Glasgow Montana Retirement/St. Marie (Fort Peck: condo, crime, cheap house)

[seagalley]

Hello,

My husband and I are researching retirement in the Glasgow area. We currently live in WA state. I hear quite a bit of buzz, good,bad, and ugly, about St. Marie.

Can anyone suggest where I can obtain that straight facts about this community on the old Air Force Base?

I've heard there are two condo associations at St. Marie and one is highly recommended over the other. We haven't selected a realtor to work with yet, and when we do, we need one who will be fair in representing St. Marie.

St. Marie is a long shot because of the controversy and I'd like to be closer to Glasgow, however, St. Marie does have great prices and I don't want to count them out before giving them a fair chance.

We're planning an early spring date to visit and a move during the summer.

Any other suggestions regarding the Glasgow area, are welcomed, too!

Thanks so much for your time.

SeaGalley

[dadbud]

Wondering if anyone out there has first hand information on St. Marie. I've heard about this area too.

[dadbud]

Does anyone have informaiton on St Marie?

[Parrotpaul]

I was stationed at Glasgow AFB in 1966. There was nothing there. The City of Glasgow was many miles away. Winter started in late September and lasted until May....I hated the place. Cold and windy...lonely and desolate.

[imbobbbb]

i may not know much more than you.houses are running about 20k for one in decent shape,only a handful of people live there,not a whole lot of people live in that part of montana.summers are very hot,winters very cold.not a lot going on around there.most people would prefer to live somewhere less isolated but some like it.its about 150 miles to the nearest city of any size,williston,north dakota.there are plenty of cheap houses within 50-75 miles of great falls and billings so i wouldnt limit myself to st marie.i would suggest you plan a couple trips there at different times of the year before commiting to moving there as many people who move somewhere like that on kind of a whim often wish to leave soon thereafter and find that the house they got so 'cheap' they cant sell very quickly.i'm not saying you wont like it there,you may love it.im just saying its not an area many wish to live in.

[seagalley]

Thank you to each who replied to my quest regarding St. Marie. From what I gather, St. Marie is quite controversial, both politically and geographically, however that makes me even more interested in checking it out more thorougly. I think we could handle the winters. It's rainy and dreary here in Puget Sound for much of that same "winter" time period, but at least in NE Montana you'll see blue sky. From what others have stated in the forums, it appears that while it is very cold for months on end in Glasgow, there's not a lot of snow, compared to other cold regions of the States.

You are correct, once you purchase a home in St. Marie, your value is not going to go up at a fast rate in comparison to properties even near by in Glasgow or Fort Peck. I think folks should weigh the risks, knowing that their property will not appreciate in value much at all. However, at least these are stick built homes and it appears that crime is St. Marie is lower than the state average. For those of us who have lived in major cities where your commute to work is 60 minutes or more one way on very congested highways, a 20 minute drive from St. Marie to Glasgow would seem relaxing.

Thanks again! We won't be visiting Glasgow until late winter, early spring, but when we do, I'll let you know what we think.

SeaGalley

[Copeseticlady]

With photography as my hobby, I often jump in the car & take a ride. Very recently I went to St Marie. I live in Glasgow, MT which is nearby. It was windy that day in Glasgow ... but the wind in St Marie was much fiercer. There are very few occupied houses there & the ones that have been renovated & occupied are surrounded by abandoned housing. There is no where to shop ... not even get milk & there are no gas stations in St Marie; so you'd have to take the 17 or so mile trip into Glasgow for even the most basic of things. Although that doesn't seen far ... they do no salting of the roads here ... just some sanding here and there. Route 24 ... the road out to St Marie, can get treacherous in the winter with the ice. Even a skiff of snow will turn to ice at the low temps experienced here and the roads up at St Marie are slowly being reclaimed by nature I am sending you some pics I took that day. You be able to see the abandoned house to the right of the one that was refurbished & the state of the streets in the 3rd pic.

[mrkool]

Wow, copeseticlady. Those pictures are worth a thousand words. Or maybe just 10 words.... "You'd have to be crazy to move to this place!"

[leavin_florida]

Think about looking in the Fort Peck area - it is a very small community near the lake. The only reason I can imagine moving to St. Maries would be to be near other military familes - Former Glasgow resident

[little peg]

If you are a native northwesternern, I mean before the last 20 years you will adapt to the independant sprit in Montana, otherwise you would be wise to stay on the western side of the state. I love it here but the feeling on outsiders, and rightly so, is they try to change a blessed way of life when they move in, i worry about you when you mentioned HOA, why that's fighting words, yea!