Moving to Montana possible! Is it right for us? (Billings: real estate, crime)

[becca098]

Hello!
Me, my husband and my 1 year old daughter are from Colorado (natives!). We are SO tired of it here. What was once beautiful about Colorado is GONE, thanks to the thousands of people moving here. Some of our problems: 1. Traffic. Holy cow the traffic is so bad, it takes an hour at least to get to the tunnel (in the mountains) and into the mountain towns 2. Most of the towns now are SO tourist-y with a plethora of tshirt shops and chain restaurant's. AND so so expensive, Its like $250/day to ski here - really? for long lines, drunk/high skiiers and again the traffic 3. WEED. It's so embarrassing I can't even tell you 4. Growing population = growing crime and cost of living. My husband makes good money, and we can barely afford our 1,000 sq ft townhome 5. More people, more pollution, geesh some days the haze totally obstructs our view of the mountains! 6. The schools here are getting terribly bad...just awful. Last point I will bother typing here is that the "trust someone on a handshake" vibe that used to make Colorado great is NO longer. No one barely looks you in the eye anymore! There are so so many more things...
well... as you can tell we are SO over it here, which is a shame because this used to be a great place to live; I want my daughter to have what we once had!

We are a very busy family, love hiking, biking, camping and volunteering. We love having cookouts at our place all the time! We don't mind the cold at all, in fact we almost prefer to summers! My husband hunts and fishes, and golfs on small occasion. I do like to craft and stuff, so being bunkered down in the winter isn't bad. Looking for a place with the friendly feel, but not being so small everyone knows what we're up to - and a place with maybe SOME shopping so that people will visit us. NO need for a mall or anything...just a small strip with cute stores. I know there are no zoos or real large museums, but is there
a town with a few things for very small children? (rafting and camping aren't real easy with a 1 year old!).

If anyone knows CO our favorite places are Telluride and Ft. Collins. So maybe a town similar?

Thanks so much! (Sorry for the rants; but if you lived here and are a Native you probably understand).

[volosong]

My older brother graduated from high school the same year I did, (1969), and moved at that time to the Western Slope. He has a small ranch outside Silt. Loved it and hated coming back home to visit. About five years ago, he had his fill of the politicians trying to dictate how the people on the Western Slope should live their lives. He sold out and moved to the mountains of north/central Arizona.

I understand what you are feeling and your desire for a better life. I can't really recommend anything specific, but would like to give you one caution to keep in the back of your mind. There are a whole lot of baby-boomer retirees in the next few years/decades who will be bailing their rat-race lives in the huge megalopolis and move to a place like they remember when they were growing up in the 50s and 60s. Unfortunately, most of these immigrants bring with them a life-long culture that will cause change, albeit little by little, in the areas to which they are moving. I hope you find your paradise where you can raise your child, but don't be surprised at the change you will witness.

[Montanama]

Bozeman might be a good fit for you, though housing prices there are a little higher than the rest of the state. It's a university town, including the Museum of the Rockies which is pretty cool. It's had its share of growing pains and some would say it's not the same little Montana town it used to be, but it has some cute downtown boutiques in addition to the regular chains & box stores.

Helena is a bit more provincial, with an economy based on state government jobs. Nearby local ski hill and lakes just outside of town. I know what you mean about hiking and camping with little ones, but it's close by here so that it doesn't have to be such a big production. There are plenty of short hikes you can take from right at the edge of town. (And they aren't that little very long!) Helena's housing prices are lower than the other cities in the state, except perhaps Great Falls and Butte. Helena is pretty central to about anything Montana has to offer. We do have a children's science center and a beautiful carousel downtown. 3 golf courses.

Missoula is also a University town and considered the more progressive of our cities. Better shopping, more concerts etc.

Kalispell is an outdoorsperson's paradise.

Billings is a small city and has a little more going on in general. Best shopping in the state, I guess, which isn't saying too much, lol. I love Billings, but find it a bit more isolated than anywhere else.

There are lots of lovely small towns outside all these "larger" cities, if you really want to go for "authentic Montana", but you won't find shopping of any sort in any of those except the resort towns like Whitefish, Big Sky, or Big Fork. $$$

[flyingcat2k]

The issue will be if your family can afford Ft. Collins or Telluride now, you can afford to live in a similar place in Montana. Prices for the "pretty" real estate in Montana and Colorado aren't equivalent but they are within 10% of each other. If you can't afford that, you should probably move to Billings, which is nice but not in the mountains. It is one of the few towns/cities in Montana where the average person can afford to live on the local economy.

I would recommend putting off the small town. Small towns in Colorado have HUGE numbers of tourist visits compared to Montana and they come year 'round. Think about this, Breckenridge/Frisco sees more visitors in a ski weekend than the full time population of Bozeman, MT (I estimated 30,000 a day). Granted, that's one of the big areas covering a several ski areas but that size of migration every weekend supports a lot of regular businesses that MT small towns dream of. The 5,000 people a day Oktoberfest in Breck would swamp Red Lodge (a comparable scenic town) which barely has 5,000 in it.

[becca098]

Ohhh I know all too well the tourists here in Colorado. I don't want a po-dunk 300 person town, but I envy places with fewer tourists and people. We went to Estes park last week for kayaking, and I literally counted 42 different state license plates. That is way too many on my opinion! And there are just as many moving here permanently it seems.