Yet another person thinking of moving (Billings, Missoula: houses, find a job, buy)

[TLoren Day]

Yes, another person currently living the daily grind of suburbia wishing it could all go away. Granted, moving to Montana doesn't solve that, but Wisconsin just has a lot against it. I only moved here due to work. Anyways, enough rambling... Am I serious? Hard to say. Still gathering information.
Areas of interest: in addition to MT, most of the rest of the NW USA.
Within MT: Kalispell (though i hear that's turning into yuppie-ville), Bozeman, Livingston.

Areas of concern: School Cutoff. My almost 4 year old daughter has a 9/13 birthday... three days behind the state cutoff. Does anyone know how the school districts in various areas deal with children slightly behind that cutoff? She's too dang smart to make her wait a whole year.

Jobs: Saw a couple of accountant type jobs (that's me) in Bozeman & Livingston, so we'll see if anything comes of that. Hubby is a Firefighter/EMT. I know the bigger departments in the Milwaukee area are VERY hard to get on with. Anyone know about fire jobs there? :-)

Dirt: I like to garden! Wisconsin's soil is heavy with clay. I know it's a little cooler there, but is veggie gardening possible? Do you have to do a lot of workup of the soil first?

Hills: I've seen the mountains, but do the hills extend into most of the towns/cities? Family likes to bike ride, but hills are killers at times. I'm too darn out of shape!

Thanks much to any and all that can help me out a bit.

[MontanaGuy]

I can answer a couple of the easier questions. As far as gardening is concerned that's not a problem at all. I think the weather where you're at is worse than Montana's because it's more humid and feels colder. Of course soil varies from place to place but my Mother has a big garden and they built a little greenhouse as well.
As far as the terrain is concerned it varies a great deal from one town to the next. Western Montana is the mountainous part of the state and most towns are situated in valleys although Butte is built partly on a fairly steep hill (my home town). As I've said to others on this forum I would also recommend Idaho. Boise is a good sized town and the economy is very good and the job situation is better than in Montana. Another beautiful town is Coeur d'Alene in northern Idaho. It's built on the edge of a lake and is very scenic. One of my best friends is a school teacher there and loves the area. If you're considering various parts of the Pacific NW but want to avoid big cities there are also very nice places in eastern Washington and they don't have a state income tax. However, I don't believe the economy is doing quite as well as it has been around Boise. You should take a trip and explore as much as you can. Also, Boise has a little bit milder climate than much of Montana. Good luck.

[lorelei2873]

I would contend that Montana has a worker shortage and unemployment rate of less than 3%. We also have a huge state budget surplus. Our economy is very strong right now. Until last spring, I worked in both admissions & career services for a college, and we had no problem getting in-state jobs for any of our graduates.

Firefighting jobs for municipal departments are hard to come by, as they are in high demand. We have a lot of folks that do wildland firefighting who would like to get a steady job. Most of the larger cities do a collaborative statewide exam/test date for the paid city fire departments once a year. I think it's probably in June or July...I can't remember completely. We do have a lot of opportunities in wild land firefighting, but that is more seasonal.

You should have lots of opportunities in accounting. However, jobs are plentiful but the pay is not as great as what you might be accustomed to. You have picked the most expensive areas of Montana as your areas of interest. You could buy a house in Great Falls or Butte for half of what you might pay in Bozeman.

Most towns sit in valleys. Some towns have houses built up into the surrounding hills, but for the most part, the central portions of the larger cities are not hilly. Helena has a few minor hills. Butte is partially on a hill. Bozeman has one main hill on the outskirts of town. Part of the residential area of Missoula is built on a large hillside. Great Falls is largely flat. Kalispell is flat. For the most part, hills in town aren't an big issue.

[sandy999]

I recently moved from Atlanta to Billings and love it so far. I am accountant and found a good variety of job options here. I had interviews lined up before I even moved and landed a great job at a 25% higher salary than what I made in Atlanta. People had warned me that salaries were lower here but I don't see it in Billings, especially in the professional field. I am not sure about the job situation in the smaller towns though.

Billings is part flat, part hilly so your bike ride would depend on the part of town you ride in. We do have lots of parks and some decent bike trails as well.

[LRUA]

I agree about Lewistown....I've always liked Kalispel and Missoula too...Flathead Lake is awesome ....can't beat Glacier National Park for scenic beauty (Going to the Sun hwy is a must) ...also check out Glendive in the east ...nice town with wicked badlands nearby ....I also like Shelby ...it has a real western feel to it ....as for gardening ....growing season is relatively short but soils are good and lots of sunshine too...west of the continental divide it is milder around Libby ...even fruit is grown commercially in some areas

[JoeJoeMan]

TLorenDay.....
Forget the gardening, the mountains and all that other stuff, and I hate to sound old fashion and throw logic into the mix but, as they say "put the horse before the cart"..............find a job that you can make a living at FIRST and foremost, everything else wil fall into place.
Montana has a long and well founded history of eating up and spitting out people who come here with stars in their eyes, as such it's not really a place that you'd want to come to and temp fate by putting the cart before the horse.

[Nordman]

Originally Posted by sandy999

I recently moved from Atlanta to Billings and love it so far. I am accountant and found a good variety of job options here. I had interviews lined up before I even moved and landed a great job at a 25% higher salary than what I made in Atlanta. People had warned me that salaries were lower here but I don't see it in Billings, especially in the professional field. I am not sure about the job situation in the smaller towns though.

Billings is part flat, part hilly so your bike ride would depend on the part of town you ride in. We do have lots of parks and some decent bike trails as well.

Great to read about some of the opportunities in Billings, I'm thinking of moving there from out east where the burbs cant grow fast enough. Can you recommend a good realitor that you had any experience with? Thanks much for any help! TJ.

[GiftShoppeGuy]

Originally Posted by sandy999

I recently moved from Atlanta to Billings and love it so far. I am accountant and found a good variety of job options here. I had interviews lined up before I even moved and landed a great job at a 25% higher salary than what I made in Atlanta. People had warned me that salaries were lower here but I don't see it in Billings, especially in the professional field. I am not sure about the job situation in the smaller towns though.

Billings is part flat, part hilly so your bike ride would depend on the part of town you ride in. We do have lots of parks and some decent bike trails as well.

Yes, there are those would-be sad-sacs that are always bemoaning the "low wages" in Montana...... trouble is that most of these hail from the west side (Kalispell/Missoula) where wages have always been traditionally lower.

The cities that have "got it goin' on", namely Billings and Great Falls, have always paid the highest throughout the entire state.

I'm not surprised at the fact that Billings can beat out Atlanta in wages.

[jimj]

I wonder why wages in the flathead are lower. Any ideas giftshop? Could it be that the high paying jobs that did exist (timber production) were run out of business and all that are left for the most part are service jobs?

As for these "would-be sad-sacs, they are the ones trying to survive on 2 minimum wage paying jobs in a market where costs keep rising and for the most part I think they have a reason to bemoan the low wages don't you?
I don't ask these questions sarcastically, I really do wonder why the pay is higher in E. MT when it seems that all of the "money" is flocking to the Flathead.

[montan6612]

You might consider looking at the state jobs available in our capital city of Helena....it's a great town, housing is much more affordable than Bozeman, and state jobs give you great benefits. Accounting positions are often posted in the Helena Independent Review, helenair.com, our local paper