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Some of you are confusing the message vs the messenger. Joe Joe is not the only person you will run into with a negative feeling about newcomers. Its his perspective, as many feel the same. I read reasons for coming to MT. They range from crime to overcrowding, illegals, etc. You dont think that is negative talk about your home state? If my son wanted to move to CA, he should read youre posts. There true Im sure, based on youre views. So is JJMs. Kalispel is the best example I can give If you think it hasnt changed or got crowded. What an area, used to hunt and fish there. Not anymore. Northern CA. used to be as open and beautiful as MT, what do some of you think happened to it? What ever it was I hope it doesnt happen here.
I guess all I can do is visit and judge for myself. One mans hell is anothers paradise. I will still investigate the Bitterroot Valley, and also some other areas, yet to be determined. As long as my wife has some land for her horses, and I can live within 30 to 45 miles of work, be able to make my house payment, pay my taxes, and be a good neighbor, that should be sufficient.
Schools and all the things that have to do with "family/kids" won't matter, as it will just be my wife and I, till we die....however long that will be.
I live on an island off the cost of Washington. My husband is an officer in the navy and we have five children. He's been here for 22 yrs, we've been married for 16 of those. Although it's very pretty here and the town we live in is very small (grocery store closes by 8pm, there's only one gas station and everyone goes to Toby's on Fri and Sat nights to "catch up") we are looking at homes in MT for when he retires. My family is from Billings, Butte and Whitefish just to name a few. We have been back to visit (not nearly as often as we would like to). We are also looking at places in ND and SD (again, I have family in both). We are looking to move to one of these states for couple of reasons, to be closer to family for one, our children have no cousins near by, the cost of living is another factor but mostly because we want our children to grow up in a place rich with famliy, and people that care about and take pride in the place they live. I think places like MT, ND and SD have a quality about them that you just can't find any place else. There's a different kind of pride and there is a togetherness that you can't find any places else. Where neighbors help each other and are there for one another.
As my name suggests I'm a native Montanan who had to transfer with my husbands job 14 years ago. We moved to a metroplex area of 5 million people! Complete culture shock for me and it's taken me all these years to start to enjoy the amenities a large urban area offers. Now we are close to retirement and I started to look for a home in Great Falls. Imagine my shock when I realized that to buy the home we have now we would have to pay at least double of what we could sell ours for! While our taxes are high here our home prices have remained stable. I keep asking old friends "Why is this?" It's not like Great Falls has the beauty of other areas, it never did thrive with industry and I wouldn't call it a cultural mecca. It's hard for me to understand how the natives can afford to buy there. If it's like Great Falls of old there are only so many jobs available and the area can only support so many professionals. The only thing I can come up with is that people moving from other states can afford these prices by selling their over inflate homes. when I tell friends here that I want to move "home" I tell them it's an ugly little town but it's MY ugly little town. Really, MT should rethink it's casino/gambling laws. On my return trip from my last visit I sat next to a woman from MN who was visiting two of her sons who are both professionals there. In a very delicate way she said she thought the city was ugly...and I agreed. My thought is that it happened slowly and people adjusted,they don't see how it appears to others. We are coming back over fair week and will probably look at a few properties at that time. I am willing to give up the advantages of living in a large city with all it's amenities to be back with the people I grew up with and still love. Wish me luck!!
I for one am from Missoula, MT and like most everyone I grew up with, we cannot live there. The wages are low (I have a Masters in teaching and my husband is a CPA) and the cost of living (housing anyway) there and my other favorite places, Portland OR and Boise ID, has gone nuts. I am not angry, it is just unfortunate that I am a northwestern girl who had to leave and move 2000 miles away to be able to live. My kids rarely see their grandparents, etc. But until the west settles down, I won't be able to go back, it is ridiculous that 100K a year income isn't enough. What's funny is when I grew up in Msla, we HATED it!
jnfmme: I couldn't agree more.... actually one could actually afford to live in Missoula a while back, wages and good jobs were hard to come by but it was really cheap to live there and housing prices were cheap.
I don't know if you noticed the prices in Missoula lately, but they are just unbelivable, unbleivable, on the east side of town, 500k->1million for a decent house, 900sqft running up into the 400k, complete unfathomable. Mostly what happens is out-a-state money comes in where people sell say a Calif house for 900K and bring the money here, or people move sideways here, or get a windfall from maybe a few acres they had and a developer buys it, stuff like that.
You couldn't afford to come at these houses fresh if you made a doctors salary...if you weren't in the market already you are basically screwed; home ownership for you is pretty much a thing of the past.
I will laugh so hard if/when the realestate market crashes around here, I gotta' say I won't feel the slightest bit sorry for anyone losing their realestate/deveolper/construction job or their ar-ss, they've had plenty of time to make their money and do their thing much to the detrient of a lot of folks and young families here trying to get into a place of their own, Nope sorry to say I won't pity them at all. They had their chance and they got theirs, hope they were smart enough to put a couple bucks away.
Wow, I have to say...I started looking through this forum for more information on Montana, and am fairly disappointed with what some of what I've read here.
Let me give you a quuick back story. I was raised in the midwest, then moved to LA to go to art school (I felt my education would be more diversified here, which it was). I worked through school, met my wife of 9 years now, and just recently had a beautiful daughter...she's almost 2 years old, and I lover her more than anything. Out of school I got into marketing, and have done fairly well. We bought a house about four years ago, and have certainly experienced the kind of inflated appreciation that everyone reads about in the LA houseing market. However, we've also experience the drugs, violence (an old blind man got beaten up inside his home by two intruders a couple of weeks ago....right down the street) and overcrowding that go with it.
So, having been on several vacations to Montana as a child with my dad (and having loved it there), we began looking to purchase a second home in Montana which we could get away to a couple of times a year, and eventually retire in.
So my question is, what could possible be wrong with that? We don't have some type of hidden agenda to come in, wreck the land and drive up housing costs. We're friendly, quiet, family-oriented people who get along with everyone (almost). I don't understand the objection by some folks to owning a second home in Montana (which would be paid for with hard work and savings, by the way, not unrealistic equity from our unstable housing market.) People who own second homes are not there very often, which is virtually same as the land being unoccupied. There is little or now wear and tear on the land, no increased burden on school systems, property taxes are paid. Whats the problem?
Additionally, it should be pointed out that, like anyone, I did not have a clear picture of where I would be in my thirties when I decided to move out here. I did not know I would meet my wife. Or that I would have a child, or that I would dislike it here in LA now, and feel a burning desire to get away and experience some peace from time to time. How can you fault people like me who simply need an escape? Sure, you could make the argument "you choose to live there, you could always move", but c'mon. We all know as we get older we build more responsibilities and become more rooted in our daily lives. I'm stuck, at least for now, here in LA. My wife's family is here (they are the only daycare we can afford), my daughter's on 2 year waiting lists for pre schools (can you believe that?) and I have financial responsilities (like college), that I can't fulfill in many other markets.
So am I just supposed to accept that and hate my life, or am I not entitled to experience just a little bit of satisfaction in the way of natural beauty and quiet that I had as a kid?
I suppose you could say that, having not grown up in Montana, I can never view it from a native's perspective, and that's true. But I certainly expected people to be neighborly and friendly, and simply don't get how one can justify being rude to people considering buying an "escape" property in Montana. Perhaps you think people have more choices in life than they really do. But for me, this is the only way I can see keeping my sanity until retirement. I don't understand how you could fault me for that.
You dont think you can live in MT with "only" 100,000 ayear? OK, I wonder how I do it on half? I know I spend too much on my race car program and could do better without it, but, topramens cheap. As smart as you folks are Id think you could adjust youre life style alittle. Wow, what I could do with an extra 50k!
Mr Scary, I think some of the locals issues are with folks moving there, not necessarily having a "getaway" home. I could be wrong...although it would be the first time ever....today LOL.
So my question is, what could possible be wrong with that?
Nothing except that so many people are/have done it that it has adverse affects.
Montana was perceived as the "last best place" (I hate the term now) it was perceived that way for a reason, for what the land was and what people liked about it, simply put, uncluttered landscape, not over deveopled, quite roads, even the large towns/cites had a small town fell, etc, etc, etc.
Well that has all changed, inparticular - western montana and the Bozeman/yellowstone area. Obviously some areas of montana are less effected than others, like easten montana. But pretty much any part of the state with mountains has been affected, because they are the desireable parts to live/vacation, etc.
But to get to your point, let me try an analogy.......you go to the park for a picinic, it's quite, nice and your are alone, shortly after another couple comes and takes a place at the other side of the open area, you'd probably think, "humm nice to have a little company, they look like a nice couple"....then shortly another group arrives, ok there is still plenty of room here, then little by little more and more people arrive in the park, some start throwing a football around and hit you, that's alright they didn't mean it, but "ouch", then more people arrive, all nice people, and it begins to reach a point that you feel like you are getting crowded out....and wonder why do they keep coming in, it's not quit here anymore, it's crowded....and you naturally start getting an attitude on everyone, why don't they just go over to the next park, spread out a little.....Do you get my point, Can you blame it on any one person who came into the park, well no, but you blame it on the last ones coming, the ones that keep coming even after the park has lost it's peace and quite, things just lose their appeal when people start feeling they are crowded and being changed and forced to put up with things, when they see the place being changed to accomondate crowds, at which point the last arrivals are seen as and are the source of the problem.....
That is all just human nature for people to feel the way they do and maybe for good reason, ........not blaming anyone, the chips just fall where they do.
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Disappointed
OK, I wonder how I do it on half? I know I spend too much on my race car program and could do better without it, but, topramens cheap. As smart as you folks are Id think you could adjust youre life style alittle.
Wow, what I could do with an extra 50k!
LOL.
