I've considered Missoula! Would Bozeman or Whitefish be better though?
I'm not sure what I'm looking for. I could go small town in a beautiful setting or affordable suburb with lots of parks. I know I don't want to live in a big city with little greenery.
Is Coeur D'Alene religious and conservative? Do you know what resort they ski there? Yes, the taxes there may be an issue. I am all for paying income tax, but it would be a shrink in salary since I haven't been paying it for over 10 years.
Re Whitefish. Our median housing makes Missoula look really cheap. (My assessed value is up 61% since the assessment 2 years ago, which is less than my zEstimate increase. My immediate neighbors are up 70% and 80%, however, in just 2 years, so I'm not complaining. Needless to say, people are up in arms and we haven't even seen the actual tax bills yet.) However, Kalispell and Columbia Falls, the next towns south and east, are not as bad. Columbia Falls is more "up and coming", in a transitional phase, than Kalispell.
As for politics, Whitefish itself is a blue island in a sea of red. I remember when I moved from NJ, I thought the blue was more like NJ red, tho.
The whole Flathead valley has seen a HUGE influx of people in the last three years and pretty much everyone is upset by the rate of growth. Housing is a huge issue and there are now major homeless tensions down in Kalispell. Several hotels that used to have monthly rates have closed, short term rentals have taken over almost all the rental housing, and the building of apartment buildings isn't moving fast enough. It's almost impossible to even get contractors to return a call and there are numerous reports of contractor scams because it's a feeding frenzy.
In short, you might want to look at some other region. That TV show, Yellowstone, has not done the inhabitants any favors. When I moved here 20 years back, I was irritated at all the locals quizzing you about where you were from and going on about their "native-less", but that was nothing like it is now. (I'd never seen that back East, where by the way, people's families came over on the Mayflower or whatever, they weren't there a mere century. No one ever did this "I'm more (insert state) than you".) Here they go from zero to 60 about newcomers these days. At 20 years I'm just starting to not be a total invader.
I'm trying to think where in the state might be better, but I've seen articles about pretty much every town in the state worth being in.
As for fire issues, that's an active worry for us. We just didn't realize when we first came how much of an issue it is, even though that year I couldn't see across my driveway at one point due to smoke. I am very much in a house that is at risk. My husband worries continually about it. Especially with that Paradise fire a few years ago any complacency is long gone, and now our local Paradise (about 90 minutes away) is totally surrounded and 15 homes lost. We don't have AC nor the ducts to easily install it, so every year there's a few weeks where the choice to open windows at night for cooling vs. keeping them closed to keep the smoke out is a bedtime question.
Will look into them.
