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I edited your post so it just includes the points I want to address:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mister Torgue
Personally I don’t mind a long commute and neither does my wife (though I can take it a bit easier), and we already sit for an hour or more where we are now. I’d rather be moving for ~1 hour driving 40-60 miles that sitting in traffic ~1 hour just to go 22 miles. I’ve also lived pretty far out of town in a very rural area so driving a bit to get to a store/etc isn’t new to me. Hell, when we first moved to this house we are in how we had to drive at least 15-20 miles just to get to a store. Now its like 5~8 minutes, but for years we had to make a nice drive just to get groceries.
I would like to restress how rural the rural parts of Idaho are though, they are made more romote by weather and mountains. It isn't Alaska, but it will be different from Texas. Texas has a pretty average US Population density so even in the remote parts, there are more people and towns than alot of Idaho.
Now this is an important point I hadn’t considered about the small towns dying, but it makes sense. And not surprising to hear about the lifestyle difference. Can you elaborate on anything specific?
Yeah, many of the small towns are dying, or just barely hanging on. It's a national trend for small towns that arn't close enough to a large city to become a Suburb or Exburb.
Any by opportunities do you mean jobs or “amenities” or something else? The former does matter a considerable amount more than the latter.
Depending on the town size this could mean anything from a grocery store, liquor store or movie theater. Lots of small towns in Idaho only have 1 or 2 of these three places. Maybe a few restaurants. You won't have DFW dinning options anywhere in the state, but if you want to eat Indian or decent Mexican, you will be out of luck in alot of the state.
Believe it or not we get that ice stuff in North Texas pretty frequently--especially with how many bridges, overpasses and such we have on top of our high winds. The only differences are it isn’t an everyday thing and for some stupid reason everything shuts down and people forget how to drive in it. Haha. and we are very windy here, something else people from other parts of the country aren't aware of until they live here. Dallas should be named the windy city because Chicago has nothing on our wind here.
Yeah, I went though "Icepocolypse" 2011 and again in 2015 in the Metroplex. Both would be non events in Idaho. Just drive slow, you see the newcomers lining the sides of the road every year because they think "But I have 4 wheel drive."
Also, freeway of death? Do explain please.
I isn't a stretch of road I would like to drive frequently in the winter. Black Ice and Win. Though 84 over in Oregon can be even scarier and 55 near Banks really needs guard rails, idk how many people have slid off that road into the river below. It's a terrible way to go.
On the other hand the drivers are alot more friendly, I feel like any day could be me last with the insane maniacs that drive the metroplex
Your food is likely cheaper there than ours is here FYI. Cell service, yea that’s going to be a rough point. We have Sprint and I get that we’d probably need to switch to whatever has the best coverage. Don’t ask me how much fun our Sprint was when we went to Alaska in 2016 (Denali for the win!). Hint: it sucked.
Food is about the same price. idk if you drink, but Beer is cheaper in Boise, and better too. Hard liquor is controlled by the state and has fixed prices to some is cheaper than Texas and some is more expensive.
Again though, if you do move to the sticks food will cost more than the metroplex most likely. I not talking Alaska food prices (Which are INSANE) but smaller grocery stores in the sticks will cost more. Gas is usually 30-40 cents above the national average definitely more than Dallas
Something else you might not have considered is buying property that is near or adjacent to public land which is something we don't really have in Texas. If you do move here most of the playing you do will probably be on public land anyway, plus owning an acre or two that backs up to free public land will make you feel like you are on a ton more acreage.
Feel free to DM me, I'm pretty familiar with Idaho, especially the Boise area as that is where I grew up, where I visit family, and where hope to return to permently soon, but I've been in the Metroplex since 2010 (for school and beyond) so I'm plenty familiar with North Texas too.
One other point, and not to try to scare you away, I just want to help paint the picture for you:
**Disclaimer city limits are less useful than metro numbers in general at getting a grasp on how big an urban area is. For example I know Boise proper is larger than SLC proper or for example, Dallas "Proper" is smaller than San Antonio even though the metro area is the 4th biggest in the country and closer to Chicago in size. For demonstration purposes I'm going to use city proper to simplify things, knowing full well that it isn't perfect but will get the point across.
Idaho only has one city over 100k people. Meridian and Nampa (Both in the same metroplolitian area as Boise) will likely pass the 100k mark soon, but to get to municipalities of a similar size in Texas you have to go all the way down to number 41 which is Sugarland, the Houston suburb.
4 of the 10 largest cities in Idaho are part of the Treasure Valley. The Rest are the Idaho "Big" Cities
Post Falls is the 10th largest municipality at 30,453 or a little smaller than Lufkin, TX.
The 10th biggest city in TX is Lorado, which while it is part of a smaller metroplolitan area than Boise is larger than Boise Proper by about 30K so Boise and then Post Falls with it.
It goes deeper though: the 25th largest municipality in Idaho is Star, an exburb of Boise, population 7,797.
Waco is the 25th largest municipality in Texas is Waco, pop 132K. It would the 2nd largest in Idaho.
I know people may not think of it like this, but Texas has a bunch of medium sized cities. Idaho has one medium city and a few small cities but the rest is pretty small.
When TreasureValley says small, it means SMALL.
30 people can be called a city here if they all live close together enough to look like a town. There are towns here that have a population of 5 to 10 souls.
And those towns can be all that exist in a 60 mile radius or more.
Idaho only has one city over 100k people. Meridian and Nampa (Both in the same metroplolitian area as Boise) will likely pass the 100k mark soon, but to get to municipalities of a similar size in Texas you have to go all the way down to number 41 which is Sugarland, the Houston suburb.
Thanks all. These are great points and are appreciated. We do understand things won't be the same, but that's part of the adventure. We're moving to one of these states 100%, so information like this is valuable but won't be a deterrent.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Treasurevalley92
One other point, and not to try to scare you away, I just want to help paint the picture for you:
You're not scaring us away unlike the Utah people. I find this fascinating consider it useful information and in fact the "smallness" of what you're describing is actually rather intriguing and something that might benefit what we want to do. As I mentioned above, the move will happen and will happen either in Idaho or Montana with only an outside chance of Utah at this point so I'm just thankful I'm getting useful information in here and respectful conversation. As you know, that isn't something that occurs much in Texas or the internet for that matter. Trying to compare things like cost of living and the actual environment of the destination on the internet can be a mixed back so I'm glad to have some people here from my area who've relocated to where we are interested in going and who can also provide some useful perspective. The world outside of DFW is quite a but different and that's the best part. That is except for not getting good Mexican or Tex-Mex food. We'll miss that unless we make it ourselves.
I'll likely also be posting a similar topic in the Montana forum, but I like to sit on information a bit to digest before branching out.
Hi Mister Torgue, more than a year had gone by, how do you and wife liking ID? have you decide where? Just wondering as we are researching now. It was a good read from everyone.
Ah just read your newer post guess you have pick Northern ID... good luck
Last edited by TourG w MM; 10-07-2019 at 11:04 PM..
funny TourG w MM I thought he was leaning toward the Southern areas. I for one prefer Post Falls areas and East Side and Boise areas. The Southern areas are not bad esp TF but are very sparse.
funny TourG w MM I thought he was leaning toward the Southern areas. I for one prefer Post Falls areas and East Side and Boise areas. The Southern areas are not bad esp TF but are very sparse.
Please define 'sparse'. Are you referring to the distance between towns? The local vegetation? Or something else entirely?
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I’ve also lived pretty far out of town in a very rural area so driving a bit to get to a store/etc isn’t new to me. 
Hell, when we first moved to this house we are in how we had to drive at least 15-20 miles just to get to a store. Now its like 5~8 minutes, but for years we had to make a nice drive just to get groceries. 
Hint: it sucked. 
Trying to compare things like cost of living and the actual environment of the destination on the internet can be a mixed back so I'm glad to have some people here from my area who've relocated to where we are interested in going and who can also provide some useful perspective. 
That is except for not getting good Mexican or Tex-Mex food. 
