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Old 04-20-2013, 08:25 PM
 
89 posts, read 135,894 times
Reputation: 92

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Move to douglas then.
You dont have to live there. There are many very inexpensive places within 30-60 minutes from there. Denver is about 4 hours.
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Old 04-20-2013, 10:32 PM
 
Location: North Dakota
10,350 posts, read 13,934,050 times
Reputation: 18267
Quote:
Originally Posted by April.C View Post
Hi everyone. My husband was recently offered 2 jobs and we need to make a decision by tomorrow on which one we are going to take We currently live outside of Houston.

Option #1 is Kemmerer - Itty bitty town. Longer winters. Further from family. AMAZING housing prices. I'm worried that I might be too isolated and we won't be able to sell the house since the market is smaller.

Option #2 is Douglas - Bigger town. Location is EXACTLY where we want. We might be living in a tent - houses are $50,000-70,000 more expensive. We can afford it, but my goal was to be completely out of debt in 8 years and that won't happen if we move here. I'm worried that if we buy now, the housing market will fall since they seem to be in a boom period right now.

What else should I know consider/know about these towns?

Thanks!
Although I understand wanting to be out of debt, I would choose Douglas. This is not to say that Kemmerer is a bad town, but Douglas is close to the interstate and close to Casper which is a nice place to be close to. Douglas is also a bit bigger than Kemmerer and there might be a bit more to do. I'm not sure what the rental situation is like there, but why not consider renting before buying a place? Nothing wrong with renting.
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Old 04-21-2013, 12:39 AM
 
Location: Tennessee
10,688 posts, read 7,710,915 times
Reputation: 4674
Default Choices

Quote:
Originally Posted by April.C View Post
Thank you so much for all the replies! This decision is so much harder because I've never seen either of these places. We were hoping to have at least a couple weeks to decide so that I could make the trip and be better informed.

I guess I should give a bit more info. We really have two goals. #1 is to be closer to family. My family is in Denver, my husband's family is in Billings, MT. My husband grew up in Wyoming (Mountain View, Thermopolis, and Douglas). We are currently living in Texas, so really anywhere in Wyoming puts us closer to family, but Douglas is smack dab in the middle and makes for an easy weekend trip to visit the grandparents.

Goal #2 is debt free. Thank you Wardendresden for reminding me how much you can do without debt! (do you happen to follow Dave Ramsey?). This would have been so much easier if he was only offered one of the jobs, LOL.
I don't follow Dave now that I'm out of debt. We pay cash for everything.

You're right about Douglas being a far easier drive to either Denver or Billings. I'm planning a trip to SE Idaho in September, staying one night with my son in Denver metro, and driving four hundred miles to stay in Kemmerer the next night. And it's even further to Billings. In addition, as I recall, Kemmerer only has two lane roads leading into it. Douglas has I-25 and you are relatively close to either Casper or Cheyenne for "bigger" cities. Kemmerer is a long way from any city of size.

Of course, all that plays into your choices.

Best of luck to you and your family.
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Old 04-21-2013, 07:01 AM
 
632 posts, read 1,517,345 times
Reputation: 799
My family and I moved to Douglas 2 years ago, and we love it here. I have school-aged children, so I particularly like how much the schools invest in our students. We were worried about buying a home at the higher prices and the boom/bust cycle, but hubby has friends who work in energy industry who say that this boom cycle will outlast even my children living in Converse County.

We bought because renting was next to impossible...expensive and most stuff very dumpy.

The location is great. My family is in Colorado, so we like the proximity. Close enough to Casper for shopping, close to mountains and lakes for recreation, 2+ hours to Black Hills, 2+ hours to Denver.
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Old 04-21-2013, 07:10 AM
 
4,690 posts, read 10,417,068 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by April.C View Post
Goal #2 is debt free.
So Douglas seems like the Obvious choice for lots of reasons.

As for being debt free ~ it's good (we only have a home mortgage, but the interest rate is less than we earn in interest on our emergency fund), but life takes priority. For instance, my wife wanted to have her school loans paid off by the time she turned 30 (she graduated at 26) which didn't happen but we bought a house, adopted a dog, traveled outside the country, etc... School loans were gone almost 5 years to the month that she graduated though (right before she turned 31). So make your "debt free" calculations based on your living arrangements once you're moved and settled in WY. It may add a year, or you may find that it takes a year off because there's more things to do that don't involve so much $$$ (or less opportunity/need to shop, etc...) But the calculations you made while living in TX aren't going to be accurate for living in WY ~ maybe close, but you'll need to redo them anyway. And if you've not Done calculations... well, then you really don't want to be debt free bad enough.

We've had a mortgage as our only debt since 2009. Really NOT looking forward to when we need to replace a car (our 2001 has 242,000 miles) and the subsequent loan/payments/debt.
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Old 04-21-2013, 10:41 AM
 
Location: Cabin Creek
3,648 posts, read 6,288,980 times
Reputation: 3146
US 30 runs thru Kemmerer, alot of trucks use it as a short cut to Pocatello and I-15 from I-80 just past Little America.
Pluse growing up in Moutain View for awhile he should know some about Kemmerer
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Old 04-21-2013, 02:28 PM
 
4 posts, read 6,666 times
Reputation: 10
Thank you to everyone who responded. Decision day arrived and we decided to go with Douglas. We'll get a smaller house than I would like, but the proximity to family won out in the end. Thank you for all the insight . And if anyone knows of any dental hygienist jobs, that's our next big step in the process...
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Old 04-21-2013, 02:48 PM
 
Location: North Dakota
10,350 posts, read 13,934,050 times
Reputation: 18267
Quote:
Originally Posted by April.C View Post
Thank you to everyone who responded. Decision day arrived and we decided to go with Douglas. We'll get a smaller house than I would like, but the proximity to family won out in the end. Thank you for all the insight . And if anyone knows of any dental hygienist jobs, that's our next big step in the process...
Welcome to Wyoming! Keep the questions coming if you have any more.
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Old 04-22-2013, 10:04 PM
 
15 posts, read 27,058 times
Reputation: 14
Kemmerer..and I am from Wyoming. I live in CA now. Housing prices are high in Douglas? I wonder why? Anyway...I have lived in Casper, Worland, and Evanston..which is near Kemmerer. I'd take Kemmerer due to it being so close to the beauty of Utah. I'd choose Worland due to the closeness to the beauty of The Big Horn Mountains! But Douglas? Casper is nothing but wind in my opinion.

You want to be near a decent airport...in this case Salt Lake City with Kemmerer. Just my opinion.
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Old 04-23-2013, 09:43 AM
 
1,872 posts, read 4,219,048 times
Reputation: 948
Quote:
Originally Posted by melly1953 View Post
Kemmerer..and I am from Wyoming. I live in CA now. Housing prices are high in Douglas? I wonder why? Anyway...I have lived in Casper, Worland, and Evanston..which is near Kemmerer. I'd take Kemmerer due to it being so close to the beauty of Utah. I'd choose Worland due to the closeness to the beauty of The Big Horn Mountains! But Douglas? Casper is nothing but wind in my opinion.

You want to be near a decent airport...in this case Salt Lake City with Kemmerer. Just my opinion.
Note that the O.P.'s decision had already been made hours before your post. Maybe you realized that but just wanted to put in your opinion for others, which is fine
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