Bozeman (sale, condos, house)

[Mainer61]

We are thinking of moving from Maine to Montana. Could someone please tell me about Bozeman? I will be working (how's the employment there??). My husband is retired (60 yrs old) and loves to fish, hunt, cross country ski. Thanks !!

[bigtrees]

I went to college in Bozeman so I know quite a bit about the area. Outdoor recreation opportunities abound, but I think you already know about all of that.

Jobs are plentiful by many metrics, but they may not pay what your used to.

For example, I was a student manager at MSU-Bozeman and we couldn't hire enough part time dishwashers to wash all of the plates in the residence halls - we ate on styrofoam for nearly a year because no one could be hired to work in the dishroom.

But the most plentiful jobs are service type (dishwashing, lawn mowing, maintenance, etc, etc) and often the pay is low ($10 and less).

Housing is very expensive compared to salaries in Bozeman. You'll want to make sure you can afford housing before moving there.


Good luck!

[Mainer61]

That's funny...my husband read that the average home price is less than here ?? I am a banker/manager....hopefully I could find a decent paying job.

[bigtrees]

By the way, I don't know what the job situation is like in 2008. I left Bozeman in 2003 and kept track of the job situation, but haven't heard much since the downturn of the housing boom. Many jobs were created due to the housing bubble and of course, those jobs disappeared when the bubble popped.

In Montana in general it's very difficult to earn much of a living and own a house unless you have a lot of money from elsewhere. If you're financially independent and don't mind working for little pay, you'll probably find something - but it may not be simulating and certainly won't pay well.

[rangerider]

Bozeman is growing like a weed and has been for more than fifteen years; the housing situation has cooled slightly in the past few months, but prices really aren't coming down all that much. Anything like a decent house right in Bozeman will cost you about 300k give or take, and go rapidly up from there. Condos will run a bit less. Taxes are pretty tough - with all the growth there is want/need for a lot of amenities and infrastructure and subsequently mill levys and tax increases are almost a yearly thing. Less the cost of housing, the cost of living is probably fairly comparible with a lot of places with similar demographics. As was stated above, some occupations don't enjoy a comparible wage with other places in the country; we as a state don't have a wage scale that is anywhere a lot of places in the U.S., although that situation has improved a bit over the past two or three years. The company I work for has had to increase their starting wage over $2 an hour just lately.

Depending on your home situation, your occupation demands a better rate of pay than average, but it still might pay to do some homework on what exactly you'll make and if you can support the level of lifestyle you're used to on what you can bring in. Over the long haul, the economy here has been nortoriously fickle, but the last 15-plus years have brought enough people and business in to stabilize things a lot. If your husband is retired with a good pension plan (or whatever) and you have everything pretty much paid for then you'll probably do okay,especially if you can sell your existing home and not owe much on a new one here.

Here's a place to get an idea of the employment situation:

Bozeman Montana Classified ads online

I don't know if monster.com or others would help, but would be worth doing a search.

Good luck!

[bigtrees]

Originally Posted by Mainer61

That's funny...my husband read that the average home price is less than here ?? I am a banker/manager....hopefully I could find a decent paying job.

Everything's relative. I didn't say that housing was expensive compared to Maine since I have no idea what a house costs there. But house payment to paycheck ratio is higher in Bozeman than most other parts of the country - and significantly higher than some.

I'm in Seattle right now and housing is cheaper in Bozeman than Seattle. But I make way more money here in Seattle than I would in Bozeman, so housing is more affordable here (for me) even though it's cheaper in Bozeman.

Some people pay cash for a house in Montana from the proceeds of the sale fo their house - and for them, housing cost isn't important. But I'm not one of those lucky people (yet).