A Second Home On A Budget In The Rockies!
Frank Zappa made slight notoriety in a 1970’s song, “Moving to Montana soon, going to become a dental floss tycoon” and I’ve been here ever since. There are not many Western adventures that I have not tried at this point from Arizona all the way up to British Columbia. I’ve participated in heli-skiing, summiting big peaks, mountain biking Sun Valley and Moab, fly fishing most of the big rivers, windsurfing Hood River, and all sorts of various and sundry mountain sports.
Growth in the Rockies just ran up the spine from south to north making a three decade march from the 1970’s in places like Aspen up in to Montana and British Columbia in the past decade.
Everybody wants to get in on a good thing ahead of the crowd when general discovery leads to disappearing opportunity and a squeeze play on working class families. Everybody wants to know but few ever hold the answer until it is too late. Why? You have to live and breathe the region, do your homework, and understand demographics and population movements to get there ahead of “the crowd”.
Just about every time I have moved somewhere it has gotten “too cool for school” within a matter of two to five years. I bought one year before property values nearly doubled in Ketchum, Idaho. I bought in the early 1990’s in Bozeman, Montana which was a town that three years later got run over by every fly fishing yuppie in the country following the release of Robert Redford’s famous movie about Norman McLean. Funny thing was Brad Pitt was the star and showed up at the movies debut in Bozeman and all the ladies wanted to meet Robert, poor Brad was left all to himself.
After 17 years of residing in what had now come to be known as “Bozangeles” I decided to set out to find that special community that was still reasonably priced but hadn’t been blown out of the water yet through hyper-discovery. I’ve had a pretty good track record so I thought I could perhaps do this a few more times but the opportunities are getting more and more scarce.
Like all evaluations the criteria used are the key to success – garbage in, garbage out. Knowing that there is a giant “pig in a snake” comprising 90 million of our population called the baby boom, knowing that they are the generation that is coming in to control of the vast majority of our national wealth (what is left of it anyway), then it makes sense to ask what they want, what there needs are, and other profound questions of a demographic and geographic sort. Knowing that 95% of all of the people on the planet never move more than 3 latitude lines from the place of their birth is also helpful. Good medical, transportation, shopping and cultural options are a must. Off we went to Flagstaff, Heber VAlley, Fernie, Sheridan, Cody, Red Lodge, to northern and southern Idaho, and to Driggs.
It took about 6 months to travel to each of these destinations and compile all of our data. When we were done it was Red Lodge, Montana real estate that won the beauty contest hands down, which meant this was where we were going to make our next big investments.
Red Lodge home to the U.S. Nationals Ski Joring (where a horse pulls a skier), the July 4th rodeo (mom and apple pie), home to the Harley Rodeo, the Festival of Nations, and the famed Beartooth Pass was going to be our new home. A place where folks still wave at each other from their car; its a retro throw back to the days of Ozzie and Harriet or Leave It To Beaver.
If you consider Rocky towns that have both a ski area and a golf course then Red Lodge real estate is the single best priced resort real estate in the entire Rocky Mountain range.
Being only one hour from the largest city in a 400 mile radius is a big plus for living in Red Lodge. Of course it doesn’t hurt that blue ribbon trout streams from the Big Horn to the Stillwater are very comfortable day trips.
About $100 million in capital improvements have occurred or broken ground in 2008 and 2009 which is amazing for a small town. New ski area owners have invested millions in new snowmaking, lifts and trail grooming which has also created a sense of optimism.
Judging by the crowds that are coming to Red Lodge Mountain this season, which are the largest in five years, in spite of the fact that most ski resorts are down this year in traffic, and you can see a bright future developing for Red Lodge real estate.
In the midst of a major economic downturn Red Lodge finds itself having its biggest capital improvement spending since 100 years ago. A new gourmet and wine store, a new high school, a new hospital, a new brew pub, new ski area owners and The Spires at Red Lodge development top the list of recent improvements. Resort owners spent several million upgrading lifts and snowmaking in the summer of 2008 and, as a direct result, the ski area is experiencing its best year in the last 5 years at a time when most resorts nationally are having traffic decline.
Of course a $48 day ski ticket and a $450 season pass make it affordable enough for real people to ski here.
If you would rather trod the trail or do some overnight wilderness caping adventures than you would be hard pressed to find a better destination than the Absaroka-Beartooth wilderness. One million acres that borders a 4 million acre national park makes this outdoor playground bigger than the State of New Jersey.
Are you looking for whitewater thrills? This area has some of the best Class 4 and Class 5 streams and creeks anywhere in the country. For those looking for mellower fare several companies offer guided trips on the Stillwater River.
Red Lodge is without question an up and coming place with all of the right stuff.
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