Cheyenne? (for sale, renting, mortgage)

[distortionmaster20]

Does anyone know how things are in Cheyenne? I just need some general info, like: job opportunity, overall cost of living, local entertainment (theatres, sports, restaurants, whatever), educational quality, etc.

[sunsprit]

Cheyenne's job market depends upon your skills ... what do you or can you for a living? Monster has a few jobs listed, and the jobs service run by the county has lots of "jobs" ... you'll see a pay range for professional workers in the $70-80's (a few, even more), hourly workers in trades at $teens-mid 20's, and restaurant workers at $8-10/hr. WalMart's new distribution center was hiring a few weeks ago at $13/hr + benefits.

Housing ranges from very affordable in reasonable areas at $100K or so, to a high end of around $500K in some of the newer, more expensive larger homes.
You can still buy a home for 5 figures, but you may want to look closely at the neighborhood to see if it works for you.

There's even lower cost housing available in outlying areas, but again ... it's what your priorities are for schools, neighborhood, access to shopping, transit time to work, etc.

There's a mall district along Dell Range, anchored by Sears and Dillard's. A few movie screens in town and at the mall.

Restaurants are mostly chain/franchise operations .... Texas Roadhouse, Red Lobster, Applebee's, and fast food ...

Overall, the cost of living is quite low compared to many locations in the USA.

Recreationally, the big attraction is the outdoors and a low population base using all of the public lands for hunting, fishing, camping, horseback riding, etc.

If you need big city amenities, they're available in Denver.

Medical facilities in Cheyenne rate fairly well; the hospital just qualified for a high level trauma center, one notch below the top. I think the thing that held them back from the very top rating was that they had doctors on call instead of on the premises for full coverage.

[Earniefan]

It's a buyers market right now, so you may want to be cautious about buying if you're not sure if you want to stay in the area for an extended period of time. Also, prices on some housing have held for the last three years, meaning they have no equity in the homes they bought three years ago and are trying to sell them now for the same price they bought them for. My info comes from a friend of mine who lives there and is a mortgage officer. Don't get me wrong I liked living in Cheyenne, I just want you to be aware of the situation and not get stuck in something. It does depend on area and type of house somewhat. Good Luck!

[sunsprit]

Cheyenne's housing market got weird about 3-4 years ago.

Demand and prices started to climb, and a lot of new housing was built.

Surprisingly, there was virtually no net gain in the population of the town. My take on it was that a lot of folks who were renting moved into owned housing due to the low interest rates and ready lenders with minimal cash down.

With the low interest rates now gone, many of those folks are now unable to afford the increased variable rate mortgages and there's a glut of homes on the market compared to the jobs and income available. For the most part, this is in the lower and mid price range of housing.

I haven't seen housing prices coming down, they just stopped the wild yearly appreciation we saw for a few years. But the large number of homes for sale may yet have an adverse trend on those homes. Cheyenne's not bringing in a lot of new jobs locally at this time.