Land/Cabin in Wyoming

So I've basically given up on Colorado and water. My midwestern idea of a cabin on a lake seems to be a $2million pipe dream here. So I've kind of moved onto a few acres and a cabin. Prefer trees and mountain views. Looking to not double down on CO and maybe get a place in WY. Love Jackson Hole, but sweet baby Jesus that is expensive. Been prowling the web looking at property WY. Found some interesting places but I was wondering about:

- Places with mountain views and trees, 5+ acres?
-What kind of security needed, or do you just plan on random breakins if you are remote?
-Crazy market right now and will probably wait until it chills out
-We aren't skiers, so we don't care about that.


Saw a development that sounded interesting until I read the covenant- no shooting guns.

Thoughts?

Is this a weekend getaway place or a permanent residence?

Keep your eyes open in the Dubois area or the Pinedale/Boulder area south of Jackson if you want to at least have easy access to that area. The Sheridan area may work as well. Saratoga is closer and has great fishing, hunting and general outdoor recreation. West of Cheyenne closer to the Vedauwoo area, great climbing and mountains and a nice reservoir in the area.

Not many big cities in Wyoming, depending on your support needs it will focus the location.

Like Colorado Wyoming, has it's own patch work of water laws.

http://library.wrds.uwyo.edu/wrp/90-17/90-17.html

I did not spot minimum land size for well usage for Wyoming, not sure of the requirements.

cabin, as in off grid. Or cabin as in some acreage and neighbors close enough, but not in your business.?

What are your expectations, regarding amenities, closest town, distance to civilization? As well as winter weather? Living off a paved road could mean you're stuck there for a day, or even month due to snow and blowing wind.

Another thing to consider for out of town living is. As one gets older the need for medical services becomes a littler higher, than when one is younger. How close , drive time in good weather, is a hospital?


We decided to try finding a place no more than 30 - 45 min (one way) to the local hospital. For us RT is 54 mi. and believe me, dealing with this last health issue , that really paid off.
Just saying, while living in less populated areas has some nice perks.

One needs to consider access to paved roads, bad weather, healthcare availability, how often one goes to town to resupply. Even down here, while Prescott is 54 miles (RT) to where we do a monthly, or bi monthly trip to "stock up" . Making all those stops, it becomes an all day event.

7x last month i needed to be driven down there to see various doctors & surgeons. Which is more than we did the previous 4 months.

There are many positive things about rural and or off grid living, especially after being in an area where your neighbor says Bless You when you sneeze ;)

BUT keep an open mind to your needs as you get older. Especially having to maintain 5 ac. as needed.

I love the IDEA of living in WY and seriously considered moving there when I relocated. I found a few places but my info is 2 years dated so likely not much use now.

I decided against WY because I've lived there...in Casper. I graduated from HS there. The winter weather is what discouraged me. It's downright brutal most of the time with bitter cold and NON-STOP wind. And I'm not talking about a breeze. I'm talking WIND. All the time. As in, if it ever DID stop blowing, people would fall over.

The other issues are in line with those things GK pointed out. Distance to amenities...not luxuries like fast food joints...but real necessities like health care, groceries and gas. Most places I found were nice but just too damned far from necessities.

I do like WY, though. Good luck finding a place.

Before we ended up moving back to Kansas, we looked at Wyoming and realized that moving there is going to be very difficult if you need to find a job. If you're going up there flush with cash and living "off grid" or real close to it that would be fine. So we started looking at the Rapid City SD area instead. I still kinda wish we'd looked harder at that area but instead we decided that we could move to Wichita and buy a house for cash and basically not need regular full time employment for several years.

WY is nice, but if you need a city nearby, Rapid City SD would be better.

As for Jackson Hole, that is really the Achilles heel of WY ... its basically a California colony in a very low population state so if enough Californians (and other leftist schmuckary) move there in the future they could move the entire state more blue than you'll like.

Look to the north west area...Powell is great because it gets less of the bad weather. The Indians used to winter there. Cody is a nice area as well. They are both close enough to go do a drive thru Yellowstone and be back for dinner.

Thanks guys, that’s what I was looking for.

Non-permanent residence. I’ll probably have a travel/home-office job, so when I’m ‘home’ I can be anywhere. Kids of to college in four years. Wife is already looking to winding down from 60+ hours a week, with 3-4 days off in a row at a time.
Pretty much a good weather place. Don’t mind neighbors. Just don’t want to be on top of each other. I’d be fine with a ‘cabin’, wife will want something nicer. With in half an hour or so to town for shopping dinner.

I mentioned Jackson just because I love that area from going on driving vacations for a few years through there.

You can really expand your price range if you vrbo it most of the time. Likely pay for itself.

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Originally Posted by Irving

You can really expand your price range if you vrbo it most of the time. Likely pay for itself.

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Actually wondering if that was partially what was driving the valuations, especially in Colorado. How many of those places up in the mountains are VRBO’d almost all the time if not all the time. If people are just buying them as investments and renting them out that’s a lot different than going up on weekends to enjoy. They also explain the level of fit and finish on some of those up there. Wife not really Hip to the idea idea of strangers in the house, but it might be nice until we can use it more often to help soften the financial blow.