Quote:
Originally Posted by NW Crow
DR, what do you like / not about Great Falls so far? On balance rating? Favorite / least favorite parts of town and / or nearby county?
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Well overall I am enjoying Great Falls.
If jobs/money/housing prices were not a factor,
my first choice would be Bozeman. We lived out that way for 3 1/2 years. It was beautiful. I loved the feel of Bozeman too. It is so expensive though!
2nd choice would be Helena.
Lived there a little over 4 years.
We lived on the same block as the governor. LOVE that neighborhood! The houses, the trees. I loved the small town feel. I loved the hills and the mountains nearby. It is just pretty. I always felt safe living there and it is much "slower" then Great Falls.
The mall was very disappointing.
Love Costco though.
I loved having Canyon Ferry lake nearby. Lots of fun in the summer.
Unfortunately work wise for my hubby it wasn't going so great out there.
3rd choice is Great Falls. 8 months now. We moved here when my husband landed a much better job then what he had in Helena. I started looking online up here at housing prices and the job fell in place soon after.
Housing prices to buy in GF at the time were on average 25% less then Helena.
We signed a 1 year lease, but have had fun getting to know the area. We recently have been pre-approved by a lender and are looking to buy a house now.
I like it up here. I wish things could of worked out for us in Helena job/housing price wise, but that's ok.
The good things:
JOBS! Seems to be alot more jobs up here. Blue collar type which is good.
I think that is pretty cool the Missouri river runs thru town.
Sluice Boxes State Park is about a 50 min drive so we will check that out this summer.
Gibson Park is beautiful
The mall is awesome.
Giant Springs State Park is amazing
Lots of restaurant's
We need to check out the pools this summer
(There are many churches, many parks, a Skate Park, and a library, but Helena had those too.)
Other things:
There is about double the population or so? This is good in that there are more available jobs/places to eat etc, but alot more traffic, more crime, alot more "shady" looking people out here.
WHat I don't like:
Lots more traffic
Sam's Club (I miss Costco!)
It's not as "pretty" as Helena or Bozeman.
Neighborhoods:
If you can afford it, Foxfarm is where it's at. Very nice homes, nice area.
Riverview, not as nice, but more affordable, still nice though, a good area with good schools and parks. Generally $150,000 range and up. Some newer homes the further up you go.
Sunnyside neighborhood. Pretty nice area in general. The further away you get from 10th avenue the better. When you go down alot further there are some dirt roads and alot of mobile homes and it's not as nice there.
Then you get to the Castle Pines new housing area. Generally ok, but with it being such a new development, I kind of wonder how it will be in 20 years.
Generally you want to look at the school ratings. Usually the better the schools, the more desirable the neighborhood, the higher the house prices, etc.
Lincoln school is a 5 right now I think, but it has 2 areas it covers. one seems nicer then the other.
Great Falls in general can be a bit of a mixed bag. There are some nice areas right by not so nice areas and neighbors and so on.
Gibson Park is gorgeous, lots of nice homes, then you go down a few blocks and there are abandoned buildings with boarded up windows.
15th st South is the Public Housing. It looks nicer then the one in Helena.
10th ave south is a major road. When you get to about 22nd st South, or maybe a little sooner, it seems pretty nice, even just 1 street up from 10th avenus. But in general, the further away you are from the main road, generally the less problems you have.
Some streets around Great Falls High School seem pretty nice. I would try to stick more to the east side of GFHS.
9th st south and that general vicinity is very old, I sometimes see shady characters when I am driving by.
14th and 15th st S & N are major streets.
8th st and 9th are always on the news for trouble.
Just 2 days ago they locked down GFHS for alleged gun shots in the neighborhood. but to be fair, there was a shooting in Riverview over the weekend too.
From what I have heard, the North avenue addresses are nicer then the south avenue addresses above 10th ave. But I am also thinking stick more east of 22nd st s.
Under the NW Bypass. It looks a bit sketchy in some parts, I do have a friend who said she lived there before and would move back.