Butte, MT ~ Big chance we might move there (Missoula, Bozeman: rental market, car insurance)

[Naeim71]

Hello; my husband, two boys and I have a pretty good chance of moving to Butte, MT. I was enquiring too the living there.

Is there alot of single houses for rental?
The cost of living? Utilites rate; electricity, Water and etc.
What part of Butte, MT is a good place to live?
Is car insurance expensive?
I see there is only one high school, is it a nice neighbourhood?


Any extra information would truly be greatly appreciated.

[jimj]

Try doing a search on this forum for butte and you will come up with most of your answers and probably more than you wanted to know also, look at the local paper online at montanastandard.com which will give you the classifieds and local news. In MT most papers list all of the crimes that occur in town and the court listings with who is going for what.
Enjoy

[colsteve]

Butte really is quite a nasty place for those who don't drink at least 5 times per week.

[Carolina_Belle92]

Well, I can't imagine why you would want to live in Butte... I despise it. There's a reason it's shrinking.

There is a fairly small rental market in Butte... most people own. Housing is really inexpensive, mostly because everyone seems to want to leave. Anaconda, a little bit west of Butte, is much nicer (if that's an option).

There are actually three high schools in Butte... one is public... two are private and religious (one Catholic, one Protestant).

Butte is very cheap to live in; essentially everything except the income taxes are well below the national averages.

Auto insurance in any part of Montana is inexpensive; you'll find this is the case with most Great Plains/Rocky Mtn. states.

I would suggest living slightly outside of Butte, maybe in the ZIP code 59750 area. Low crime, mostly families, schools are okay. Walkerville is also okay, about five miles away from Butte. This fits in the 59750 category.

If you're looking at schools, Butte is not the best place to educate kids. No sugar coating. If you must raise a family there, I suggest either Margaret Leary Elementary or Hillcrest Elementary. There is only one *public* junior high school and only one *public* high school, so options are scant. If you are fairly religious, there is a good PK-12 private Christian school called (shocker) Butte Christian School. There is a Montessori (K-3) called Silverbow Montessori, though I am not sure how good this one is. There is a Catholic school for elementary, junior, and senior high levels... they just function as three different schools. They are (gasp): Butte Central Catholic Elementary, Butte Central Catholic Junior High, and Butte Central Catholic High School.

FYI: Your best bet for high school is Butte Central (Catholic). Their academics are much better than Butte High, and their speech/drama/debate team is excellent (I say this having competed against them before).

I hope I've helped in some way!

[rickers]

Don't drink the water if you move to Butte it's really bad. Explains the high booz consumption. Butte does have a few nice old mining hey day buildings and it is close to great recreational areas but the town is not the kind of place one would really want to move to, too many other affordable and lovely places to live in Montana. Places like Butte, Browning and Wolf Point seem to need to sucker people to move and work there. You wont stay long in one of those kind of places.

[MontanaGuy]

Butte is my hometown and I have an attachment to it. It's true that it's not the most attractive city in Montana but I still think it does have some things going for it. Lately Butte has been growing somewhat and the economy is better than in the past. The newest part of Butte is out on the "flats" as they call it. The uptown area is the oldest part of town and much of it is in bad shape. I think it's a shame that developers don't realize that historic towns can become commercially successfull. I live in Arizona now and the old mining town of Bisbee which is similar to Butte in many ways has become a tourist attraction because they made the best of the historical buildings and landmarks and created a very interesting place to visit. Butte has a very interesting history and the snobs who make insulting remarks about it obviously have no knowledge of it.

[rickers]

Most folks in Montana that I have talked to other than people from Butte, think Butte is the pits , no pun intended. That being said it is also true that many other places in Montana have been trashed by mining and logging and Butte is working on improving its image and cleaning up its messes.

[livinthedream]

For all of you out there that hate Butte, it's somewhat understandable. However, I've lived on the "good" side of Butte (over the continental divide, east) my entire life and I can say this: Butte has the most rugged, prideful, loyal, hardworking blue-collar sunsabees you will ever meet. I for one will take that ugly, run down, economically depressed town and it's people any day over the likes of Bozeman, Missoula, Kallispell and the rest of the "My Montana, My Way", conformist, "keepin' up with the jones's", bleeding heart liberal.... Moderator cut: you've made your point, don't insult, please

[rickers]

The toothbrush was invented in Butte. We know this because if it was invented anywhere else it would be called, A TEETHBRUSH !
Just joking, all you Butterites don't get the skivies all in a twist. I like Butte just fine but there is no way no how I would ever live there.

[NYMTman]

Butte is actually much more liberal than Bozeman or Kalispell, and arguably slightly moreso than even Missoula. Always gives liberal Dems 2-1 voting majorities in nearly every election. Anaconda is also liberal, and also is even worse than Butte IMO. They're both historically union towns; Butte has elected socialist mayors before. Whitehall is nicer than either.