Missoula for grad school (Great Falls, Helena: real estate, to rent, house prices)

[sjtigers]

hi,

Next fall I am entering grad school I have been looking at several schools, however University of Montana has two professors in my field of study, Antebellum US history, and as we live in Lethbridge Alberta Canada the move to Missoula would make sense because of distance.

So now to give you some background. I am married, we have six children who will be 12, 10, 7, 7, 4, 1. We will be initially coming down on an F1 student visa. As I am planning on taking my MA and PhD at UM I expect us to be in Missoula at least 4-6 years.

Here is what I need information on.

What is Missoula like. We were supposed to go down their two days ago but my transmission decided to give up the ghost. I have been to Helena and Great Falls a few times so I am wondering how different Missoula is from them.

Does it snow a lot and what is generally the snow period.

Most of our kids will be in school so I was wondering what people thought of the various schools.

Is a decent 4 bedroom house in Missoula going to run above 200K or can I get something at about the 175k mark?

What are the utilities costs like?

Who do you recommend for high speed internet?

How is the satelite reception?

So that are a few of my questions I hope you can help.

[Rickers]

Missoula is on the west side of the divide with a climate more like northern Idaho than great falls or Helena A funky hip collage town and very pleasant.
I'm sure you will enjoy living there. Housing is a bit more expensive than than you may be figuring. But no harm in googling " Missoula real estate property" key words and look at all the MLS listed properties available. I like to drool too !

[sjtigers]

yeah the last two places I have lived in Lethbridge and Edmonton have crazy house prices. Edmonton an average 3 bed bungalow style house costs in around 500,000 in the nicer parts of the city and about 350K in the crap parts.

Lethbridge is about the same. We have had to rent a small three bedroom duplex for $1000 a month so I am hoping to put about the equivalent money into a place that is mine rather than somewhere else.

For us to find a decent place I have had to avoid considering Stanford, Yale or Columbia and look at much smaller communities. So UM will fit the bill really well.