weekend and loved the Rupert area more than Burley itself (more country feeling but yet not to far from the basics). We are looking at homes more in the northern part of Rupert.
My husband found out that there is a track in the area and was SO happy. Is the track there called the Sandy Downs? Is there much horse racing there locally?
My girls liked the area but are worried about making friends.... wouldn't that be wonderful if that is all we had to worry about. We would be making a big jump. We have no friends or family in the area but they still won't be too far away.

No traffic jams??? How would that be!!!

I was also told that the weather there is pretty similar to Salt Lake area?

[my3arabs]

Yes the weather is just like SL. Sandy Downs is in Idaho Falls, about an hour and a half drive, I don't know about one in Rupert or Burley.

Your girls are young enough that they should do fine with making friends. It would be the high school age that I would worry about. You really shouldn't have a problem since you are just coming from UT.

[boiseborn]

Have you ever considered Emmett? They have a racetrack, and it is a very small town < 10,000. It's worth checking out and the climate is slightly milder than SLC. It is close to Boise (30 miles) but Boise is still smaller and slower pace than SLC. I went to school in Emmett in JH and HS and not being mormon didn't matter. The closer you get to IF and POky the higher concentration of LDS you get. Worth checking out...

[Kelly13]

I agree Emmett is great and they do have a track, but the prices there are outrageous also. We are considering Burley too because we would like to live around Emmett, but for an 1 or more it is over $100 K.

[mlpslc]

Hi, don't know if you ever did move to burley/rupert, since your post was a few months ago...but I have more information if anyone is looking for it. I lived there for almost 18 years.

As far as the schools go, they are pretty good. Being from Burley I am biased towards them, and I knew many of the teachers personally. There's a nice community feel to most of the schools and I feel I got a good education there, and it prepared me well for college.

As far as your girls making friends, and the LDS population...maybe it is not as bad as when I was a kid. Lots of people have moved in since then and I get a more openminded feel when I go back there. Of course you may find some people that find a problem with the fact that you're not LDS, but most are not mean enough to say anything I encountered very little prejudice there, especially as time went on and some of the more conservative "older generation" retired, died, or moved out :P and there are plenty of other churches and community groups to get involved in and meet people through.

I know there's a racetrack in rupert, as my late FIL used to raise thoroughbreds and quarter horses as well, and trained them there. There's LOTS of space in southern idaho so I can't see you having a problem finding acreage or a small farm on which to raise your horses...and a lot cheaper than Utah, I'd imagine.

[badger86001]

Help! My family and I need to relocate to the area by July 1st, 2009 and so far, we can't find a rental. If anyone has a house near Burley, that has at least 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and will allow dogs; please contact me as soon as possible at: badger86001@hotmail.com. Thanks