Need advice on where to live? (Cheyenne, Casper: house, neighborhoods, to buy)

[hallppme]

I am a 26 year old single female who grew up and lived in Orange County, California until recently. I temporarily lived half a year in Manhattan and grew to truly hate the crammed city life. I then moved to DC and it really was not my kind of place. I've been trying to buy my 1st home but I simply cannot afford anywhere other than San Bernadino and Riverside in California with a 200k maximum house price (not the best of areas for a female living alone). Which state would you consider to be close or similar to California yet affordable with housing? I was highly interested in living in Phoenix because I could make the drive to visit family in California during the holidays and housing is affordable. But I have two dogs and I do not want scorpions or snakes to end up in my house or to be in contact with them. I am trying to avoid areas with many pests and wild animals. Miami and Denver are off the list because of the breed ban. I travel a lot for work so I can pretty much move anywhere so long as it is considered at least a fairly major city. Any help is appreciated.

[sunsprit]

What pops out in your requirements if the "I travel a lot for work" so "I can pretty much move anywhere ... (to) at least a major city".

Which implies that you need ready access to a major airport.

If that's the case, they you've ruled out Wyoming. We have limited public air transportation. Essentially, you'll need to travel out of state to Utah, South Dakota, Montana, or Colorado for access ... and that means driving some distance or attempting to rely upon the limited (and very expensive service it is) commuter flights from Wyoming airports to those major airports.

In any calculation, Wyoming does not have any city that would be considered "a fairly major city". With Casper and Cheyenne both hovering around 60,000 population, that's not even the size of some of the suburbs on truly "major cities".

[Happy in Wyoming]

Originally Posted by hallppme

I am a 26 year old single female who grew up and lived in Orange County, California until recently. I temporarily lived half a year in Manhattan and grew to truly hate the crammed city life. I then moved to DC and it really was not my kind of place. I've been trying to buy my 1st home but I simply cannot afford anywhere other than San Bernadino and Riverside in California with a 200k maximum house price (not the best of areas for a female living alone). Which state would you consider to be close or similar to California yet affordable with housing? I was highly interested in living in Phoenix because I could make the drive to visit family in California during the holidays and housing is affordable. But I have two dogs and I do not want scorpions or snakes to end up in my house or to be in contact with them. I am trying to avoid areas with many pests and wild animals. Miami and Denver are off the list because of the breed ban. I travel a lot for work so I can pretty much move anywhere so long as it is considered at least a fairly major city. Any help is appreciated.

Evanston, Wyoming could be an excellent location for you. It's only a bit over an hour to the Salt Lake airport. There are no dangerous insects or venomnous snakes. You can buy a nice home with a very large lot for under 200K. It's seventy miles away, but driving times are likely less than what you'd find living in most big cities. SLC has what people out here call heavy traffic, but it's inconsequential compared to either California or the east coast.

Evanston is west of the blizzard belt and has the lowest average wind speed of Wyoming counties. Wyoming is a wonderful place to live.

No bad neighborhoods either.

[Ltdumbear]

Bozeman, Montana springs to mind.


I would strongly recommend visiting that town (in person) or run-through it using Google-Earth 'street-view'' where you can literally travel along the streets and rotate in a 360' view wherever the 'Google-car' traveled and uploaded what 'it' saw to Google.

[Brian_M]

Bozeman, while nice (I went to college there), probably doesn't fit due to Housing prices... air travel is also limited and Very expensive (still a regional airport, think of Bozeman as a just slightly cheaper Jackson, WY).

No bugs/pests rules out the vast majority of the country, and wild animals are everywhere... I had deer in my yard in Atlanta, racoon issues in DC, and watched Elk walk down the street in Denver.

My wife also travels for work (or did, taking a couple years off from that but will again) and you REALLY want to be within a couple hours drive of a Major airport. Narrow your search by proximity to those airports, you will be MUCH happier not having to spend an additional 10+ hours trying to get into a regional airport that only have a couple of flights a day.

If you like the mountains/outdoors, then Denver area (the breed ban doesn't cover the whole front range and there are a LOT of vets who understand that it's not the breed, it's the dog ~ I have a Husky which is occasionally included in these bans and have taken part in these discussions over the years) and the Salt Lake City area are probably on top with Sea-Tac and maybe Hartford being next in line. If you travel to both sides of the country and you don't really care about where, specifically, you live then maybe one of the central airport states (MN, IL, MO).

You need to be WAY more specific with your wants/needs. If not to us, at least to yourself. The more items on the list, the easier it is to hone in on the best option. What do you do with your free time, do you want/need any access to specific things (museums, malls, art galleries, theater/opera, micro-distilleries, whatever). Make a list of "Must have", "would Really like", and "wow, cherry on top!" type things. You'll want to do the EXACT same thing for any possible property you buy too.

Good luck!