To the people who want to move to Montana to get away from big cities, people and enjoy "nature". (Billings: leasing, credit)

[mjstef]

On the Flathead Valley Rentals page their are posts like this daily. I just SMH. Glad i got out......

"2 couples looking for a place to rent together ASAP for under 2000 a month. Must be at least 2 bedroom. We will all have jobs and 3 of us will be attending FVCC. Desperately looking for a place to move into RIGHT AWAY as our college starts August 28th. Please comment anything helpful."


"As of the 26th. myself, boyfriend, pet`s and all will be homeless.... pretty sad... can`t find a place that`s affordable on SSI...
If, by chance, someone has a spot, something, anything in the shade or by where we can get some water, or MIGHT know of a CHEAP place. Please.. message me..."

"Boyfriend and I just moved here from Kansas. I potentially have a job but need a place to stay with a phone. We have Virgin Mobile and no service here. Don't have a lot of $$. Any place to stay for a week or so would be greatly appreciated!!"

"Hello I'm desperately trying to find a rental for my 11 year old daughter and myself...I'm disabled so I can't afford a huge amount in rent if you have something or know of something any leads would be appreciated....I would like to be settled in before school starts"

"I'm in search of a room or a 1 bedroom/1 bath apartment/house to rent preferably in Kalispell. My budget is $550-$600 a month including utilities. I'm a single, 24 yr old female. I do not smoke and like to keep a clean home. I am relocating from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to the Kalispell area because I recently received full time employment there. Hoping to find something by August 26th. Any help is really appreciated!"

"Hello, my family and I are desperately looking for a 3 bedroom house for rent around $1000 or less. I used to own a cleaning business so we are very tidy. My S.O. is experienced in landscaping and various handyman skills. I have great rental history and we both have incomes. We have a therapy animal who is very well behaved, she has hip displacia and arthritis so ground floor preferred. Please contact me if you know of anything. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to read!"

"I am a single mom of 2 beautiful children. I am looking for a home for myself and my children. I have been looking for months and I am always to late. I have 2 jobs and can afford up to 1000 dollars a month. I am a good renter and have great references. Please help me make me and my family whole again."

"my fiance and i are in need of a home asap we are homelss living on friends couch, but we do Both (Work full time) and have 1 senior cat and two small cars,very quiet . cat is so trained no sheding fur and indoor/outdoor loving will not ruin carpet i bet my life on it lol she is my theropy animal. right now we can aford 700$month we make 2000 month maybe more hard to track my cash tips at my work its half my earnings. delivering pizza, and we have very low credit score 500s but non of the dept is for not paying rent or utility companys , we dont have rental ref or history because this would be our first place"

[hate MT]

I agree with you, every state has beauty and solitude, Idaho, WA, OR, CO, ME, upstate NY, they all do, so why MT? I don't know, people have romanticized MT and it's not all it's cracked up to be, fire in the summer, a lot of snow in the winter and same type of people, just less of them. I do tell people not to move here, but not because I want to protect it, because I've lived here for 20 years and I'm sick of it, bored with it, a river is a river and a mountain is a mountain, nothing special.

[NDak15]

Originally Posted by mjstef

What i don't get is WHY people keep moving their without any housing lined up. I left the Flathead Valley after 12 years as prices where ridiculous and wages sucked even as a small business owner. Hell my business insurance alone went from $6,750 a year to $2,080 a year when i left Montana for Wisconsin. Taxes are 40% less and housing is 1/3rd. My daughter makes $3 an hour more as a CNA in Wisconsin as well. Montana, Poverty with a view but you can't eat the scenery!!!!

To be fair moving anywhere without housing or a job lined up is stupid. I always say Montana is a great place to visit, not so nice to live there. People ask me every now and then why I moved to North Dakota and I tell them that. You can't eat scenery and it doesn't pay any other bill either.

[Montguy]

Originally Posted by hate MT

I agree with you, every state has beauty and solitude, Idaho, WA, OR, CO, ME, upstate NY, they all do, so why MT? I don't know, people have romanticized MT and it's not all it's cracked up to be, fire in the summer, a lot of snow in the winter and same type of people, just less of them. I do tell people not to move here, but not because I want to protect it, because I've lived here for 20 years and I'm sick of it, bored with it, a river is a river and a mountain is a mountain, nothing special.

I welcome anyone from anywhere to move to Montana and find out for themselves what it's all about, should they have an itch to do so, but I almost never, ever directly recommend it and generally always caution against it, even to people I don't like (right-wing political refugees, for example).

I've been here for a while myself. I kinda feel you, even though I cringe to empathize much with anyone conservative enough (and so unabashedly bigoted) to actually attack Montana from the right as you did in your first thread. You don't see that very much.

Still, on a fundamental assertion that Montana is not a good place to live, I agree completely.

[Bluefox]

Originally Posted by Yankeemama

So you want to put a border around Montana because in your eyes it's not a state? If the rest of us got overcrowded it's because we live in states so Montana is going to have to deal like the rest of us.

It's a little ridiculous considering Montana just last year hit the million mark. It is not just one of the least populated states but also one of the least densely populated states. I'm not sure what to say to those people who are moaning about the entire state having such an influx of Californians that it's growing at its slowest pace in decades and has a whopping 1/18th the population of Greater LA, but it's not sympathy. If it's too much for you, move to Wyoming. Or Nunavut.

[Montguy]

Originally Posted by Bluefox

It's a little ridiculous considering Montana just last year hit the million mark. It is not just one of the least populated states but also one of the least densely populated states. I'm not sure what to say to those people who are moaning about the entire state having such an influx of Californians that it's growing at its slowest pace in decades and has a whopping 1/18th the population of Greater LA, but it's not sympathy. If it's too much for you, move to Wyoming. Or Nunavut.

I believe Montana's population inched across the one million mark in 2011, just after the last census figures were recorded. Also, I'm almost certain off the top of my head that Montana's slowest rate of population growth so far since its statehood actually occurred from 1980-1990, resulting in the loss of our second house representative in 1991. Our growth projection over the next 3 decades, however, is pathetic. And dangerous.

And indeed, this classic Montana provincialism--a refusal to adapt to changing conditions and fear of change from the outside--is ridiculous, and it will be a big part of what turns this state into the next West Virginia.

Oh well, Montanans will get the state they deserve. Smart Montanans, though? We're carefully developing our exit plans. (Better sooner than later.)

[mjstef]

Originally Posted by Montguy

Oh well, Montanans will get the state they deserve. Smart Montanans, though? We're carefully developing our exit plans. (Better sooner than later.)

After trying to buy a house in 2014-15 & 16 is said hell with it. Could never get my income high enough to qualify. Went from 36K to 50K and what i needed for my business, Acreage with a shop and a home was north of 400K when i left. The granolas where moving in by the busloads after selling their 1000 Sq Ft apartment in California for $1,000,000 and thinking they where getting a bargain in the Flathead all the while driving prices so high the young and the elderly are having to leave........

[Montguy]

Originally Posted by mjstef

After trying to buy a house in 2014-15 & 16 is said hell with it. Could never get my income high enough to qualify. Went from 36K to 50K and what i needed for my business, Acreage with a shop and a home was north of 400K when i left. The granolas where moving in by the busloads after selling their 1000 Sq Ft apartment in California for $1,000,000 and thinking they where getting a bargain in the Flathead all the while driving prices so high the young and the elderly are having to leave........

In-migration is happening, and I think it will soon get to a point where it merely functions to replace the people who are leaving (if that trend can even hold the population constant in the long-term); as in, Gen Xers and Millenials, the workers and tax-payers who were supposed to secure the state's future, are leaving and being replaced by an incoming population that's often at or near retirement age, that isn't really interested in things like modernizing Montana's economy; they don't care about investments in education; they don't have high stakes in the future. The kids are grown, the cities have gotten too scary, it's time to get comfy in a quiet, pretty place AND GAD DAMN IT, GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

You're also correct to mention that the elderly are jumping ship too, at least in a few cases I personally know of. It's cheaper to relocate and join forces with their middle-aged children, who wisely left the state decades ago.

[mjstef]

Originally Posted by Montguy

In-migration is happening, and I think it will soon get to a point where it merely functions to replace the people who are leaving (if that trend can even hold the population constant in the long-term); as in, Gen Xers and Millenials, the workers and tax-payers who were supposed to secure the state's future, are leaving and being replaced by an incoming population that's often at or near retirement age, that isn't really interested in things like modernizing Montana's economy; they don't care about investments in education; they don't have high stakes in the future. The kids are grown, the cities have gotten too scary, it's time to get comfy in a quiet, pretty place AND GAD DAMN IT, GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

You're also correct to mention that the elderly are jumping ship too, at least in a few cases I personally know of. It's cheaper to relocate and join forces with their middle-aged children, who wisely left the state decades ago.

Yet so many people still have it in their head that they can go there and get rich. Between high auto insurance due to HORRIBLE drunk driving laws among other thing, Outrageous housing prices and rents in comparison to the wages, High property taxes and the influx of the crime people are trying to escape it won't be any better than where they left shortly......

[NW4me]

The northern third of California (everything north of Sacramento) is as lightly populated as MT/WY/ID (the largest city in the region, Redding, has a population of about 90,000). Perhaps if it became a state unto itself ("Jefferson"), it would sound more exotic and more urban Californians would move to it, reducing the influx to the northern Rockies....