Offered a job, gotta find a house (Cody, Jackson: rentals, house prices)

[WYOJASO]

I have been offered jobs in both Pinedale and Basin, and I am trying to decide which to choose based on a few things. First of all I visited the Basin/Greybull area and loved it, but have never been to Pinedale. I may be completely wrong but from what I have read and by looking at house prices, it seems that Pinedale is a little version of Jackson, and I am just a driver so that kinda lifestyle is not within my budget (even if it was that's not what I want). Like I said I may be completely wrong, but that's just my assumption. The Pinedale job is a much better career choice, but if I cannot afford to feed my family it makes no sense, so hopefully one of you will know about both towns and be able to help me. We will need to find a rental to start off, (hopefully $700 or less), but I dunno where to look for rentals, if anyone has any ideas they would be much appreciated! I have been looking through the forums and it seems that everyone here is pretty knowledgable, so any info will be very much appreciated, thank you in advance

[GEORGIAINMT]

I am originally from Basin. My brother has been a teacher there for almost 25 years. He was approached by the school district in Big Piney, which is close to Pinedale to teach and coach there. They offered more money and he was considering taking the offer until he looked into housing in the Big Piney/Pinedale area. He said it was ridiculous. Junky trailer houses were going for big bucks and there wasn't much there to choose from. After that visit he definitely opted to stay in Basin. He knows everyone, and I mean everyone in the Basin area, so I'll ask him if he's heard of any rentals & pass the word on to you. Basin isn't a bad place if you don't mind small towns. However, it's only an hour to Cody for most shopping and 2 hours to Billings for everything else. I'll keep you posted if I hear anything! Best of luck to you.
Georgia

[WYOJASO]

Thank you Gorgia, I really appreciate the info and I appreciate any future advice you may find. Yea from my little visit to the Basin/Greybull area everyone seemed very friendly, I had farmers wave at me as I drove past, I miss that small town hospitality, the little farm town I grew up in has been swallowed up by the contractors ruining every inch of land they can get their hands on, it's crazy now. I dunno if I'm allowed to say what the jobs are on here, so I'll play it safe and withold the names, but as I said before, the Pinedale job would be a better choice for money, but I don't make nearly enough money to spend two grand a month on a trailer, so the choice seems pretty clear. Hopefully there's some rentals somewhere nearby. Well I look forward to hearing from you, and thanks again for your help!

[WYOJASO]

Thank you for that house, wow it's crazy how far you have to drive just to be able to afford a place

[WyoMama]

Big Piney is really quite a ways from Pinedale & a totally different type of lifestyle. Isn't a mountain town (Pinedale is basically - in a valley) & is basically a oil field town. Big Piney isn't so bad but some of the other towns in the area are a little trashy (no offense intended - just transient towns) with some long-time families hanging in there. Yes, saying Pinedale is sort of like a wannabe Jackson isn't TERRIBLY far from the mark but doubt that is any intent of the community. Is probably the LAST thing they want but it has been "discovered". Very much like Cody (Thank you very much Buffalo Bill....). But Cody does make it on the tourism economy unfortunately, but does keep us from being a boom/bust town in Wyo. Basin area is pretty cool - not far from Big Horns, is probably one of the LEAST expensive areas to rent or buy land in Wyo these days, has decent schools there & great hunting nearby. Some of the really nice valleys towards Shell from Greybull (north of Basin) have been "discovered" too so that land is going for a good price now. But with the river there there is reasonable land for just a few acres & you can probably afford to live in a place like Basin. For what you are describing, Basin might well be your better choice. And there are many more opportunities for driving there because of all the bentonite plants & sugar plant in Lovell than in the Pinedale area. Just my 2-cents worth...

[WYOJASO]

Thank you very very much for the info Wyomama, especially for the tip on there being more driving opporitunities in Basin, that makes the decision quite easy for me then. It does seem like a wonderful place to live and raise our daughter, let's just hope that it doesn't get "discovered"

[WyoMama]

Amen to THAT one...more & more little priceless areas are as time goes on...

[WYOJASO]

Yea I completely feel your pain there, I'm leaving the little farming town I grew up in because it has been turned into a part of the big city by all the contractors, hippies and californians moving here trying to make this place just like CA, if you love CA so dang much go back!!! PLEASE!!!!

[WyoMama]

Originally Posted by WYOJASO

Yea I completely feel your pain there, I'm leaving the little farming town I grew up in because it has been turned into a part of the big city by all the contractors, hippies and californians moving here trying to make this place just like CA, if you love CA so dang much go back!!! PLEASE!!!!

Ohhhhhh
We won't go there - there's a WHOLE STRING from a couple of months ago about that & it got UGLY. LOL!!!

[WYOJASO]

oops........ haven't seen that one, my bad