Livingston and Bozeman area, any info! (real estate market, rental, condo)

[DAN 1]

Thanks Arabiansrule. Looks like the boondocks it is for me. Maybe where the mountains meet the prairy.

DAN 1

[LSUTigers]

Seriously look at the Little Belt Mountains between Great Falls and Lewistown. They are beautiful and the land and housing around there is much more reasonably priced. That is if you can find a cottage there, it is very desolate! But that is part of what makes it great. The mountains meet the prairie in a very beautiful way in this area i think....

[ComputerUser000]

Originally Posted by dean-in-Montana

Gallatin Gateway is headquarters for Ted Turner's Flying D ranch-- 110,000 acres of privately held land that is his private playground... neighbors are frowned upon. The wealth of their most famous "sometimes resident" or absentee land baron, has caused all other real estate to get over priced. It is too small to have much of a rental market except for trailers... beautiful area, but long ago discovered--- I saw 5 acres available there last spring for only $750,000...... Again, if you are looking for affordable, try places over 50 miles from Bozeman... or at least Three Forks.

Good luck.... Dean

Dean:

Thank you for the information, this explains alot about a current situation I'm helping a friend deal with.

We have a license for a New AM radio station that is currently licensed to a town 65 miles south of Butte. It is merely a license with no towers or nothing built....

...We are in the process of filing paperwork with the Federal Communications Commission to relocate it to the Bozeman area. We had (and may change things after having read this) decided to make our City of License Gallatin Gateway and were wondering why land is so damned expensive.

We wanted 10 acres of land for 3 towers 195 feet tall.... even crap land was a minimum of $500,000!
Paul

[DAN 1]

Thanks LSUTigers. Your recommendation sounds great. "Little Belt Mountains" here I come...this Spring. Just about got my wee rig ready to roll. (That Far.)
Respectfully, DAN 1

[francis soyer]

Originally Posted by dean-in-Montana

Gallatin Gateway is headquarters for Ted Turner's Flying D ranch-- 110,000 acres of privately held land that is his private playground... neighbors are frowned upon. The wealth of their most famous "sometimes resident" or absentee land baron, has caused all other real estate to get over priced. It is too small to have much of a rental market except for trailers... beautiful area, but long ago discovered--- I saw 5 acres available there last spring for only $750,000...... Again, if you are looking for affordable, try places over 50 miles from Bozeman... or at least Three Forks.

Good luck.... Dean

dean, you can't seriously blame Ted Turner for raising property values in the Gateway area.

[michael11747]

in bozeman i rent my apartments from 300-450/ bdrm. a cheap 1 bedroom apartment in town will run you 450-650/ 1bdrm/1 ba, with a living room and kitchen. not bad when you consider you will make more money living here. the bozemandailychronicle.com recently ran an article about the "living wage" here in gallatin county and most small businesses are trying to catch up to the quoted $10.75/hr. that is without a family. that wage is more than enough to live comfortably. but not enough to save. unless you have a trade, skill, or a degree, you will be just saving enough for a new toy every season, be it a ski pass, fishing gear or even a sled/atv. everyone i know who makes that much has A LOT of outdoor hobbies. which is awesome...

livingston's job market is tight. during summer time, you will be able to find a job at the drop of a dime. during winter, most people hunker down and supplement their income, from hunting and selling meat to meat shops, or searching for antler sheds in the fall. good luck. it has 10 times the cowboy feel as bozeman, and is definately my type of town EXCEPT for the wind. land prices are on the rise, and hence rental costs are increasing as well. but they will never reach bozeman prices because of the wind. let me put it this way: imagine a giant funnel extending from the yellowstone caldera, widening over the snake river plains in idaho, then extending further apart until it hits the pacific in oregon. this weather then drops its moisture in yellowstone and contributes to the 700 inches of precipitation/year there in the 3 mountain ranges which make up the caldera, and sends all the cold, dry wind north through paradise valley, and straight into livingston, where it then empties into the great plains of north america. rough conditions, which most people can't take. an apartment will run you 200-400/bdrm, or 350-550 for a 1 bdrm in town.

gallatin gateway is your best option. while it doesn't have a centralized area to shop, work, and things like that, it is between big sky and bozeman. there is a ton going on out there recently... too much. water rights are an issue because of growth, and since it is on the gallatin and its fishing, there will never be a satisfactory answer. this will ALWAYS keep gallatin gateway a smaller community like it has been for 140 years. it is a commercial dumping ground for businesses that can't pay rent in bozeman, or that need acres to operate, or both. so you will have a great view, and be next to this:
Turner Flying D Ranch and Turner Endangered Species Fund 7/19/05 | Summer 2005 Field Trips | State of the Rockies (http://www.coloradocollege.edu/stateoftherockies/05FieldTrips/Turner/Turner_all.htm - broken link)
but you might also have a rustic woodlot in your backyard. prices here are all over the board, you can rent a high end home here for 3000/mth, to 200 for a 1 bdr. nothing rings more true here than "what you pay for is what you get". i have seen buildings built with 2 layers of sheet rock away from your next door neighbor, but they are cheap. so you pretty much will have no privacy. but you will be next to world-class fly fishing, and 20 miles from big sky and 2 world class ski resorts, as well as a few million acres of contiguous forest land, and 15 minutes from bozeman shopping the population here is around 3700 people BUT this is spread out over a HUGE area, which gives it an average of 15 people per square mile! compare that with bozeman's 2666 people per square mile. this makes gallatin gateway "feel" as if it is ten times smaller than it actually is.

there are other options. forest service rents some RUSTIC cabins next to the gallatin, in the canyon for 150/mth. some of the leases are for sale as well, presumably to raise money which has been cut out of government funding. in the summer, the campgrounds are full of transient construction workers, camping out and fishing or climbing while working days, and the rest of the crowd is families with 2.2 kids and a dog in their RV. which is cool, because we have a symbiotic relationship with those people. they are a key part in the equation which keeps us all employed.

anyways ask if you have more questions. mike.

[michael11747]

Originally Posted by DAN 1

Thanks Arabiansrule. Looks like the boondocks it is for me. Maybe where the mountains meet the prairy.

DAN 1

montana is where the mountains meet the prairie. west/central montana has wide, sweeping valleys, with native grasslands, and foothills rising to 10,000 foot peaks in long north/south chains. imagine if you took 2 chains of mountains 10,000 feet high and put it in illinois or iowa, with a 50 mile wide valley in between them and you would have a pretty good idea of what its like here. slightly hilly valley floors, with lots of rivers and ponds, and high-profile mountain ranges on all sides. it is amazing to me to sometimes think that all of these creeks and rivers flow to the missouri and onto the mississippi.

[michael11747]

Originally Posted by LSUTigers

Seriously look at the Little Belt Mountains between Great Falls and Lewistown. They are beautiful and the land and housing around there is much more reasonably priced. That is if you can find a cottage there, it is very desolate! But that is part of what makes it great. The mountains meet the prairie in a very beautiful way in this area i think....

i love the little belts. it will be relatively untouched for at least 30 more years. development is creeping its way to white sulphur springs on the southern border. the north side is a beautiful area, as well as just west, and rugged.

[michael11747]

Originally Posted by dean-in-Montana

Gallatin Gateway is headquarters for Ted Turner's Flying D ranch-- 110,000 acres of privately held land that is his private playground... neighbors are frowned upon. The wealth of their most famous "sometimes resident" or absentee land baron, has caused all other real estate to get over priced. It is too small to have much of a rental market except for trailers... beautiful area, but long ago discovered--- I saw 5 acres available there last spring for only $750,000...... Again, if you are looking for affordable, try places over 50 miles from Bozeman... or at least Three Forks.

Good luck.... Dean

turner's arrival in the valley definately helped spark the growth of bozeman, and surrounding communities, but i think what carried this growth was the development of big sky as a resort community, not turner's ranch. the rich are as thick as thieves. i work for them so i know. they stick together. when the richest of them moves somewhere the rest pay attention. if turner didn't arrive in the valley would bozeman still be a sleepy farming community? probably. if big sky wasn't developed as a resort community and yellowstone club become the premier destination, would bozeman still be a true montanan town? probably. but the two of them are responsible for the phenomenal growth this region has seen. it's like the chicken and the egg.

[Timberwolf232]

Finding an affordable home in Bozeman is more like finding an affordable home in Beverly Hills. I make what used to be a good living here, but if I hadn't bought 12 years ago I'd never be able to afford a home now, and if I wanted to upgrade or have another child I'll have to move as the money I'll make on my home won't touch a newer or larger one in Gallatin County.

You might look at small towns in Idaho or Wyoming.