Possible move to Gillette...only 2 days to visit??? (Casper, Rock Springs: real estate, houses)

[ruggedindividual]

I'm wrestling with the idea of working in Gillette with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. It's a well paying job, but it's deceiving since I only have Texas to compare the wages vs. cost of living to. I'm originally from Houston, lived in Chicago briefly & now I'm in Corpus Christi, TX. I've always loved small towns & shunned big city life, despised hot/humid weather & wanted a place to live that was great for raising a family. (obviously none of those cities ever satisfied me) I'm only going to have a few days to visit the Gillette area and at least one of those days will be spent with Anadarko meeting with those folks, so is two days enough to get a feel for the area? What else should I know about Gillette that will help me decide if the move is right for me and my family (wife, 2 kids: 2yrs and 7mo.)? I know the housing is tight; is it looking like it will be getting better soon? Where should I go when I visit so I can capture that big picture idea of what it's like there?

Thanks

[bigreez]

Hey fellow oil field trash Marathon hand here. houses are hard to find (in any price range) around gillet there is sooo much good paying jobs that you just can not find a house some times.

[Wyomiles]

My sister in law works for them in another city. Be sure to ask them about your situation and where they would suggest you look. Some companies are building homes for their employees because the boom is sucking up all of the housing. You might want to live in one of the surounding towns and drive to work.

[Earniefan]

Type Gillette Wyoming into Search and you will bring up quite a bit of info that people who live there have written about the situation in Gillette. Good Luck!

[ruggedindividual]

Thanks everyone for your quick replies. I've read through all the threads about Gillette on the forum and pretty much get the idea that it's cold, windy, dry and hard to find a home. What I'm trying find out with this thread is, in your eyes, will visiting the area for two days be sufficient or is there more to see that I'd need more time?

I searched for homes on Yahoo! Real Estate and turned up quite a few homes in the 200-299K range. Are these homes selling fast & right at asking price?

[Earniefan]

From what I gather Gillette's housing market is right up there with Rock Springs, houses here in RS have an average selling rate of 3 weeks. So you if you find a house you want in the neighborhood you want you'd better jump on it pretty quick. Hope this helps.

[MRVphotog]

I think you can get a feel for Gillette in a couple of hours, it's not that big.

[tallgirl]

If you're willing to drive 67 miles each way, Buffalo is an alternative for housing, but it's a tight market here as well. Atleast it's pretty here though. I've never heard anyone say that they thought Gillette was beautiful. lol

[ruggedindividual]

Well as it turned out, the company I interviewed with a month ago gave me the option of taking a position in either Gillette, Casper (Midwest) or Buffalo. We drove to all three cities to check out the areas and interview for the jobs. All three places wanted me to work for them so it was nice to have the pick of them. I gotta say, I didn't care too much for Casper. Maybe I caught it on a bad day, but it just seemed dirty and too much "city" for me. I can't quite put my finger on it but I definitely didn't have the gut feeling that I had when I went to Buffalo. Now that's my idea of an ideal place to raise a family, live, work and play! So much in fact that I accepted the position there and bought a house this past weekend! Should be headed up there in late September to move in and start work. As for Gillette, I thought that was a nice place too. Sure, it wasn't as attractive as Buffalo, but it was a nice place with plenty to do to keep busy. In my opinion it was a far better place than Casper, but far from the qualities that make Buffalo the perfect place to call home.

[ruggedindividual]

Oh, and I also stopped in Sheridan for a day. That's another great reason Buffalo is a good place to live - Sheridan is an awesome town too, and it's only about a half-hour away!