Whitefish or Big Sky??? (Bozeman, Kalispell: real estate, how much, school district)

[Alberta_Boy]

Our family is looking to move to a mountain/ski town. We travel to Whitefish all the time, but have never been to Big Sky. Obviously real estate prices are very high, but which town is more of a ski town....? How is the mountain at Big Sky compared to Whitefish?

We are 3.5 hours away from Whitefish (which is not far at all), but really enjoy the lakes and skiing, thus wanting to move closer. Kalispell, Columbia Falls area have been considered very closley... I just dont know much about the Big Sky (Bozeman) area.

Can anyone provide some good info on living in both areas?? I understand full well that preference is individual....

Thank-you!!

[Timberwolf232]

Depends on how much you like yuppies..

Never skied at Whitefish, but Bridger Bowl is good, as is Big Sky/Moonlight Basin.

[rickers]

As ski mountains go Big Sky blows Whitefish Resort out of the running. But as far as towns go I would rather live in or near Whitefish.

[bigtrees]

Do you have any preference on gray weather in winter? Whitefish is very gray, Big Sky is actually rather nice. Big Sky is colder, though, and Whitefish is warmer in the winter (relatively speaking).

[Alberta_Boy]

Main preference for weather would be where there is the most snow on a consistant basis.... Obviously sun would be nice as well. Where we live is very very windy!!! as is where we ride. We want to get away from the wind and find a nice mountain town.

Lakes in the summer would also be a major draw.

Is Big Sky a town/resort where you can live year round? Are there schools? as we have two little ones.....

Powder and Sun would be awsome... hard to find both!!!

[BigMtnMT]

Whitefish is a great place to raise a family.

[rickers]

You also mentioned "lakes", Whitefish is central to so many lakes. I really like Bull Lake and Fish Lake near Stryker. They are however on state trust land and one needs to have a state land use permit to use those lakes, unless you want to risk getting fined for having fun ! You'll hear more loons than loonies !

[Bbrad]

Yes, you can live in Big Sky year-round. They recently reached an agreement with the Bozeman school district to create their own high school in Big Sky. They have a grade school, but have bussed to the Bozeman high school. The Big Sky area creates a lot of tax base (property taxes pay for schools) so the Bozeman school district was resistant to them breaking away to have their own high school due to the loss of tax revenue for the Bozeman district.

IIRC everything has passed the legislature and been approved by the Bozeman school district so they are now working on their own high school. I suspect that school funding will be very good for that school.