Time To Buy In Montanna??

[littlejuniata]

http://www.realtytrac.com/freesearchresult.asp?zipcode=billings,%20MT&zipOnly=true#221

 

[pete41]

When I moved to Montana in 1970,most people moved there for the life style.Then the riots,earthquakes,drugs and other problems in California most notably,motivated people to get away from what they didn't like but bring the lifestyle they did like.They took over the school boards,brought 10 acre ranchettes[ruining the valley views]posted everything they could.Lobbied against hunting and fishing and the mountain man way of life.They liked their new homes so much then encouraged their friends back home to follow.They sold the $600,000 and up houses and bought up the best of Montana that wasn't Govt. owned.Of course the locals could not resist the money nor compete with it.
Since the desirable part of Montana is only the Western third the money interests soon controlled the best.
There are NO low priced places in the ideal parts of Montana.Remember there is only about ten% thats not national or State Forests,Too mountainous,Northern desert etc.,
High prices,low wages makes it about like the Vail Coloradas etc..
Best Bargains in Wyoming,Idaho,S.D.

 

[tomgamber]

Best Bargains in Wyoming,Idaho,S.D.

Sorry, same thing in Idaho and western Wyoming too...Here's an example of a $230,000 House In Boise, Idaho. Yup, there's a bargain. I used to live a few blocks away from here. My rent was $200/mo 15 years ago.

 

[pete41]

Colorado-sorry mangus.
Yep-if we only knew.
In 1970 I could have bought a home in Bozeman for $30,000-and sold it for a half million in 1999.

 

[vcregular]

Lets take it to the extreme - Jackson Hole...average house in JH now $1.2 mil. Up from $525K 4 years ago, market up 28% in price last 12 months.

 

[thedude1534]

Wyoming maybe if you don't live in Teton County. "The millionares are being chased out by the billionares" is the saying I remember hearing when visiting a buddy in Jackson a few years back.

I think a lot of the "mountain men" in that area started going across the border to idaho falls, supposedly its much cheaper there.

 

[ryanh]

There is always Alaska boys
....and if you are too much of a chechako for that then there is Canada.

Oh and words of wisdom from the Eagles;

Some rich man came and raped the land
nobody caught them
put up a bunch of ugly boxes
and Jeasus, people bought them.

......To call someplace paradise, is to kiss it good bye

 

[nimrod]

"Wyoming maybe if you don't live in Teton County. "The millionares are being chased out by the billionares" is the saying I remember hearing when visiting a buddy in Jackson a few years back."

Just got back from a short vacation in the Tetons/Yellowstone. Took a guided float down the Snake and the guide, a long-time local, echoed your statements. Movie stars, high ranking wealthy government officials, etc, etc,. A house you could buy here for maybe 200-300,000 goes for at least 1.5 million out there. The guide said it started going downhill when the DNR started allowing jets to fly into Jackson airport (Lears, you know). Since the huge burden of being chauffer-driven from Salt Lake City was removed, they started buying all the private land, which is limited. They also take advantage of their two weeks in their Jackson homes to claim state residency with Wyoming being a state with no state income tax. Teton County has the highest average per capita income in the country but 80% of the residents earn $20,000 or less a year.

And unlike Montana, where the state owns the streambed, in Wyoming that's not the case.

By the way, the fishing in the Snake was great.

Wish this was everywhere:

http://www.bigskyfishing.com/home_menu_links/stream_access_law.htm

 

[tomgamber]

nimrod wrote:


By the way, the fishing in the Snake was great.

South fork or henry's fork?

 

[nimrod]

South fork between Wilson and South Park

 

[tomgamber]

I hear those cutts are big..

 

[pete41]

One of the great mysteries in fishing is why are they removing browns and rainbows from many watersheds to restock Cutts?They don,t fight as well as either and they are easy to catch.Maybe I just answered my own question.
Returning the natives can be misguided sometimes.Now they have to kill the wolves off everyone was so anxious to return.In Montana they killed the best brown trout fishery in the world by stocking kokanee salmon so that kids and casual fishing types could catch a mess of fish.

 

[nimrod]

My understanding in the Snake area I fished was that fine spotted cutthroats are the only native fish there and they don't want to introduce non-native species to compete.

 

[pete41]

I have heard the reasons but it makes no sense.Cutthroats are on the same level as Whitefish in comparison to Browns and Rainbows.An experienced fisherman in that country will think ``just another cutthroat'' before he see's what he has hooked.
They sure didn't pole the fly fishermen before making that decision.LOL
Greenies and tree huggers rule.

 

[tomgamber]

Anyone who cries and fights to protect the brook trout in pa and then calls the cutthroat trout a trash fish is a hypocrite. I know an awful lot of people out west who climb to the top of 9k ft mtns to catch them. Spent thousands of dollars to put them back in the Boise river.
Most of the fishermen who say the browns should stay and the cutts should be left to become extinct, aren't natives themselves.

 

[pete41]

Easy on the name calling.I think the brook is worth preserving but would I vote to shock the Letort or Penns creek drainage to restock brooks-no.
Did I say that the Cutthroat is a trash fish-no.
I said they don't have the natural fight of either Browns or Rainbows.
I said they lack the wariness of Browns and Rainbows.
I do not know one fisherman that prefers Cutthroat to the other two trout or chars.
Two kill off the Trout [and other fish] in huge drainages out west to reintroduce cutthroats which can't compete with the more aggressive trout is a shame in my opinion.

 

[tomgamber]

I lived in Idaho for 5 years and could find you a dozen in five minutes that would take cutts over browns any day if the browns and brooks didn't already pollute the water out there. As for their fight. I don't know where you were catching them but they fight as well as any other wild rainbow in a large western river. I know a lot guys, some on this board, who have suggested doing the same to browns here in Pa to restore the brookie in some drainages. Should we do it to all, heck no. But there are some water that would be better off and so would the fish. But I think "Hypocrite" is pretty accurate if you suggest stocking over wild rainbow and cutt populations in their native range but think its wrong to stock over native brookies elsewhere. Any trout fisherman who thinks that brushing aside one our countries most beautiful native trout species for any invasive foreign species should have his fishing license revoked. It just makes no sense. And I haven't seen any reference to removing rainbows from any waters in the west. Browns and brooks yes, but not rainbows.

 

[nimrod]

My experience with cutts was limited to this one float but the ones I caught fought as well as any rainbow or brown. They weren't dumb or maybe just off their feed a bit. We had to change up offerings a fair bit and some nice presenations were refused. Considering how many fish are in the river, if they were easy then we'd have caught a lot more.

Besides, I'm partial to trout that like to attach themselves to the end of my fly line.

 

[flyfishermanj]

pete,

I for one like to fish for cutts, are they "easy" to catch? Yeah, but so are all other fish at times, explain to me what a Green Weenie is and why I catch a lot of browns, rainbows and brookies with it?
As for them "cutts" being "easy" to catch, try fishing the Lamar Valley in YNP sometime. I have been schooled by a many "dumb fish there. :-D
JH

PS. That's one of those easy cutts I holding from Slough Creek in my avatar to the left of this post.

 

[tomgamber]

Its not so much that they are easy to catch but that they are very easy to catch on dries. However with that said, the first time I ever had to use 7x was at 9k feet on a crystal clear lake. As soon as I went from 5x to 7x it was easy. They rarely took anything subsurface though. It was kind of weird.