Re: montana roll call

[gregabob]

Well,Jackie's in Minnesota if I'm not mistaken....but you've got Mtwildflower! And her new lil' squirt---in the member photo section-very cute!

[Drifty]

Unique, aren't we?

[1lifetolive]

Checking in from the NW corner.

[Sharps]

Checking in from SW Montana

[MontanaQuilter]

Hello from NW Montana ;D

[harvester]

howdy from the capitol city!

[silvertip]

Just signed on.

I am from Bozeman originally, would like to refrain from telling where I am stuck now, but it is still in Montana.

Lets just say that where I am now, if you could harness all the hot air being generated, we could solve any energy crisis. ;D

[huckelberry]

silvertip...must be missoula...im up bearmouth...huck

[silvertip]

Close Huckleberry, but your shot was about 90 miles west.

[1lifetolive]

Were the scenery tax money first goes.....

[hglucky13]

i'll be in nw montana in a couple of months does that count? ;D
later
alan

[zeke]

I used to live in Missoula, and had some land down by stevenville (should have kept it) had a nice veiw of the bitteroots.
After the ninty influx missoula changed into a hustle and bussle, traffic jams, walmart came in, more shopping malls, new laws, ect......sold the land thought about the east side but moved out of state, wy, then co, but I still have montana in my blood and miss those long summer days, miss benson fresh veggies, and the bum bird palace on ninth street, and cheap yard sales, ect..............

Zeke.

[mikesgirl]

Hi - checking in from central Montana - part time for now.

[AZTimT]

Well after 5 years of wanting to be a MT resident I finally am. I'm still in the middle of completing a long, slow move up here from AZ, but I've been up here off and on since January (best time to scout out places you DON'T want that you might in the summer), been a resident since May and love it.

I found an old fixer upper on a nice piece of land that I could barely afford out in Huson about 30 minutes away from town. I had to keep the commute to the UMT short for the wife with gas prices guaranteed to not get cheaper over the long run. Not crazy about Missoula itself other than the amenities, but love the areas surrounding it. I visited my uncle in Libby in 2004 after I came home from Iraq and I knew where I was gonna live if ever I had the chance. I couldn't even dream of affording it back then with the housing market, but now I figure I could just as well be broke in MT and be happy as be broke in AZ and wishin I was here.

Have a great day MT!

[humbug]

Hi am in the process of becoming a Montana girl. I spend about a third of my time there now. Hoping to complete the move by Spring. Will be relocating to Frenchtown for now.
Ok.....can someone tell me WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH THE REAL ESTATE????? It is way overpriced and the local jobs do not pay enough to support the cost of the real estate. We have been looking for a piece of property to put a cabin on. It needs to be within an hours drive from Missoula due to the fact that my sweetie works there. Ok and whats the deal with the covenants??? I am amazed that someone would be able to tell you what you can and cannot do with your own land....

confused Nevadian.....

[AZTimT]

confused Nevadian
Short version, out of state big money came to town and tried to "change" things. They jacked up the prices and killed off some important parts of the job market through selfish and somewhat careless actions. This included putting strange limitations on previously unrestricted land. As I understand it this was a bit of a statewide phenomenon which led to the state as a whole being in a bit of a recession for most of the last 20 years.

Long version if you want more details:
As to the pricing: There are many factors as explained by people who have lived here most of their life and remember when prior to the early 90's land was cheap and plentiful. They say too many Californians and other rich liberals sold out where they were for big money, then came up here with little thought to how their actions would impact the area in a big land grab. They scooped up most of the cheap stuff to the extent that they overpaid for a lot of it which raised the property taxes and drove up the market without bringing very many jobs with them. A lot of these folks didn't last very long (as in were run off :D), but their short sighted damage had long lasting effects. One valid example was a movie star bought a 3,000 acre covenant free ranch to use part time and treated her neighbors very poorly. She even hired security guards to keep people (at gunpoint) from fishing the waterways on her land, which by state law are still for public use up to the height of the highest waterline. Now she only has about 300 acres left that she visits a couple weeks a year and the rest is supposed to be subdivided with covenants.

Some of those same people turned around and took steps to limit how much land could be available to the public to buy through over-active and often misinformed conservation efforts. Once a property has a conservation easement on it, it can never be improved on. If it becomes federal or state property, it's chances of being lived on, accessed or hunted on in the future rapidly diminish as more laws/restrictions are put in place.

This then led to shutting down most of the logging on public lands because they know what's best, better than nature. How else do you explain miles and miles of trees standing dead from various causes including old age, previously and prematurely extinguished fires, bark beetles and other bugs that select only the weakest, sickest trees and can only be killed off in extreme cold or fire. So let's review, not only can you not harvest the millions of board feet of perfectly good, already dead fire hazard lumber, you also can't let the forests burn either as that will lower the home values and pretty views even though that is nature's way of replenishing itself by killing the bugs fertilizing the land and instigating new growth. :sarcastic:

As to the jobs: No wonder then that this of course led to several lumber mills in the state closing down as recently as last year meaning fewer jobs in a lumber based economy and more devastating fires leading to higher insurance rates. So when supply of land is short, but demand is high it is difficult to afford, especially in times like these. Market corrections take time. Also, the state's economy is slowly switching away from reliance on agribusiness to more things in the city. Can't stop progress, but you can resist it a bit. :p

As to the covenants: They are set in place by a previous owner and only they can remove them so the previous owner that set them is the one to blame/contact if you want to get it fixed. If they are dead, good luck. Not all properties have covenants, you have to do a bit of homework on each one you like to find out though. The covenants can also affect value. I have NO covenants on my property so it kept the value higher than a similar property with covenants but I got what I paid for. Also, some places have very mild covenants like you can't raise pigs, and others are almost communist (think HOA). If there is an Home Owner's Association, then you can bet there are covenants.

There are a lot of properties out there for sale right now, some with improvements/buildings and some with none, but many aren't even listed with realtors. The one hour drive will open up some good opportunities that my 30 minute rule blocked out, but that can also put you on non maintained dirt roads where winter can be tougher with snow/ice. Scouting for places in Jan/Feb right after a good snowfall helps you figure out what you can make work and what you can't.

I love it here, but as my neighbor says, it's not for everybody.

Hope some of this made sense and/or helped. Good luck!

[humbug]

Thanks for the reply..az...we have been looking at every option we can to buy some property here..really are running out of ideas..anything that is affordable is on a steep hillside...not buildable or too far out to be commutable to work. There is an incredible amount for sale here, you would think the prices would start coming down.

[AZTimT]

Thanks for the reply..az...we have been looking at every option we can to buy some property here..really are running out of ideas..anything that is affordable is on a steep hillside...not buildable or too far out to be commutable to work. There is an incredible amount for sale here, you would think the prices would start coming down.

No problem. You would think so, but part of it is that the unemployment rate here is only 5% which is half the national average. We also are one of only 6 states with a balanced budget this year and next year. That might keep it from going down as fast too.

If you would like a little more info/help on your search let me know. I still have many of the sites I used to find my place bookmarked. Just PM me and I can send it to you if it would help.

[humbug]

Thanks AZ pm sent.

[AZTimT]

Anytime! PM replied

[MT4me]

NW MT checking in! :D

[mtwildflower]

Can't believe I didn't see it before now!

I'm west of Great Falls. Grew up in the Choteau, Fairfield, Augusta area and moved back here 11 years ago after a 13 year stint in Havre.

Less expensive land will be found in the eastern part of the state. I've heard it said many times that if the fertile soil in the east, could be coupled with the climate in the west, then we'd have farm land that rivaled California.

I love the mountains, but if I were to seriously look for a decent homestead land, I'd look to the eastern part of the state.

[kldickinson1]

Hello Montanans!

I am a misplaced New Englander, and I'm really itchin' to leave. Montana has an inexplicable pull for me, and I'd like to go visit. However, unlike our tiny New England states, Montana is HUGE! I don't even know which airport to fly into!

Here's what I'm looking for. Can you good folks walk me in?

1. I'm a God-fearing and country-loving American. I'd like to be with like-minded people. I do not have any more patience to listen to people tell me how government is going to solve the world's problems.
2. What passes for a plain in New England is about 100 acres. I think I need some hills. Doesn't have to be mountains, but I reckon I'd freak without trees.

That's it. What part of Montana does that sound like, and what part doesn't it sound like? I just really, really want to fit in somewhere, and Massachusetts is NOT it.

Thanks!!!

[wolfsbane]

Montana is very different from Mass. You may wish to refine your requirements a little so someone could give you some accurate information.
The eastern third of the state is pretty much prairie,
the middle third between the Rocky Mountains on the west side to prairie on the east with some island mountain chains scattered around.
The western third is the picturesque side where all the photos you see come from.

Northern tier is pretty flat east of Glacier park, southern tier has mountains and the Yellowstone river running most of the length of the state.

Citys to fly into to do some searching are Missoula in the West, Bozeman, Helena, or Butte in the south central, Billings for the Eastern and Central thirds, and Great Falls for the northern tier.

Amounts of water, vegitation, climate, grass, trees all vary depending on where you are.

If you have questions about a specific area it would be a lot easier to answer as Montana has multiple climates and regions that are vastly different from each other.

Different regions are like comparing different states in other parts of the country, some look a lot like Alaska, some look like Texas or Arizona, some parts remind you of Missouri, most of the state resembles Siberia in the winter :rolleyes:

Politically, most of the state is pretty conservative. The liberal areas are mostly around Missoula and Great Falls.
Some areas are more libertarian, some more constitutionalist, most are just do your own thing and leave me alone to do mine.

[mtwildflower]

Politically, most of the state is pretty conservative. The liberal areas are mostly around Missoula and Great Falls.
Some areas are more libertarian, some more constitutionalist, most are just do your own thing and leave me alone to do mine.

There are the old Democrat populations that are rife with unions from the early days, like railroads (Havre) and mining (Butte).

Lately, MT can go either way politically.

Any new Montanans out there lately?

Oh, and Ihave another whipper snapper since the beginning of this thread. My Lucibug is 3 and my Eviebee just turned 1.

[crackergirl]

Lived there in several places (Pryor, Big Timber, Belt) and long for it still. Just could not make a living there, jobs kept drying up. And DH did not like the climate.
Wish I thought we would be able to return for good, but don't see how we could ever afford a place.
Still dream about it though...

[mtviolet]

Checking in from the western part of the state. Outskirts of that liberal city with the university.

[mtdrtbag]

Saying "Hello" from the Potomac area. Native Montanan. Great grandparents homesteaded in the Boulder valley south of Helena in the late 1880's and eastern Montana about the same time.. Was in Arizona for about 10 years before being able to transfer back home to Montana about 6 years ago.. Loved Arizona, but this is my home. Would love to meet any other BHM folks in the Potomac/Bonner or anywhere in Montana for that matter.

[mtwildflower]

Saying "Hello" from the Potomac area. Native Montanan. Great grandparents homesteaded in the Boulder valley south of Helena in the late 1880's and eastern Montana about the same time.. Was in Arizona for about 10 years before being able to transfer back home to Montana about 6 years ago.. Loved Arizona, but this is my home. Would love to meet any other BHM folks in the Potomac/Bonner or anywhere in Montana for that matter.

My cousin lives in Potomac. He's a contractor there and his wife teaches in Zooland. My great grandparents homesteaded north of Galata/Chester. (See above for where I'm from) Have you had any luck meeting anyone else from the area from this forum?

[mtwildflower]

Checking in from the western part of the state. Outskirts of that liberal city with the university.

So are you on the interstate...near the town of France or more south, closer to Victor and Hamilton Corvallis?

Nice to "see" you. I'm on the "sane" side of the front, but you wouldn't know it from all the wind we get. ;-P

[mtdrtbag]

My cousin lives in Potomac. He's a contractor there and his wife teaches in Zooland. My great grandparents homesteaded north of Galata/Chester. (See above for where I'm from) Have you had any luck meeting anyone else from the area from this forum?

As of yet I haven't met any other folks who tend to show up in this forum. I can't believe what Missoula has become.....I guess it has always been weird, though...huh? I don't spend much time there. To work and back. Costco, ACE Hardware, Murdocks and the Good Food Store are the extent of my travels. Getting settled in for winter. Topping off the wood shed. Trying to put some meat in the freezer. Making potato sausage, saurkraut and lefse. Finishing a new dog kennel befor the snow flies. Your cousin sounds like my neighbor. Does he live up Bear Creek by any chance?

[mtviolet]

mtwildflower.... i am in the Target Range area, between the city and the bitterroot valley. At least I am out of the city limits by about 2 miles. Close enough for work, and shopping but out of the politics and city laws. used to work at the University, but got laid off, and not at all disappointed about that. Too many politics and campus was literally a zoo on some days. Now I work several part time jobs and am much happier. Even travel to Butte once a month for work. Have a daughter that works for the state so is in the capital.

[glocker21]

recently moved from Helena to MIssoula

[mtdrtbag]

welcome to the area. my family homesteaded just south of helena. grew up in clancy