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Hi all, I'm curious as to the general availability and quality of high speed internet in and around Victor and Driggs? I'm considering buying a "transition to retirement" home where I'd plan to work remotely for several weeks at a time for the next few years before spending most of my time there. I'm curious as to the availability because it seems even some of the more populated areas of Idaho (Coeur D'Alene) have hit or miss availability, and many folks resort to satellite internet. I'm guessing that is because of the topography though and hoping the Teton Valley would be more conducive to the ISPs providing better terrestrial service.
Beyond availability, any insight on quality? In other areas of Idaho I've looked at it seems some area providers offer only bandwidth capped services, i.e. going over X GB of data per month and your connection gets throttled down, similar to most satellite providers. Also, the feedback I've gotten in some other areas of Idaho are that speeds are not very good at all for video teleconferencing, streaming services, working from home in general. I did find a thread on cellular service in the Victor/Driggs area, and it sounds like AT&T is pretty good so that would be great! If the cell service is good enough (LTE) then I may be able to get by with my laptop tethered to my iPhone.
I really love the area, seems like the perfect size, pace, distance from a bigger city like Idaho Falls, and access to the outdoors that I'm looking for. If the internet and cell service is pretty good, then it might just be my place!
The cell signal is pretty good as the Teton Valley is pretty flat all over. Having said that, there are not a plethora of cells towers there. So expect capacity to be limited from LTE. And 5G may not ever get there, at least in the highest speed format. Verizon shows full coverage in the valley there as well; I would suspect they are all using the same towers.
I can only look on the internet for the phone company ISP there. Here is a link to their fiber search page. If you click on 'What to expect', it sounds like thy are just getting started with fiber in that area, and they are working on a number of very dispersed locales. IDK what speeds you need for work but it sounds like DSL is commonly available there. I've been working out of a home office for many years on DSL. My wife streams some movies on it too nowadays; we are only about 1/2 mile from a local switch, which may help our DSL speeds.
Have you looked up the Cox cable internet offerings?
The cell signal is pretty good as the Teton Valley is pretty flat all over. Having said that, there are not a plethora of cells towers there. So expect capacity to be limited from LTE. And 5G may not ever get there, at least in the highest speed format. Verizon shows full coverage in the valley there as well; I would suspect they are all using the same towers.
I can only look on the internet for the phone company ISP there. Here is a link to their fiber search page. If you click on 'What to expect', it sounds like thy are just getting started with fiber in that area, and they are working on a number of very dispersed locales. IDK what speeds you need for work but it sounds like DSL is commonly available there. I've been working out of a home office for many years on DSL. My wife streams some movies on it too nowadays; we are only about 1/2 mile from a local switch, which may help our DSL speeds.
Have you looked up the Cox cable internet offerings?
Thanks! Sounds like some reasonable options. I don't need a tremendous amount of speed, just the very occasional video conference (downstream only, I don't need to upstream video of myself) and email.
I've been trying to plug in various addresses from real estate listings in Victor, Driggs, and Tetonia. It's been tough to tell from Cox or other websites what the availability is and if there are data caps but I've been trying. Some sites I've looked at seem to indicate Viasat/Hughes satellite internet, and also Fixed Wireless access via Rise Broadband. Rise looked pretty decent, for $60/month you could get decent speeds with no data caps. That's more that enough for me, but again it was hard to tell if it was available at most/all addresses in those towns, or just closer to the downtown area. That's why I was looking for some "boots on the ground" feedback from locals and your own experiences, experiences of family, friends in the area, etc.
You will have to love long winters to live in either small town. Winter begins a full month earlier and lasts a full month longer in the spring. Both get more snow and cold than any of the other towns in the upper Snake River Valley. The highlands here are truly high.
During the winter, the closest shopping area, Rexburg, isn't going to always have the selection Idaho Falls has, but the road to I.F. can be more difficult and slower to drive. Jackson Hole is closer than either, but getting there requires a 2-way trip over the Jackson Pass, prone to closure and occasional avalanches in the winters.
Driggs would probably have better net speeds, but this is only a guess; it's the larger of the two and has more businesses. (and more wealthy retirees). Driggs is the closest to the Targhee Ski Resort, which lies on top of a mountain straight uphill from Driggs.
Victor is smaller and less developed, and is a bedroom community of sorts for Jackson Hole. The pass begins at the end of VIctor's city limits.
The one good thing in the Teton Valley is that the flat ground will be easier than a lot of areas to lay in new fiber. So at least physically, it could have an easier path to widespread broadband.
OP, if you are doing any property shopping at this time, you might ask a realtor. They may know. Teton Valley Realty has been there for a generation and the principles know a lot of the area. We did some property shopping there in the last couple of years.
Great feedback, thanks! I completely understand on the long winters banjomike. I grew up in northern Michigan, so while it's been awhile I still remember the challenges (and beauty) of a real winter. I would be retaining a property in the San Diego area as well, so if the cold is wearing me down I can retreat for a bit. I assume you can get by grocery and hardware store wise just from Victor and Driggs though? I don't shop much other than those two places, so hopefully could hunker down to the local area without too many extra trips to I.F. or Rexburg.
Thanks also for the suggestion on Teton Valley Realty. I've only been informally educating myself on the local market by watching the new listings and closed sales over the last few months. When the time comes to engage, I'll definitely reach out to them. I'd like to buy something within the next 6 months, but with the virus lockdowns and the winter approaching, I'm guessing there isn't much real estate activity until at least March/April of next year? The listings look pretty thin right now, but a lot of sales have closed over the summer.
The listings are thin because the people fleeing the cities have snapped all sorts of properties up! It is crazy in all the desirable rural areas in most of the USA. I've been following the same thing in Maine and WY, and parts of NC and VA.
The road between Victor and Driggs, ID33, is pretty flat, and as straight as a grid line. So that is not much of an issue. But the traffic has been getting more and more as the area grows. Most of the houses are in the flat or gently sloped parts of the valley, but some of the view properties on the east side (and the handful over on the west side) are up some roads that would very much need AWD/4WD, and maybe a set of chains if it gets packed and slick. There is a good, large grocery store in Driggs. (Broulims.. it has a great deli for lunches too.)
BTW, the best views of the dramatic Tetons within the Valley are either over on the west side, or if you want really good views, you go to the rural farm area where ID33 heads north towards the Ashton/Mesa Falls area. The high farmland 5-10 miles before you get to ID 47 and the Warm River have the best Teton views ... if that is important to you.
Northern MI... I did a lot of car racing up (rallying) in the past in the UP in the Marquette/L'Anse/Hougton area, and also in the Houghton Lake, Grayling, and Mainstee areas. Great county. If you experienced the snow in the UP, and on the Copper Peninsula in particular, you have nothing to fear in ID, unless you ended up in the Island Park area.
The listings are thin because the people fleeing the cities have snapped all sorts of properties up! It is crazy in all the desirable rural areas in most of the USA. I've been following the same thing in Maine and WY, and parts of NC and VA.
The road between Victor and Driggs, ID33, is pretty flat, and as straight as a grid line. So that is not much of an issue. But the traffic has been getting more and more as the area grows. Most of the houses are in the flat or gently sloped parts of the valley, but some of the view properties on the east side (and the handful over on the west side) are up some roads that would very much need AWD/4WD, and maybe a set of chains if it gets packed and slick. There is a good, large grocery store in Driggs. (Broulims.. it has a great deli for lunches too.)
BTW, the best views of the dramatic Tetons within the Valley are either over on the west side, or if you want really good views, you go to the rural farm area where ID33 heads north towards the Ashton/Mesa Falls area. The high farmland 5-10 miles before you get to ID 47 and the Warm River have the best Teton views ... if that is important to you.
Northern MI... I did a lot of car racing up (rallying) in the past in the UP in the Marquette/L'Anse/Hougton area, and also in the Houghton Lake, Grayling, and Mainstee areas. Great county. If you experienced the snow in the UP, and on the Copper Peninsula in particular, you have nothing to fear in ID, unless you ended up in the Island Park area.
I'm definitely concerned about that. Darn pandemic ruining my 10 year plan to get to this point where I'm about ready to buy! Haha. Now everyone seems to want the same thing I do, I could just wait it out but I don't see places like this getting less desirable, especially as more and more people can work remotely. There are at least a few places for sale, but the price points for similar properties seem to be a substantial percentage increase even compared to 3-4 months ago. I'd list higher too though, seems people are willing to pay more right now. I suppose I'll resign myself to potentially overpaying and not let it damper things too much, it's just the world we're in now!
Yeah, it's a tough choice. We're kinda in the same boat; we'll probably wait it out to see if this settles down a bit; but we are not getting any younger! Similar price increases are going on in all the same demand areas; it's certainly not insignificant.... seems likes easily 20-30% on average. We'll see if that settles out a bit too.
I lived near Alta off state line road for about year back in 2014. Cell and internet weren't great up there, but that may have changed. My wife worked from home, and did OK, but sometimes both cell signal and internet gave her problems. While the valley is mostly flat, the cell towers down near the town seemed to struggle going very far. Again, not terrible but sometimes problematic. Honestly, I think in most cases, you'd be fine even if no changes have been made since 2014.
Housing was extremely tough to come by back then, and I'm sure its not much different now. I also recommend Teton Valley Realty. Although we rented through them, they seemed to be highly respected within the community.
As for amenities, as others mentioned, broulims is great and there are a few hardware stores with most amenities you need. The drive to IF is fine 90% of the time, just be careful around storms/wind. If you're a Costco person, good news is IF now has one, so you don't have to drive to Pocatello! We would have loved that when we were there.
Worst part about TV is the wind. It was pretty consistent, so try not to get a place that is wide open, or at least has a windbreak (trees, other houses, etc) to the south.
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