Northwoods Labs
Well-known member
Man, the more I read this the more happy I am in NW Wisconsin.........
Where should I move to in MT?
- Thread starter mr_steve
- Start date
Carnage2011
Well-known member
Quit! I live 30 miles from Dillon and that place is hot garbage! Just make the trip to Melrose and eat at the Hitchin Post. It’s 1000000x better than any burger in Dillon.
On the topic of Dillon I once met the owner of the Dillon DQ while out elk hunting and he was a very nice guy. Definitely worth supporting!
Carnage2011
Well-known member
Dillon has some great people. Small town that supports its local businesses.
MThuntr
Well-known member
Dillon is closed too...end of discussion
Background: My wife, myself and our two year old live in Omaha, NE where she is in year two of a four year OBGYN residency program (completion June 2023). We both grew up in ND, spent a couple years in both WA and AK. I’ve always wanted to live in MT for hunting, we both love the mountains for activities like snowboarding and lastly it allows us to be somewhat close to home to see family. The limiting factor for location is her job. Most smaller towns don’t have a dedicated OBGYN or you’d have to be on call most every night is my understanding. She would ideally like to live in a town of 15k or larger for those reasons, an ideal call ratio is 1:5-7. We have family in Helena and Butte so Helena is currently at the top of the list with Bozeman, Missoula and Sheridan (yes I know it’s in WY) following. I’ve explored ideas like the Hamilton but I fear its too small. All that being said I have no experience with any of this, just basing this off of what I’ve read and what she has told me. I’d love to live in a smaller communityOur main goal is to find a community to invest ourselves in for decades to come and also have good work/life balance. Starting this month we will begin introducing ourselves to recruiters which may dictate a lot of this. We hope to have a plan by summer of 2022 to give us time to plan the move. I’ll update you all on what happens!
Question: Where in Montana should we look to move? Anyone have past experience with friends or family in a similar situation and can offer advice?
Thanks for any input and advice offered. I apologize for being another person looking to move to MT but I hope you understand our reasoning!
I appreciate all the banter on this thread, I really didn't expect it but it's been oddly helpful!
A few observations:
1. Real Estate is going up astronomically. Will it continue?
2. Hunting is crowded everywhere. Go to a different state!
3. Everyone hates the major cities in Montana
My thoughts:
1. People have different opinions on what makes a town great. As I mentioned when we moved to Yakima, WA all we read was how bad it was and then we fell in love because we found a great group of people and lots of adventures. A lot of the time I feel it's about the people more than the place. Also the people who love Yakima like that it's hated because it keeps people out. So they brings up the question, are Butte, Billings and Great Falls that bad or do people just like to hate them?
2. I think we will be trying to avoid Bozeman and Missoula if at all possible. Helena still leads our list at this point, although a lot of the smaller communities like Lewistown and Anaconda are intriguing.
3. My wife and I need to explore working in the smaller communities and compare the pros and cons.
4. Our main goal is to find my wife a job she loves as we all know that makes everyone happier and she has honestly earned it.
I will keep everyone updated on how this shakes out over the next year and half. In the meantime continue the banter!
If we would have waited 4 more months, I bet we could have doubled our payday on our Pburg place. Someone got a good deal there.
KB_
Well-known member
@mr_steve If your wife is gonna be an obgyn, bozeman or billings is your best bet. Missoula is a good option too. Yea bigger towns, high real estate. Crowded hunting is subjective. Not everywhere is crowded and some times it depends on how far you wanna go. But in her career field bozeman is still reasonable pricewise. Frankly bozeman and missoula are college towns, they are what they are, but the economy will likely always be decent because they are college towns. Always something going on, If you into the small town feel there are some smaller towns outside of bozeman that I enjoy. I personally live in belgrade and I love it here. Small enough that i can still take the kids for a walk and not really have to worry about cars or many people. Most people are super friendly to. There are crappy parts of town but most of it is new construction at this point, it has grown so much since I got here 3 years ago.
Never been to the Dillon one, but the Butte one wasn’t much good 2009-2012
Nameless Range
Well-known member
Brian in Montana
Well-known member
Glendive
I'd vote for Manhattan. I love it here. Small, friendly town with great schools, great views, and short drive to anything you want to do in Bozeman.
Your wife could be to the hospital quicker than living in quite a few different areas of Bozeman proper.
Helena, Dillon, Ennis and Lewistown would be on my personal short list behind the Bozeman area.
Your wife could be to the hospital quicker than living in quite a few different areas of Bozeman proper.
Helena, Dillon, Ennis and Lewistown would be on my personal short list behind the Bozeman area.
Last edited:
hogcarpy
Well-known member
Hitchin Post is great
Irrelevant
Well-known member
Agree on Helena, but for there are a million places to hot lap around Butte, just gotta put in a little sweat
That does look good. I am not sure if I ever had their breakfast.
Carnage2011
Well-known member
Gerald Martin
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Having spent 18 years living close to a small town of 1600 people in NW MT and driving 2 hours each way for orthodontists, doctors, and shopping centers, the convenience of Bozeman is nice.
Cost of housing on the retail market is definitely higher but salaries are too.
Personally, the angle I took to make it work was building my own house, but that’s not going to be feasible for most people. The land was definitely more expensive by 10x than where we came from but building materials are actually cheaper. Labor is higher reflecting the reality of the cost of living, but I am doing the vast majority of work myself.
Having said that, the cost of lots from the time we closed in June to now has increased to the point that what was feasible for us in June would not work if we were starting the process now.
My choice then was to buy a 1990 built, 1600 sq ft. house on a tiny lot with neighbors 30’ from me on two sides or 2 1/2 acres of land and build this house myself for about 15% more.
If I don’t go crazy in the process, I am pretty sure
future values will agree I made the right choice. Right or wrong the die is cast.
It is a given that if you are considering Bozeman, think outside Bozeman in the surrounding areas rather than the city itself.
Cost of housing on the retail market is definitely higher but salaries are too.
Personally, the angle I took to make it work was building my own house, but that’s not going to be feasible for most people. The land was definitely more expensive by 10x than where we came from but building materials are actually cheaper. Labor is higher reflecting the reality of the cost of living, but I am doing the vast majority of work myself.
Having said that, the cost of lots from the time we closed in June to now has increased to the point that what was feasible for us in June would not work if we were starting the process now.
My choice then was to buy a 1990 built, 1600 sq ft. house on a tiny lot with neighbors 30’ from me on two sides or 2 1/2 acres of land and build this house myself for about 15% more.
If I don’t go crazy in the process, I am pretty sure
future values will agree I made the right choice. Right or wrong the die is cast.It is a given that if you are considering Bozeman, think outside Bozeman in the surrounding areas rather than the city itself.
LCH
Well-known member
And within a day's drive to most of the western states. I often leave home at 4 AM ET and get to my hunt areas by 8 or 9 PM MT.
Been there recently? Cant keep taco John’s, McDonald’s, Dairy Queen or Kmart in town. That place i just am unsure fits the needs he’s looking for.
Big Sky
Well-known member
Kallispell or Bozeman for scenery. Great Falls for convenience to get about anywhere in the state in less than a full days drive. Real estate is much cheaper in Great Falls and the surrounding communities. Helena also gets a vote from me. I like to fish though, and Helena is close to much of the best fishing in the state.
