Thinking of Retiring in Miles City (Billings, Missoula: real estate, houses, buy)

[Hollinger]

Hi, All:

My wife and I are 5 years out from retirement and are considering Miles City (among others). We are looking for a small town with lots of rural options for living. We currently live in California not far from Yosemite so are used to a sparse environment. By the way, we are looking to assimilate into a community - not make it California. Any suggestion on what to consider?

[MTSilvertip]

Miles City is a great place, but be prepared for some hard weather, deep bone breaking cold, baking "boil your brains in your skull" heat with some serious winds that would be hurricanes in other places to mix it up. It can be drought or monsoon, it's a land of extremes. Be prepared for tough winter driving with drifting snow and polished ice on the roads.


The only serious shopping is in Billings to the west or Williston to the north-east, (Williston is closer).

Miles City is a long ways from anywhere.


That said, there are a lot of good salt of the earth, hard working people there, and quite a few small shops and stores. Lots of hunting, fishing and outdoor opportunities right outside your door, spectacular sunrises and sunsets, 4 distinct seasons that don't always follow in order but can make up their own rules when it gets 70 degrees in February and it's snowing in July.


Tough, hardy people there, many old stock families with roots buried deep in clay gumbo and who's ancestors created the history of the state.


If you are planning on building on undeveloped land, water can be an issue, and good clean drinking water can be tough to find. My in-laws lived in Baker about 60 miles east of Miles City, and even on town water, they bought a distiller to remove the smell from the water.
If you haven't visited, it's a good idea to spend some time there before you move as some folks just can't handle the isolation.


Good luck.

[historyfan]

If you buy there, do not buy within the floodplain. There is some controversy over the levee along the river that I don't understand. But bottom line is it will be ultra expensive to insure. This effects most all of the original town. There are some great old houses within the floodplain.


Miles City has a rather sluggish economy. Now with price of oil low, the service industries that were located in Miles to service the region have left or are leaving.


As a Montana town, it does not do much for me. The new businesses are in an Anytown Usa strip by the state childrens correctional --Pine Hills, with the old buildings downtown either vacant, burned to ground & now parking, or housing sporadic openings & closings of small businesses.


There are a multitude of video gambling casinos. It has a nice old courthouse, a decent Water Works Art Gallery, and a funky Range Riders museum. That's about it. Deluxe Motors dealership shop is excellent. The DQ is not good...which is unusual for small town in Montana. The citizens seem always be in a gripe about something. I don't know how to describe it but there seem a lot of sour people there & it's unbelievably dirty dusty all the time.


I would pick much smaller about same amount going on town of Forsyth about 40 miles West instead, anyday of the week. Great people live there and likely you will find really good real estate prices.


If you have a specific question, I will do my best to answer it.

[patches403]

OP, have you ever actually visited Miles City before? Living there long-term is not something most people who didn't grow up near there can handle. The sticks of California are nothing compared to the sticks of Eastern Montana/Western North Dakota.

You will get tired of the wind, tired of it either being too cold or too hot, tired of the dust, and tired of having to drive the 300 miles RT to Billings for the majority of your shopping and potentially a lot of your medical care. And you will get very tired of living in a place with a long history of having a boom/bust economy (with more bust than boom) and there is nothing going on there that will keep it from continuing to have a boom/bust economy.

If you really like Eastern Montana and feel like you really want to retire there I would recommend you stay within a 50 mile radius of Billings. All the services you will need will be less than an hours drive away and the weather is generally better than it is further North and East. Everywhere else in Eastern Montana is just too far from anywhere and with too tough of living conditions to be appealing to anyone besides a small group of hardy people.

[Senah]

If you are thinking retirement I would hesitate to choose Miles City. It is hard to get medical care there, and so basically you'd be driving to Billings which is about 2 hours, but longer in bad weather and quite a distance if you are in trouble.

We like hunting south of there, but there isn't much out there for people who didn't grow up or work/get old out there. For example, my Dad is in his late 70s and growing old in a similarly small town about 2 hours from a real hospital/shopping place, and he still works on the cattle farm and will sit at the general store with people and talk about farm stuff and they have pot lucks sometimes and things like that, but it very much revolves around farm life, and people don't usually "retire" from that. Additionally, he refused to go to a big city and get his hip replacement done and instead used the regional hospital, and ended up with complications, a second surgery, and still is getting better. That said, I don't know Miles City really well, I just get asked to go out there and cover a lot because they have a hard time with medical care there, and we pass through a lot in the fall. So, other posters' thoughts may be more apt in this situation.

At any rate, sometimes it is good to think about the medical side to things if you are at retirement age. This is especially true in Montana. Living in a small town within 30-45 min. of Billings, Bozeman, Missoula, or Great Falls might be a better choice.

[NDak15]

Originally Posted by patches403

OP, have you ever actually visited Miles City before? Living there long-term is not something most people who didn't grow up near there can handle. The sticks of California are nothing compared to the sticks of Eastern Montana/Western North Dakota.

You will get tired of the wind, tired of it either being too cold or too hot, tired of the dust, and tired of having to drive the 300 miles RT to Billings for the majority of your shopping and potentially a lot of your medical care. And you will get very tired of living in a place with a long history of having a boom/bust economy (with more bust than boom) and there is nothing going on there that will keep it from continuing to have a boom/bust economy.

If you really like Eastern Montana and feel like you really want to retire there I would recommend you stay within a 50 mile radius of Billings. All the services you will need will be less than an hours drive away and the weather is generally better than it is further North and East. Everywhere else in Eastern Montana is just too far from anywhere and with too tough of living conditions to be appealing to anyone besides a small group of hardy people.

This is pretty accurate. While Eastern Montana has some of the most down to earth and genuine people you'll meet, it's tough to make a living and it is isolated. That drive from Miles City to Billings is also one of the most boring in the state, and that's saying something since I live in North Dakota with lots of boring drives. how big of a town are you looking at? While it's not in the plains of Eastern Montana, Columbus is a neat little town not far from Billings.

[Dangerous Dave]

I don't know why anyone would want to live in a place where they would actually look forward to a "Billings trip". Billings is a pit. If you hate coniferous trees and absolutely have to have a place with a lot of wind, mule deer, and crappy fishing, look near Bozeman or Great Falls.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by Dangerous Dave

If you hate coniferous trees and absolutely have to have a place with a lot of wind...

Well, yeah. That actually describes my preference.

My experience of Billings, now that I've lived here (well, Laurel) for a year and change, is that it's a crappy place to visit but a nice place to live.

OP might look at the outlying communities hereabouts, maybe Roundup or as someone suggested, Columbus.

And do watch out for floodplains. Not only do they occasionally actually flood (as in, up to the roof of your house flood), they're also hell to get septic permits, even if you're replacing an old one.

[Senah]

Originally Posted by Dangerous Dave

I don't know why anyone would want to live in a place where they would actually look forward to a "Billings trip". Billings is a pit. If you hate coniferous trees and absolutely have to have a place with a lot of wind, mule deer, and crappy fishing, look near Bozeman or Great Falls.

Have you ever actually been to Bozeman? It has it's problems, but not only is it totally dissimilar to GF, wind, mule deer, and crappy fishing are not among them. In fact, I wish we had more mule deer. They taste GOOD!

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by Senah

Have you ever actually been to Bozeman? It has it's problems, but not only is it totally dissimilar to GF, wind, mule deer, and crappy fishing are not among them. In fact, I wish we had more mule deer. They taste GOOD!

Bunch of 'em along the river near Clarkston. Big fat ones.