Moving to MT?? (Billings, Missoula, Great Falls: for sale, crime, houses)

[Bendlover]

I live in 29 Palms, CA (So. Cal) at the moment. I was born and raised in central Oregon. My husband is in the Marines and will be getting out in May. We are looking at different places to live. I really want to move to a place that is full of trees. But I am worried about work. I can work anywhere, but my husband is a mechanic. And he is also looking at other government jobs. Any advice will help. Thank you so much!

[YOU-CANT-EAT-SCENERY]

I have had good luck with Americas Job Bank. Lots of listings there. Good luck in your search. I am also a mechanic looking to relocate to Mt or WY in the next several years.

[mark6052]

maybe oregon might be a better choice. not trying to discourge, just saying since he has background on OR. why just move into the unknown? plus OR does have plenty of trees, etc. just a thought.

[mthawki]

Try looking at these sites for Fed and State jobs:

http://www.usajobs.gov/

http://jsdora.dli.state.mt.us/pls/mjs/MJS0100W$JORD4.ActionQuery

[Bendlover]

Thanks so much everyone!!

[Carolina_Belle92]

my advice is to look at central-western Montana, around the Missoula area. there are lots of job opportunities in Missoula, as the city is growing a mile a minute. Billings is also very good economically, but Missoula is just more livable. Northwestern Montana, around Flathead Lake, might be good if you can afford it (Kalispell, Polson, Whitefish).

I would advise you to stay away from Butte and Helena, as the job markets there are rapidly cooling off. ditto Great Falls, but for more reasons than that. the winters in g.f. are miserable, the streets are dirty, the people aren't friendly, and the city is just plain out unattractive.

Additionally, Missoula has some fantastic foliage!

[montan6612]

If you drove around Helena today, you would see "Help Wanted" signs in windows of about 1 in every 4 or 5 businesses, so I would have to disagree that we have a cooled off job market here. Rather, what I hear is that many employers cannot good, qualified workers (and spare me the rants about only minimum wage jobs being available, please!).

[GiftShoppeGuy]

Originally Posted by Carolina_Belle92

my advice is to look at central-western Montana, around the Missoula area. there are lots of job opportunities in Missoula, as the city is growing a mile a minute. Billings is also very good economically, but Missoula is just more livable. Northwestern Montana, around Flathead Lake, might be good if you can afford it (Kalispell, Polson, Whitefish).

I would advise you to stay away from Butte and Helena, as the job markets there are rapidly cooling off. ditto Great Falls, but for more reasons than that. the winters in g.f. are miserable, the streets are dirty, the people aren't friendly, and the city is just plain out unattractive.

Additionally, Missoula has some fantastic foliage!

You might do well to visit Great Falls, Butte, Helena and their surrounding areas before telling folks that things are "cooling off".

Fact of the matter is that "Missoula" is cooling off... and finally.

Got off of the phone with a land developer friend of mine in Missoula this afternoon, and skilled labor was discussed, he's trying to see if we can put some of his former employees to work... Great Falls, Helena, Butte, and even over to Belgrade and points east of that are heating up these days...

We've got plenty of work available here in Great Falls, and we offer top dollar, above and beyond what the likes of Missoula was willing to pay.
It's the same all along the I-90 corridor from Butte to Belgrade to Billings. (I just got back from Billings yesterday, so this info is as fresh as a warm spring breeze.)

[jimj]

I guess everyone is right, anything but Great Falls/Billings area is junk! There's no jobs, no houses, everything costs twice as much as in Great Falls area and the pay in Great Falls is 2 times more than anywhere else in Montana! Sounds like heaven on earth! Oh wait, not only that, they have the best hospitals, the best people staffing them, the best restaurants, and the best..... I guess we all better just shutdown western Montana and head to Great Falls/Billings area!
It is good news that area builders are putting crews together and heading east since there is a glut of get rich quick spec houses here now it's Great Falls turn!
I guess that little thing called "the crown jewel" (Glacier Park) is nothing anyone needs to live by and world-class skiing 15 minutes away, naw we could go to Colorado for that. And more rivers and lakes than you can fish, not to mention the largest fresh water lake in the west, no need to be around those, you can just drive 4 hours to see them.

My point to all of this is there are benefits and detractions to everywhere in this state, we just don't have the cheering section on this forum that Great Falls/Billings has it seems. I would suggest you look at ALL the options and decide for yourself, not just listen to what cheerleaders for the different places say. Go see the areas by the park, see Great Falls, read both local papers since they tend to list all crime reports and police activities. I just read the crime stats between Great Falls and Missoula and Missoula was not the higher one. I also just read why Great Falls is booming. Oil and that is pretty much it. You should wonder why you don't hear any down side to an area, there has to be something.
Talk to local police and see what they say. Stop in at a couple of coffee shops and listen to the conversations and ask questions. There are many in this state that are of the opinion that money isn't everything, they are willing to make some sacrifice to live where they want, not just settle for money and some things they want.
I would just suggest you look at all options before you jump and wish you had been elsewhere.
Where ever you choose I wish you luck
P.S. In the interest of full disclosure I do have a house for sale but I would guess that it is priced above what most on this forum are looking for so I have no financial reasons for what I do or don't say. I have tried to post the negative and posative of where I live as I see it, not just the sunshine and flowers part.

[grannymontanny]

I agree that everyone is to quik to discourage those into looking into the flathead valley. and as far as the work goes,i guess it all depends on what your willing to do. where my husband works they have openings like crazy for work,and is one of the best paying in the valley.So anyone wanting to work in the lumber mills,try looking into Plum Creek if your needing work.We have traveled all over this state and in my opinion flathead has everything an outdoor person could want. yes the prices have gone up,but there also are alot of propertys that have been sitting for sometime,so who knows what a person might take.five acres by us has been on market for awhile,and we dont see anyone looking at it ,and it has power and water to it. go figure