Concerned about the cost of living in Casper, WY (Cheyenne: for sale, real estate)

[nmoch]

Hi, my family and I are looking at possibly relocating to Casper, WY within the next couple of months. My husband will be accepting a job in the energy business....anyways......we have been browsing homes for sale online and found that they are very expensive and you don't get much land with anything for less than $300K+. Is it impossible to find a home with acreage in the $300k-$400K range? Is it just a bad time to be buying now? Picked over? We don't see anything with land hardly for sale. Also was wondering if anyone could share anything about the cost of living otherwise there (daycare rates, car tags, groceries, gas,etc.) Any schools or areas of town to stay away from? We have moved around the country several times and the closest we lived to Casper was Denver-loved Denver but again-housing was hard to find with acreage within a good commute time. Thanks in advance.......any info on Casper is greatly appreciated!

[jody_wy]

a lot of land outside Casper in large ranches.

[sipes23]

My wife is looking at preschool rates and is getting a pleasant surprise on the cost (but then we did just come from Chicago where that stuff seems expensive). The food prices seem outrageous to us as we are used to Aldi prices, but I suspect once the grocery flyers start coming in we'll find better deals. Housing generally seems to cost more than it "should", but that seems to be the Casper market.

As far as parts of town to avoid, I've been told again and again that north Casper may be a place I wouldn't want to live in. How true that is, I can't say yet. But that's what I've been told. Take it for whatever it's worth.

[sunsprit]

in the boom/bust cycles of the Casper economy, the recent high wages and many jobs of the energy sector are the driving factor behind the higher real estate price points of late. WYSIWYG, I'd suggest you look on the South side of town.

Food pricing tends to be expensive compared to a lot of regional areas. Consider transportation costs, little is produced locally. The population total doesn't support economies of scale. So it's pricey for a lot of stuff, and remote from other major shopping destinations, such as heading down to the Front Range of Colorado or Salt Lake City.

Vehicle licenses will be pricey compared to most places. The ownership fee component is based upon the Factory List Price and is expensive for the first few years. It goes down via a sliding scale over time, but it doesn't matter what you paid for the vehicle or it's market value today. Sales tax on a vehicle purchase is 3% state and then the county taxes ... IIRC, Casper totals 7% for a vehicle purchase which must be paid for the title paperwork to be processed (separate from the registration/license fees). You can call the Casper license plate office and they can give you an estimate for your first year licenses.

You can check gas prices daily on the 'net ... gasbuddy.com is a good reference. Not too high compared to some places, but definitely not as low as some of the USA.

[pedro wyoming]

If you plan to move to a boomtown then plan to pay the boom price. in 08-09 the prices did not fall like in the rest of the nation. The unemployed went back home to file for unemployment and the property owners just waited for the next boom which was the following year.

Regarding education...you will get what you paid for...mineral taxes pay for schools and education but unless you want mediocre children that live at home, you will school them yourself.

[Wyoming_Medic]

First thing you must remember is that Casper is hundreds of miles from ANY kind of major distribution hub or storage facility. Food and other supplies cost more than the rest of the country.

Need to order something in via truck freight? Most likely, shipping will be 50-75% more than if you lived somewhere else. Need to fly out on a commercial flight? You can either drive 5 hours to Denver, or pay an extra $300 per ticket to fly out of Casper's airport.

That is the truth about living here. The solitude comes at a price.

As for land, you can buy tons of it for only a few hundred dollars an acre. It won't have water rights, sewer, electric, or any infrastructure within 50 miles. Again, this is the price. EVERYBODY wants to move here for peace and quiet. That comes at a price. We are in the process of selling our house and have gained $80k in equity over a couple of years.

Boom and bust, you take the highs with the lows.

[nmoch]

Thank you everyone for the input..........I appreciate everything!

[rya700]

Wyoming's economy contracted in June

I'm not the expert but wouldn't you all suspect home prices in Wyoming to start decreasing soon due to the downturn in the energy industry?

A considerable number of homes have come up for sale in Fremont county just in the past few months....

[sunsprit]

rya700 ...

In the housing markets which have supported the energy industries, this may be a trend.

Due to the current pressures on the coal industry via EPA mandates, and low gas/oil pricing (and a glut of that for now), there's been layoffs and a shut-down of a lot of wells and drilling rigs. Operating crew staffing is a lot less than what it took for drilling and development.

There's a wider impact to this than may seem apparent on the surface. For example, there's a fair number of folk in towns as remote as Lander that were commuting to the oil patch jobs who may now find themselves out of work.

It remains to be seen what the impact of this bust side of the boom/bust cycle of Wyoming's economy will bring.

Keep in mind that as production declines, State mineral severance tax revenues decline, too. This can have a big impact on a lot of Wyoming economic activity.

As well, the current drop in the stock market may have an impact in other areas. Folk that may have had a cash flow out of there may see that decline, which could affect disposable income. I'm thinking that the recent boom in tourist dollars may shrink, too.

Of course, those with substantial assets may yet have the resources to buy in at the pricier end of the RE markets; ie, larger parcels/ranches. For example, the YCross Ranch just sold here near Cheyenne from CO and WY universities. I think I know the buyer (whose identity and sales price was withheld from the public), and he's got the resources to play in the land of $25mil purchases (which was the asked price for the property).

Such is the reality of historic cycles of boom/bust here in Wyoming. Time to wait and see what opportunities develop over the next year. My bet is that there will be a bunch of folk leaving WY in the current cycle, seeking employment elsewhere. Along with that, there will be a number of folk who will make do as best as possible to survive here, hanging on doing whatever it takes to keep the cash flow and await the next boom cycle. But we may be seeing distress pricing and short sales in the marketplace with the energy boom decline. Have to wonder, too, if the other mining, such as trona, will be affected by the current decline in the market.

[branDcalf]

I think you are certainly wise to consider the cost of living and the impact it will have on your lifestyle. Often people come with an inflated expectation of what their wages will provide and get in trouble trying to support that expectation.

But having lived in Casper while raising a family and going to college and working, we found many low cost very fun activities. If you like the outdoors, which we did.