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What a hospitable invitation. You are so kind to offer. I have known since I was a little kid (long since passed) I belonged out West. If the people on this forum are a measure of the folks out there (And I'm sure they are). We are coming to the right place. Life in NJ although not terrible, is not what I ever expected.
My late parents always said "Son you are looking for Utopia and you are always going to be disappointed" I realize Utopia is what you make it. However, part of living harmonious with nature is, others must have the same respect. Federal and State government make that very difficult here.
Most are out for themselves with little regard for others or the Earth in general.
We feel invited and are thankful for the offer. We look forward to our visit and meeting some of you as well.
My parents moved to Wyoming from their home state of New Jersey in 1949 and never turned back. If back then they thought there were too many people and they didn't like living in the East, imagine what they would think now! My sister was 3 when they moved and the rest of us kids were born in Wyoming. I have been to NJ to visit relatives a couple of times and there is no way I could live there. My cousin and his wife live in Hoboken. Living in a 5th floor "condo" in an old walk-up building isn't my idea of living! It was fun to visit NYC and to see the sites and to also see where my parents lived and where my grandparents all immigrated to but a few visits was enough for me. I think people there have such a fast paced lifestyle that they really don't have time to be friendly. I don't think it is that they intentionally are unfriendly, I just think it's the way things are there. I love Wyoming and know you will, too!
Not to sound suspicious but what exactly do you mean by "hope to make a positive impact"? Perhaps nothing to be worried about. But I will say that if you or your wife intend to move to a rural part of Wyoming or any western state that is far different from your life-long style of living, take it for what it is. For the love of God, do not move to the rural West and then find yourself uncomfortable with the rural folks or the lifestyles. YOU will be the outsider and I can guarantee you that you will never be accepted if you attempt to change them. You're moving to their home ~ best to leave it as it is.
Not to sound suspicious but what exactly do you mean by "hope to make a positive impact"? Perhaps nothing to be worried about. But I will say that if you or your wife intend to move to a rural part of Wyoming or any western state that is far different from your life-long style of living, take it for what it is. For the love of God, do not move to the rural West and then find yourself uncomfortable with the rural folks or the lifestyles. YOU will be the outsider and I can guarantee you that you will never be accepted if you attempt to change them. You're moving to their home ~ best to leave it as it is.
I didn't read it this way at all. What I thought was meant by a "positive impact" was that they would become a welcome addition to the community and be able to make their presence a positive one. Becoming part of the community, getting involved in things, making friends, holding a respectable job, etc. all make positive impacts. My thought was never that they were trying to make changes.
I too am seriously thinking about retiring to Sheridan or Cody. My greatest concern about Cody is the tourists flowing into Yellowstone all summer long. Is Cody gridlocked with tourist traffic in the summer?
Also...I live in Florida now and the home values here are significantly lower than home values in WY. I was shocked when I looked on Zillow and Realtor.com and saw a home I could buy for $200K in WY was similar to a home in most places in FLA that sold for half that. What gives?
I too am seriously thinking about retiring to Sheridan or Cody. My greatest concern about Cody is the tourists flowing into Yellowstone all summer long. Is Cody gridlocked with tourist traffic in the summer?
I've never seen Cody "gridlocked" with summer traffic.
The busiest I've ever seen it was when a major high school event was bringing in busloads of kids and many parents/friends for a few days; and that was evident with the traffic grid density specifically around the High School in the middle of town.
Also...I live in Florida now and the home values here are significantly lower than home values in WY. I was shocked when I looked on Zillow and Realtor.com and saw a home I could buy for $200K in WY was similar to a home in most places in FLA that sold for half that. What gives?
Several major factors:
1) Supply and Demand. Everything that you need for construction here that is brought in is trucked quite some distance in limited quantities compared to the dense construction/population of "most places in FL".
Build a water supply system in FL, how far does the potable water source and treatment have to carry water to a dense population area which amortizes the expense ... compared to water source/supply/delivery issues here. In some WY cases, a municipal Water & Sewer Tap fee can be $30,000 per home building site, compared to How Much in FL?
2) Construction costs PSF are way higher here in WY, at least from what I've seen looking at typical housing in Tampa/St Pete, Maitland/Orlando, Greenville, or in the corridor by the Villages. Why?
Hard costs: We're in a much more severe climate zone, with many more heating degree days needing to be dealt with better insulation, higher quality windows, more site prep, higher quality roofing materials, larger heating systems, etc. We routinely experience daily winds that would be small craft warnings strength in FL, and frequently Gale Force winds. It's not uncommon for us to see Hurricane Force winds in WY, with severe gusts that would be damaging to many residential areas on FL. We have to build for roof snow loads psf that aren't a factor in FL. We have to install residential water systems in such a way that they aren't prone to freezing up (like burying water lines below the frost line, perhaps 4-5-6' down), which is more expensive to route than what I've seen in a lot of FL houses.
Soft Costs: my folks had two houses built in Maitland during a 2 1/2 year assignment there; both built slab-on-grade in a couple of months from site prep to certificate of occupancy. The GC's that built the houses had sub-contractors without one english speaking crew member, and from what the folks could tell (my Mom had spent years as the Comptroller for a large commercial developer/GC in another state), not one of the subs was carrying proper insurance/liability/coverages for their workers; this became a point of contention because Mom was concerned that if anybody got hurt on the jobsite, my folks could get sued, too. Building code compliance appeared to be much more haphazard in FL than here in WY in the areas where Code Enforcement is in place ... like Cody.
Weather influence on construction, delays. Delays can be comon in the short building weather window here in WY, while FL represents a year-round virtually ideal opportunity for construction.
Land Costs: again, a huge disparity of available land for development here in WY compared to FL. You need to consider that 1/2 of WY is public lands not available for residential development. OTOH, much of FL is readily available and the old large ag landholders appear to be happy to subdivide for residential purposes. I personally know several folks whose grandparents had citrus orchards across FL who happily sold out many years ago for development. The made their grandchildren all multi-millionaires, but were smart enough to reserve some of the land for commercial/strip-mall type development. One lady I know was getting $35,000/month checks out of the family partnership from the leases since she was 21 yrs old ... and she's now in her 80's (retired to HI). Supply and Demand at work; lots of land, readily accessed by infrastructure/roads/utilities ... leads to lower raw land costs per site compared to WY.
Years ago, I was racing out of Davis Island for mid-winters, and looked at a bunch of older wood frame houses that were going for a song down that way. I looked at a number of houses which were well under $100K ... large houses on nice lots, wrap-around screened porches and well finished inside. As a real estate investor, I had visions of buying a few and renting them out ... until I had inspections done on the houses and saw the termite damage that would need remidiation before I could put the houses in rental ready condition. At that, the rental market was so soft that I couldn't see my way to an ROI, let alone a year-round passble cash flow with local property management. By way of comparison, my Denver area house at the time had a FMV over double the Davis Island house values I was looking at, and it was 1/2 the size on a 1/5 acre lot ... which made the FL houses I was looking at a real bargain.
My relatives in Greenville still have the last 100 acres of a large family farm dating back to the Civil War era (in the family all this time). They've sold off portions as the market permitted through the last 80 years, but it's value is so cheap per acre that they laugh off selling the last of it. It's worth keeping as a weekend escape when they can get to it from points north up the Eastern seaboard. The house is a comfortable 1,800 sq ft wood frame/clapboard affair that wouldn't stand up to one WY storm ... yet has survived well for over 80 years. Outbuildings built over a century ago are still standing and in use, barns for the horses, utility sheds, etc. Lightly built, they wouldn't make it here, either. Water? all you can possibly need for the lush pastures. Heat? the house has a small fireplace and plenty of wood available right on the property. (I get a laugh out of their perspective on keeping horses ... they haven't spent a penny on hay in their lifetimes, yet have always kept at least several horses cared for by a neighbor family in their absence. They've gotten a few of their mares bred from time to time just to have the "pets" around because nobody really tries to train or work with them ... but it's that trivial to have more horses in that environment). One of the markedly different things there is the very soft water that is natural to the locale. As best I can tell, the plumbing system is original to the house and still works fine ... with the exception that they had a Coleman domestic hot water heater which finally gave out, still standing in a corner of the kitchen alcove area; they replaced it with an electric hot water heater some years ago, works fine.
Bottom Line: there's no comparison as to the market forces and construction details between the two locales. The only place I've seen higher quality construction ... which was more in the gingerbread than in the structure ... was in Naples FL. I've got friends down that way with a marina (or two) and multi-$mil houses which still wouldn't be as pricey as a comparable appearing house in Jackson (which they also own a few, and one family ... a ranch down that way that they don't even bother to run livestock on anymore, it's just a place to fly into and look upon all their land).
I'd point out that Sheridan doesn't have what as severe a climate as Cody, especially when it comes to the winds, but the other factors are pretty much the same.
Agree with sunsprit discription of Wyoming difference in prices, its right on the money. Traffic your use to fla traffic. Like i am use to Honolulu traffic Bumper-to-bumper at rush hour. If you go to WYDOT web cams and check out the different towns. I check it out all the time on the internet. There is not much traffic even at rush hour. http://www.wyoroad.info/highway/webc...ebcameras.html
it taken me 45 minutes to get thru Jackson at 5 PM during the middle of the summer , once took 45 minutes to get from Jackson to the Jct at Snake River on the way to Wilson and that was only 4 miles.
Even during the busiest traffic in the summer it takes 15 minutes, tops, to get from one end of town to the other. I don't see traffic as a problem at all and when I read "gridlocked" I literally laughed!!!
I turned down a job offer in Cody years ago, partly for the same reason -- didn't want to live in a tourist town. I later became a partner in a couple businesses there and visited the town regularly. Traffic is not much of a problem in Cody. (It's NOTHING like Jackson and not really much different than in Sheridan, Gillette or many other thriving smaller cities.
Jackson and Cody present two entirely different situations when it comes to home valuations and tourist traffic.
Jackson's off the charts ....
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