Concerned about the cost of living in Casper, WY

[sunsprit]

a few other observations about WY's trends now ... having driven up to Douglas this weekend to buy some shop equipment being surplused off by an automotive repair shop ....

1) driving past the 'patch support yards, I saw a lot of the drilling rig equipment parked in the yards. Quite a few of the water tank trailers for the fracking rigs are idle. Also, I didn't see the more recent numbers of water tankers heading down the roads.

2) my neighbor who was doing a 6-figure/year business supplying and servicing porta-potties for the drilling sites in the region and potable water to the man-camps for several years is now out of work. His last contract has been terminated, and he's picking up his equipment from all the sites to put it into storage. He's got loans out on this stuff which may force him to sell off in the next year ... probably a business assets auction to pay off the notes.

3) In the last two months, I've seen a number of rural properties in the SE corner of WY sprout "For Sale" signs. These places were all 40+ acre residential properties which were obviously bought by somebody for an 'patch support site. You'd see the semi's, trailers, equipment, and materials stored on site; sometimes, the residence was occupied, sometimes, not. There were a fair number of storage buildings erected, too. Some of them pole barn structures, some of them were the fabric membrane buildings. One of these properties near my ranch, which was bought in early 2014 and had a whole bunch of welding rigs, trailers, and support equipment brought in had the for sale sign put up this weekend. Another, near an I-80 interchange (commercial property with a residence and garages) and on the frontage road with good access was bought in late 2013. Now on the market for the last 2 months, it had sat on the market last time for 4 years before the current owner bought it.

I haven't checked out the price points of these places, but with so many showing up in the market right now, my bet is that the owners are out of work and need to move on as quickly as possible. Absent jobs for incoming folk, these places may sit for awhile heading for distress pricing or short sales just to get rid of them. In view of the probability that these places were the base for an additional number of wage earners, it's likely that there's more than a few folk who have or will be leaving the area; probably means more housing on the market.

In view of the high volatility of the markets right now, my inclination is that it's a good time to sit back and watch the real estate trends for awhile. Could be a serious downturn ahead in some of the WY real estate ahead for awhile as the extractive industries wind down operations in the near term. Gotta' put this in the perspective that a lot of industry support jobs are vanishing ... truck driving, welding, oil patch laborers, etc. These were historically some very good paying jobs for the region and drove up some of the housing prices, especially creating shortages in the rental/leasing sector. I'd seen mobile home lots renting for $750/month in some places and looked at some of the mobile home parks for sale in the area based upon that type of cash flow a year ago; now, they're getting vacancies and I doubt the market will support such high demand/valuations for worker housing.

[Ltdumbear]

The frack-related truck/semi-truck traffic which has (for over a year) been passing-through Meeteetse has pretty much stopped, as well. Not that I hadn't TRIED for oil/frack/energy-sector jobs in the recent past, but I'm glad none of those resumes sent/applications actually came to fruition, because I would've likely ended up right back here in this motel-room anyways.

Not many ranches hiring either.

Not sure what to do, or where to go.

Had a temp ranch-job north of Gillette that ended 2 mos ago; I rolled the dice and spent two-month's worth of pay on getting my old Kawasaki up and running again, because I knew I wouldn't be able to afford to 'feed' my 5mpg 25 yr old half-ton Chevy, hauling my entire life around the state 'visiting' with ranchers...so that duty falls to the Kawasaki...but now NO ONE is responding to my resumes. I can't even PAY someone to allow me to come in and help put up hay or irrigate.

I've never seen anything like this. 22+ yrs in ranching, and I can't find a decent job in this entire state.

It's all 20 acre 'ranchettes' or seasonal 'trophy-properties' owned by out-of-staters, who (by all accounts) aren't really interested in staying permanently, but who fly in and out 'flipping' properties.

I don't know 'what' or 'who' to believe in anymore.