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We are a family looking to get away from the humidity and somewhere we can live our little homestead dreams. We are from Memphis, TN, have lived in NW Arkansas, and are currently near St. Louis, MO - and we can't stand humidity. We spend entirely too much time of each summer indoors with the air conditioning on high, and the bugs here are just ridiculous. It seems like a great idea to go for a walk until we actually attempt it, then we are back to waiting most of our summers out until fall (our favorite season that seems to last only 2 weeks).
We are looking into moving to Idaho or Wyoming (or possibly western NE), but we want a little farm to raise dogs, chickens, sheep - not a huge farm, but decent like around 10 acres or so - and to be able to grow a great amount of our own food (even in a greenhouse as I've been told we would need in Wyoming). I know one problem could be to find an area with enough water, as I've heard that it is difficult to grow anything in some areas. We are concerned about blizzards and areas with no trees because we'd like a wood-burning fireplace in case the power goes out.
We would like to find a little-farm-friendly area, a homeschool-friendly area, and an area that is family-friendly. We really want to be part of a homeschool group and would love to be able to attend craft fairs every now and then. It would also be great to find somewhere that is a good sized area for most things without having to drive 2 hours to a general shopping area with a Target or Walmart (not only a population of 500 within hours). We are conservative in our views (or leaning slightly libertarian sometimes), would like to find farmer's markets, and it would be great if there were some midwives in the area as well. I realize that's a long list, but we are trying to see how many of those we could 'check' off the list....Oh - I forgot to mention - we work from home doing IT stuff, so high-speed internet is a must as well.
Since you guys are the 'pros' of Idaho, I thought maybe you could suggest why Idaho would be better for us than Wyoming, and which areas might be a good fit for us please? I understand that Idaho has a lower cost of living (at least from checking rent/house prices online) and we are on a tight budget at the moment. Idaho (or WY or even western NE) would also probably get us enough away from this oppressive humidity that makes us feel so bad. I am allergic to mold, and that is another reason I am thinking I need to move somewhere drier - maybe not the hottest desert, but not so humid. To be fair, when we visited Idaho before it was during a drought in August/Sept., so maybe things looked more brown than usual.
Can anyone please help us with some ideas to research/look into further? We have driven through (and stayed in hotels in) many areas in both states (however, we only got as far north as Lewiston in ID), but are still not sure which might be best - or is there somewhere else you'd recommend?
We've only been in Idaho for a month and a half, so definitely are not "pros on Idaho". We have moved around a bit over the past few years for various reasons, but my husband retired out of law enforcement in Tennessee and I lived in Tennessee for about 15 years. We lived in Wyoming for a couple of years, and just recently moved to Idaho.
We had hoped to be able to stay in Wyoming (Cody) but the sticking point for us was something you already mentioned, and that was housing prices. We couldn't afford to buy a home in Cody, and the homes we could (barely) afford in other Wyoming towns were not what we would consider comfortable (or even in some cases liveable ).
Even if we COULD afford them we just couldn't justify paying the asking prices in our mind. Not when homes in Idaho were so much cheaper. We bought a house 300 miles west of Cody that (if we had bought a similar home, similar size/location/age) would have easily cost us 5 times as much in Cody. We loved Wyoming, but with no family or close friends there, we didn't love it THAT much.
We live in a tiny SE ID community in the middle of nowhere. 30 miles to Blackfoot and 30 miles to Arco and the base of the Big Lost Rver Valley. It works very well for us. The area is beautiful, isolated, and the few people around us are just as good and decent and conservative as those we knew in Wyoming.
We couldn't afford to buy a home in the mountains, but we bought at a price point that gave us the freedom to do many things we wanted to be able to do - which includes buying a camper and spending a lot of time in other parts of the state (and possibly even buying a small piece of raw land further north). We didn't want the focus to be solely paying the mortgage and having little money left over to do other things.
Homes are cheaper, groceries generally are cheaper, the distance between towns (in the south east of ID) are less than the distances between towns in Wyoming. The distance factor varies though, depending on what part of Idaho you are looking at. Idaho has a state income tax where Wyoming does not. There is less "desert" in ID than there is in Wyoming. And there is more growth in the desert here than the desert in Wyoming.
I miss some of the wildlife that I saw in Wyoming - I miss the drive in the winter between Cody and the East Gate of Yellowstone, and seeing the bison and big horn sheep. And I miss the wild mustangs at McCullough Peaks on BLM land outside Cody. Other than that, it is hard to generalize about ID because it varies so much.
Others who really ARE Idaho-pros can chime in and give you better info than I can. Good luck with your decision.
PS: We still have a house in Tennessee that we have been renting out for the past couple of years. I LOVE that house, but unfortunately it's in Tennessee. After living in the west I don't think that we could ever live east of the Mississippi again. You either love it or hate it out here. But if you love it, it gets into your blood and you don't ever want to leave.
Not a pro, either, but beginning to feel like a part-time pro-in-training! My first thought was Bonner's Ferry, North Idaho; many of your criteria can be found in the Kootenai River Valley and the hills surrounding it, and even south of Bonners along Highway 95. Try to do a search on Bonner's Ferry here in this forum, and read some threads, and give it some thought. (Bonners is about 30 minutes from the Home Depot and Walmart in Sandpoint).
Bonners Ferry is beautiful but there's not much work there. Might be right as a place to retire, right up by the US-Canada border. Good people up there.
Bonners Ferry and Sandpoint do not have that much as far as shopping. Sandpoint has WalMart and Home Depot, but not many of the shopping they may be looking for. CDA is an hour away from Sandpoint and there is more there. I would not consider N. ID a dry climate. We have snow all winter and plenty of rain in the spring and part of the summer. As far as growing your own food, you will be limited in what you can grow unless you have a greenhouse. We have a short growing season here. It gets drier as you head south.
Check out the Idaho Falls thread. Your internet needs may limit your options. There are a lot of smaller areas 20 min.away. Midwifes and home school plus great farmer's markets in Easttern ID. Ririe is on road to Jackson Hole. Idaho Falls is about 90 min from JH.
Look online for property in Bonneville, Jefferson, Bingham and Madison Counties for property. Butte County may be an option where someone would sell land or Custer County, like Challis.
I ideally, you probably love Swan Valley. So do the billionaires.
I'm uncomfortable stating why one place is better than another for multiple reasons. Ultimately, you know what matters the most to you and your family. Idaho doesn't really have small farms to sell Successful farmers require hundreds to thousands of acres.
Check the border communities on both sides of WY and ID, but make sure you ask about internet access, speed, bandwidth.
We've only been in Idaho for a month and a half, so definitely are not "pros on Idaho". We have moved around a bit over the past few years for various reasons, but my husband retired out of law enforcement in Tennessee and I lived in Tennessee for about 15 years. We lived in Wyoming for a couple of years, and just recently moved to Idaho.
We had hoped to be able to stay in Wyoming (Cody) but the sticking point for us was something you already mentioned, and that was housing prices. We couldn't afford to buy a home in Cody, and the homes we could (barely) afford in other Wyoming towns were not what we would consider comfortable (or even in some cases liveable ).
Even if we COULD afford them we just couldn't justify paying the asking prices in our mind. Not when homes in Idaho were so much cheaper. We bought a house 300 miles west of Cody that (if we had bought a similar home, similar size/location/age) would have easily cost us 5 times as much in Cody. We loved Wyoming, but with no family or close friends there, we didn't love it THAT much.
We live in a tiny SE ID community in the middle of nowhere. 30 miles to Blackfoot and 30 miles to Arco and the base of the Big Lost Rver Valley. It works very well for us. The area is beautiful, isolated, and the few people around us are just as good and decent and conservative as those we knew in Wyoming.
We couldn't afford to buy a home in the mountains, but we bought at a price point that gave us the freedom to do many things we wanted to be able to do - which includes buying a camper and spending a lot of time in other parts of the state (and possibly even buying a small piece of raw land further north). We didn't want the focus to be solely paying the mortgage and having little money left over to do other things.
Homes are cheaper, groceries generally are cheaper, the distance between towns (in the south east of ID) are less than the distances between towns in Wyoming. The distance factor varies though, depending on what part of Idaho you are looking at. Idaho has a state income tax where Wyoming does not. There is less "desert" in ID than there is in Wyoming. And there is more growth in the desert here than the desert in Wyoming.
I miss some of the wildlife that I saw in Wyoming - I miss the drive in the winter between Cody and the East Gate of Yellowstone, and seeing the bison and big horn sheep. And I miss the wild mustangs at McCullough Peaks on BLM land outside Cody. Other than that, it is hard to generalize about ID because it varies so much.
Others who really ARE Idaho-pros can chime in and give you better info than I can. Good luck with your decision.
PS: We still have a house in Tennessee that we have been renting out for the past couple of years. I LOVE that house, but unfortunately it's in Tennessee. After living in the west I don't think that we could ever live east of the Mississippi again. You either love it or hate it out here. But if you love it, it gets into your blood and you don't ever want to leave.
Juneaubound,
You"re a pro as much as anyone else. You named the #1 thing I would have said about affordability of housing in WY.
Please continue to post here as someone who has just made the choice of where was right for you, given all of the realities you and your husband had to address in finding your new home.
And PLEASE join us more in the Idaho Falls section. We know where Atomic City is.
I'm happy to have you posting with your observations and experiences.
You"re a pro as much as anyone else. You named the #1 thing I would have said about affordability of housing in WY.
Please continue to post here as someone who has just made the choice of where was right for you, given all of the realities you and your husband had to address in finding your new home.
And PLEASE join us more in the Idaho Falls section. We know where Atomic City is.
I'm happy to have you posting with your observations and experiences.
We've only been in Idaho for a month and a half, so definitely are not "pros on Idaho". We have moved around a bit over the past few years for various reasons, but my husband retired out of law enforcement in Tennessee and I lived in Tennessee for about 15 years. We lived in Wyoming for a couple of years, and just recently moved to Idaho.
We had hoped to be able to stay in Wyoming (Cody) but the sticking point for us was something you already mentioned, and that was housing prices. We couldn't afford to buy a home in Cody, and the homes we could (barely) afford in other Wyoming towns were not what we would consider comfortable (or even in some cases liveable ).
Even if we COULD afford them we just couldn't justify paying the asking prices in our mind. Not when homes in Idaho were so much cheaper. We bought a house 300 miles west of Cody that (if we had bought a similar home, similar size/location/age) would have easily cost us 5 times as much in Cody. We loved Wyoming, but with no family or close friends there, we didn't love it THAT much.
We didn't want the focus to be solely paying the mortgage and having little money left over to do other things...
...PS: We still have a house in Tennessee that we have been renting out for the past couple of years. I LOVE that house, but unfortunately it's in Tennessee. After living in the west I don't think that we could ever live east of the Mississippi again. You either love it or hate it out here. But if you love it, it gets into your blood and you don't ever want to leave.
Hi JuneauBound!
I spent almost 40 years in Tennessee, so it's wonderful to see another person who has made the jump from there out west! I COMPLETELY agree that being out west 'gets into your blood and you don't ever want to leave' - we just drove through and were only able to visit the area in hotels for a short while but now nothing out here (the Midwest or South) compares for us. I absolutely LOVE the drier climate and the people seemed really nice as well. I just worry a little about the winters...
That seems so true about the prices as well - I have noticed you tend to get more for your money in ID vs. WY. We are also like you that we want to have money left at the end of the month and not just exist to pay for housing! We will be renting for at least a year at first wherever we go I think, just to get more precise about where we want to buy - and we want to keep our rent as low as humanly possible while we get settled.
I am also concerned a little that on the eastern ID side we might be ostracized because we aren't Mormon, but maybe that's just a worry. My family (well, most of my family) is Mormon but we are not (we are 'simply Christian') and I hope some of the stories about not fitting in are just stories. I think there are more Mormons in ID than WY, but again I could be wrong.
So are you more in the SE corner of ID then, near Idaho Falls and Pocatello areas? Are the winters there more brutal than WY or the same? How would you compare them to TN as far as how cold they feel? We have little ones, so I wonder if it will be hard for them to deal with the cold weather.
Not a pro, either, but beginning to feel like a part-time pro-in-training! My first thought was Bonner's Ferry, North Idaho; many of your criteria can be found in the Kootenai River Valley and the hills surrounding it, and even south of Bonners along Highway 95. Try to do a search on Bonner's Ferry here in this forum, and read some threads, and give it some thought. (Bonners is about 30 minutes from the Home Depot and Walmart in Sandpoint).
Hi Clark Fork Fantast!
'Part-time pro-in-training' - that's a good way to put it!
I will check out Bonners Ferry, thank you so much for the suggestion I must say that I never really entertained the idea of farther north than Lewiston because after driving through 'Hell's Canyon' (scary if you are in 103 weather and didn't know what to expect!) we just thought from Lewiston up would be more waterways and more humidity and possibly bugs. Maybe we should rethink that then?
Thanks!
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). 
(scary if you are in 103 weather and didn't know what to expect!) we just thought from Lewiston up would be more waterways and more humidity and possibly bugs. Maybe we should rethink that then?
