Hi, I'm another Grand Forksian (on the ND side of the town). We moved here in August so yeah, these are all questions we had to think about. (Not military, though.)
Weather--er, school was canceled today for a blizzard (up to 50 mph gusts and 10-20" of snow expected). But this weekend it got up to 40! Really!
This has been kind of an extreme year for cold, I'm told. But snow normally starts in November and then the ground is covered until...well, I don't know the answer yet.
And yes, a couple months in the height of winter with lotsa subzero temps. On the other hand, when it's not TOO cold to enjoy it, there are a lot of great winter benefits. Snow on the ground as a continual feature means that winter is pretty bright (as opposed to gray and gloomy). We had to buy light blocking curtains and it's STILL bright at night. The snow plowing is excellent in town--by 6 am the roads have already been cleared unless there's an active blizzard hitting at that moment. The parks all over town set up free-to-use skating rinks, and at Lincoln Park, they have FREE loans of skates, snow shoes, and cross country skis. People do a lot of winter sports and kind of look forward to that first snowfall. As to other seasons, I have a vague memory of extreme heat and humidity (90s) when we first came, but it didn't last too long.
The housing market is horrible. Sorry, it's true. They're building a lot, but demand is way higher than supply, and housing is expensive. Also, it's very very to find rental housing for a family. There are very run-down places for students to rent (University of North Dakota--large, good college), and there are new apartments going up on the south end of town, like Dan said. But there's very little in the way of family rental housing, with the quality low and the price high. As far as buying a house, they are building new ones (again, mostly in that south end) and they tend to be more expensive ones. Cheaper houses on the market are the older ones that need a lot of work. And all of them go fast. So you'll definitely want to put a lot of attention into the housing search if you come. Hopefully it's eased a bit since last year--like I said, they've been building like mad. Elite is probably the biggest property manager in town, and Oxford Realty has a number of rental houses, too. There are real houses listed on Craigslist, but be careful--I've moved a lot and always used it, but this is the first place I've seen scams on it.
Local job market--I think every single retail in this town is looking to fill jobs. I have been accosted more than once in Walmart while shopping, asking me if I'd like to work at the new Walmart opening on the NW end of town. Every place has a help wanted sign. I don't know about other kinds of jobs, but there's a large help wanted section in the paper (
Grand Forks Herald).
Cost of living...well, housing is high (a 4-bed house goes for around $1600-2000 a month). Food's average to a little higher, utilities *can* be high, depending on how well built your house is, and other things aren't too bad. I guess it depends on where you're moving from. (We came from Idaho and our expenses are a lot higher here for some things--but it compares well to other places.)
Places to eat: there are your regular chain store restaurants here, and an Asian place in East Grand Forks. I'd say mostly the dining is American food, though--not so heavy on the international fare. (There are a couple of international grocery stores in town, though, if you want to make your own Indian food.)
Schools: the schools are all good, and as far as I can tell, fairly uniform across the district. (Ie I don't think you have to be careful which school to go to or avoid.) There are two GF high schools as Dan said (plus one in East Grand Forks and also a Catholic high school in EGF). There are school buses on the Minnesota side but none on the ND side. (There is a private bus company you can buy tickets for). However, the district does bus kids in from the base to Central High at no additional cost. (North of town plus the AFB go to Central, south of town goes to Red River.) Central's right downtown and therefore has no fields, but I was amazed at what they have INside--a track and a pool and lots of music and sports facilities. (And when it's below zero outside, do you really WANT to be out there?) On the ND side, kids have a choice of band or orchestra (if they want--they can do neither), although MN only offers band. I really like the staff attitude towards students in the GF district--kids become what you expect of them, and I'd say the teachers and staff have a positive attitude towards students and there's a good feeling in the schools.
The parks district has the usual kinds of sports and classes you'd expect in a good parks district. Lots of kids play hockey. Even in elementary school PE, my kids have had hockey and curling units. UND has of course plenty of sports to watch (have I mentioned hockey?
). And there are numerous fitness clubs and indoor recreation places in town. If your kids are into swimming, there are indoor pools and outdoor ones if it ever gets warm, so they can still do that regardless of weather. I don't know if you belong to a church, but there are a LOT of churches in town and apparently they have a lot of youth events. (If you aren't religious, you'll do fine, too, don't worry.) Scouting is big in Grand Forks. The kind of high adventure sorts of trips they go on around here tend towards river rafting over hiking (it is very very very flat here). There's a nice bike trail along the river in town--I think 14 miles of it. A library, a couple movie theaters, a large new mall with all the regular mall thing you'd expect, and an older, sort of strange mall (there's K-Mart and a climbing wall in it, along with a casino and some churches and some bars, which is a weird mix to me.)
I've sort of written you a novel, but if you have any more questions, I'm happy to answer them if I can.
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