LoL I thought you were in SF, NYC, or LA (Or Seattle, Chicago, Portland some place) and making the move...
Can’t really say much as NY and LA are the places I’m most fmiliar with! But I do wonder...What it’d be like...If...
Sanity...
Billings in a college town, which is never good. Montana in general is conservative. I live in North West Montana and love it.
Recently spoke a home appraiser friend who said he has never been this busy. Sadly it is NY, NJ, OR, IL and CA license plates. They are paying full asking price. I suggested he should tell them houses really are in bad condition.
Gunner
One of my Brothers lives in Billings.
H still likes it there although it has grown largely because of the oil boom.
Go.
Montana is the last redoubt
“ Movin’ to Montana soon
Gonna be a Dental Floss tycoon“
1. It is COLD in the winter and the winter starts in September and ends in May, with any luck.
2. They named a town JOE, after the San Francisco 49er JOE Montana.
.
Since so few people live there it HAS to be a nice place...especially if you like snow.
Great Falls area or Kalispell area .
We have friends in Missoula who would welcome more conservatives to that beautiful place!
When we lived in Tri-Cities, eastern Washington, we had a lot of folks who had moved down there from Montana and Wyoming - ‘because it was so much warmer.’ We were up from Los Angeles and an occasional 30 below, with 20 below average (hitting a high of 0) in the winter and 120 in the summer didn’t seem all that balmy to us. haha. I loved it there tho.
Montana is seeing a flood of refugees from blue states. Be advised it is VERY cold there in winter. Montana may turn Leftist with all the inbound escapees wanting to soil Montana after they have soiled their home states.
North Dakota born and raised here. Grew up in Bismarck, Rugby,and Dickinson. Now in Cheyenne - it is livable.
Get a good heavy coat.
Friend of a friend lived there. Had a beautiful home on many acres, lived to be 99. Her name was actually Billingsley, which meant her ancestors had something to do with establishing the place. I drove through, but did not stop. My impression: beautiful area, very nice town that seemed a good balance of wealthy and middle-class people. I also liked the Kalispell area. Visited a few times with friend who had a house there. Beautiful lake, close to Glacier National Park.
What EVER you do, DO NOT move to Laramie WY.
The dam places is 35 below in the winter and the wind blows all the time.
It aint the end of the world, but I tell you it is so close you can smell it from there as well as see it.
I spent three months there and I couldnt wait to get to hell out. And I am from the UP of Michigan where we get over 200 inches of snow each years.
Just remember, although the temps might not get real-real cold in Billings, the wind chill is unreal. As are all the front range areas and foot hill areas.
grew up in great falls Montana and went to school in billings . its been about 35 years since I lived in billings. the best explanation about what to expect in Montana is that the attitudes and trends of the state are 7-10 years behind the rest of the country... when I lived there it was a lot of real good people. Warning the winters are rough and a lot of people move there live a few winters there then move because they finally experience a super bad winter with the temp dropping below -40 degrees for weeks at a time. my suggestion is to rent for a year before you decide to buy a place. the turn over of people who move there is extremely high.
I live in the Bitterroot Valley, the banana belt of Montana. Called that because of our temperate winters.
I live over half my life here at 40 degrees or less.
Billings is even colder.
Heck, I been looking at every place out there. Even though I hate sub zero winters.
Christopher Moore, in his novel Coyote Blue, describes how the Indians in that part of Montana didn’t have to drive buffalo off the cliff. The buffalo would take a look, say, “Oh crap, it’s Billings,” and then jump.
Billings is busy from the oil patch - the summers are hot, the winters are cold and snowy. The wind NEVER stops. Love the thunderstorms there, good mix of foods, easy to travel to see many regional and local sights.
It’s a good place, just be ready for some real weather.
Oh - make sure you have a garage - for the snow in winter but also for the hail in summer.
