Anyone who moves to an urban area in Utah should expect to see very rapid growth. Utah is one of the fastest growing states in the country.
It's going to change a lot in the next 20 years.
Something to keep in mind for sure. I first moved to Boise in 1998. It was a wonderful small city then full of very nice and considerate people with affordable housing and good hunting within 30 min drive.
Boise is very different now. Still great compared to many places but much more crowded and expensive. My brothers neighborhood now has many Somali and Sudanese refugees.
There was a pretty violent attack at a birthday party near my brothers house where some lunatic from LA I believe attacked a bunch of refugee kids from the middle east at a birthday party. I think a 3 year old died. No one could have even imagined something like that in Boise 20 years ago. It's a much more diverse place now with more refugees from California and other 3rd world countries.
It is a good idea to pick a place maybe smaller and more rural than your ideal because it will likely grow like crazy. There are nice areas that are a bit isolated by being far from interstates that can still be nice. Someone mentioned Salmon and that is a great isolated little town.
Keep in mind that smaller towns can be a little harder on kids. If your kids are attractive and well adjusted socially they'll do fine almost anywhere. If they are a little quirky or socially awkward they may have better chances at finding a social group in s bigger area.
Some towns in Idaho are very nice and accepting and some are very harsh and Cliquey. Oakley Idaho for example, if you weren't from one of a dozen families that thought they were awesome you couldn't be part of their group. Their high school also seemed very cliquey. 20 miles down the road in Burley I felt like everyone was much less cliquey and accepting of almost anyone. Although Burley has really gone down hill in 30 years.
Aberdeen was another terribly cliquey town where if you weren't from a handful of farm families they acted like you weren't worthy to be seen with them. Some people have lived in small towns their whole life and have never left so they have what I call a big turd in a small cesspool attitude. Their attitudes come from their own ignorance and insecurities as they still try to perpetuate their high school bad a reputation well into old age.
If you move to a small area try to rent the first year. Most are great but if you get a bad one there may be one that suits you much better 20 miles down the road. I'm still amazed at how different things are in Rigby verses Rexburg. Rexburg is almost all Mormon and everyone kind of knew your situation but my neighbors could be trusted and many were willing to help anytime you needed it.
We had 20 plus people show up at our house in Rexburg to help us move. The neighbors in Rigby had told everyone around we were coming and told us they would all help move us in but only 1 guy showed up. No worries though, a couple of our old neighbors in Rexburg came down to help move us in. They saw no one was there to help and had at least a dozen more people drive down from Rexburg and help us.
In Rigby the locals that have been here a while keep more to themselves and their extended families. Lots of others now live here that are in our same boat being new though. Some of the people that have never left here are still living their high school days.
Some like to discount me as some city guy because I have a master's degree and have lived in several other countries. They think I can't know guns or cars or farming or whatever. It's getting fun now that they are asking me for help with their guns and stuff.
Local guy was giving me that city boy crap and was caught pretty off guard when I jumped in his backhoe and dug my own waterline while he watched. He said did you used to run one of these? I said not much, I was usually in a 988 loader or a trackhoe but I've ran a few this small. I then showed him how I still had a class A cdl with doubles triples and tanker endorsements. He called me the other day and asked if I could drive his dump truck somewhere for him. I was out of town or I would have.
Some of them think that if your not from here your not as cool as their mountain dew commercial country wannabe awesomeness. They tend to get a little pissy the first few times you out shoot them. I'm used to it though. When I was a kid in Burley my friends in Declo had that small town pride too. It took a while but they learned to accept the fact that a guy can have a college degree and still shoot and hunt right with them.
Bb
