Thermopolis (Casper, Gillette, Rock Springs: real estate, to rent, house prices)

[kagicre]

Hi, my husband and I want to move end of december to Wyoming. We are thinking of Casper or Thermopolis. Can anybody tell us about the working situation in Thermopolis and where to find a place to rent? How is the housing situation in Thermopolis? I found out through this forum that living space isn't to easy to find, that's why my husband thinks it would be a good thing to go in the winter - we live in Southern California now - but it is to expensive and growded here. We will live in our RV first till we find something, so help is apreciated. People think we are nut, and they are right, but we believe it is the right decision.
Would be nice if somebody knows Thermopolis and can tell us more about it than you find in the internet or other places were work and living is affordable and nice. My husband is a welder and fence builder, I am German, early retired due to fibromyalgia and a office clerk - can work only around 10-15 hours a week.

Thanks in advanced

Karin

[shadowwalker]

I can talk about Thermop. My father lives there. It is a o.k. place to retire. It has two independent grocery stores, a hardware store, acouple of cafes, one resturant,I remember one drugstore, a small hospital, mineral hot springs, odds and ends stores. It is not a good place if you don't depend on wages to live. It is more tourist town than anything with alot of retirees. You can find houseing rising as all of wyoming is. There are other stores in town also but no national chains, unless you count macdonalds and a couple other choke and pukes as such. It is a place to just vegetate. Most people do the shopping in Worland or riverton.
A good amount of people that summer in thermop go south for winter. Not much happens there but it is peacful. House prices to buy are climbing as construction is ongoing. My father likes it for living anyway.

[kagicre]

Originally Posted by shadowwalker

I can talk about Thermop. My father lives there. It is a o.k. place to retire. It has two independent grocery stores, a hardware store, acouple of cafes, one resturant,I remember one drugstore, a small hospital, mineral hot springs, odds and ends stores. It is not a good place if you don't depend on wages to live. It is more tourist town than anything with alot of retirees. You can find houseing rising as all of wyoming is. There are other stores in town also but no national chains, unless you count macdonalds and a couple other choke and pukes as such. It is a place to just vegetate. Most people do the shopping in Worland or riverton.
A good amount of people that summer in thermop go south for winter. Not much happens there but it is peacful. House prices to buy are climbing as construction is ongoing. My father likes it for living anyway.

Thank you shadowwalker, your reply has helped me a lot. I don't think that is the right place to live for us. What about Casper and surraunding? Do you know Casper? We were thinking of Casper before, but I have the feeling it is getting to crowded there all ready.
Anyway, thanks again.

[shadowwalker]

If casper might seem too big, go internet and try Riverton, Sheridan, Lander, these are a good place to start and have alittle more diversity as far a jobs. But not so big a city.

[mark6052]

do i understand you right? you want to move to somewhere WY, no job(youll just find it when you get there), no home, (live in an RV) and dont really know a darn thing about the state, especially the winter. does "accident waiting to happen" mean anything? if that seems harsh just wait till your out of propane and its -30. GOOD LUCK!

[Wyomiles]

Karen, Wyoming in December can be a tough place to travel so be careful on the roads. Sounds like you are self contained, in an RV so you should travel around a little if you can. When you pull into that Wyoming town that is right for you , you will know. There should be lots of work for welders right now ,but not in Thermop. The gas industry is booming and if he can weld pipe he can make great money welding all day long. Check out Rock Springs, Pinedale, Casper and Gillette for work. Be careful. Wyomiles

[YOU-CANT-EAT-SCENERY]

Karin,

My wife and I are with you on getting out of SoCal However our plan is a little different. I would definitely recommend traveling the state first, during the worst time of year (weather wise) if you could. Also, as you know the real estate bubble here, has burst a bit, so if you could hang on a little longer, and wait for the housing prices to go back up again, it might be to your advantage. We are going to try to buy something, within the next 6 months, in WY, and continue to struggle (pay for it) here, till we are ready to move (5 to 7 years)

Our plan is to find where we would like to be (vacation sometime next year) and then buy something, and have it "on hand" and available to us, for when we are ready. I figure if we buy a house, and with the shortage of housing there, we could rent it for almost, what the payment would be.

It all sounds good now, but we'll see what happens....either way, good luck to you, and your husband on your search

[RockyMtnr]

Dear Southern Cal folks - 17 below to 58 below anytime from November to late April - leave the RV for now! There's a mini-boom going on in the gas-fields of SW Wyoming - but housing is in short supply. If you enjoy WalMart, come on. This is the land where city-folks and folks from back east can live a surreal dream, for a while. I've lived all over the state, walked about every inch of it, lived my dream for a while (remember Grizzly Adams?) and now, trying to get out - but it's a vortex - you may never get out. Two rules of the state; 1)Cowboy Up! ('cause you ain't gonna survive otherwise) and 2)We don't care how you did it back home!('cause it won't work here). This is a whole new ballgame folks.
Gotta love it though

[YOU-CANT-EAT-SCENERY]

Luckily, believe it or not, my wife is already cowgirl up (me not quite as much) I'm not citified mind you, just not as in to horses as she is. Give me my 65 Corvette, or other muscle cars, and that's what I am in to.
We live in the only city in Southern California (Norco) where the population of horses, outnumbers the people. But this town is also in a growth spurt, which is causing this fair city to lose it's small town appeal.




The other thing is, I just can't stand 60 to 90 days of heat and humidity at 95* plus. Over this summer we had 30 straight days over 100. To me, you can put clothes on to get warm, but you can only take so many off to get cool....without getting arrested

In a lot of the threads, I noticed talk about distance between cities, which is also fine with me. An hour and a half to Denver, SLC, Billings, is fine. Here it takes and hour and a half to go 20 to 30 miles (my commute to work)

Oh and I don't enjoy WalMart...in fact I avoid it's cheap quality products

[RockyMtnr]

Relatively speaking, John, you'll be surprised at the basic lack of humidity. I remember most days per year with morning-dew - and it's not very many - maybe less than a dozen most years, depending on your locale. And it's not all horses - plenty of cattle, antelope, deer, elk, moose, bison in controlled areas and sometimes, bear - but they're normally in the outback-areas and very shy. You'll love the lodgepole-pines of the Big Horns, the pines and douglas firs of the alpine areas and John, there's a million spots out here where you can see forever - and there's nothing there! I mean vistas of about 70 miles all directions! Some areas are very postcard-scenic while some are comparatively boring but the one thing we have out here that most folks from elsewhere haven't seen ... true majesty! Awesome.