Ultimate Guide to Moving to Wyoming: Finding Your Perfect Home with Alisha Collins. Are you considering a move to Wyoming? Join Alisha Collins from the Alisha Collins Real Estate Team as she guides you through everything you need to know about living in the Cowboy State. From housing costs and city overviews to lifestyle tips and local amenities, this video is your one-stop shop for all things Wyoming. Discover the most affordable places, the best cities for your lifestyle, and much more.
So you’re thinking of moving to Wyoming, maybe it’s for a job, a change of scenery, or to enjoy the low taxes. Whatever the reason, you are probably searching the internet to help you with your decision. There is a lot of information out there, so you might be left wondering what’s true and what’s not. What is opinion and what is fact? What towns are there in Wyoming? Where should I live? Where is the affordable housing and the amenities that I want? Does Wyoming line up with a lifestyle I want? Hi, I’m Alisha Collins with the Alisha Collins Real Estate Team, and today I’m going to help you sort through all the information right here in one video, kind of an ultimate guide to moving to Wyoming, so to speak.
Okay, so the biggest question you may have is, where should I live, where are the good places to live in Wyoming? The answer to that question is definitely subjective based on many factors including your lifestyle, desires, and employment needs. Do you work from home, meaning location is completely your choice? Or are you looking at a specific region in Wyoming? If you can choose anywhere, you’ll want to consider the amenities in the area to see if a specific town is the right fit for you. There are a lot of things to consider.
So let’s begin by talking about the affordability of housing in Wyoming. Not only does the cost of housing vary across Wyoming, the reports of average housing prices vary based on where you look and whether you are looking for the average price or the median price. To give you an idea, if you check an average home value in Wyoming, you will find the average price is 344,250. But according to Rocket Homes, the median list price for home in Wyoming is 264,375. Both reported values are lower than the average cost of the home in the US, but that doesn’t really tell us much about what area of Wyoming has the most affordable housing. If you’re looking for the most affordable, you’ll wanna look in Worland, Wyoming. Washakie County’s cost of housing is 28% lower than the statewide average. According to realtor.com, the median listing home price in Worland was recently sitting around 249,500, which is up about 14% over the price last year. This means the listing price was 249,000, but according to Rocket Homes, the median sold price was 206,000. Either way, it seems like you can find pretty affordable homes in and around Worland. Worland is located in the north central part of the state and is home to about 4,700 people.
Are you looking for a bit larger city? Worland is the 18th on the list as far as population goes. So if you’re looking for a bit larger city, you could go further west and check out Cody, Wyoming with a population of around 10,240. But you are going to find a bit higher housing costs if you do. Cody is considered the gateway to Yellowstone, and this beautiful little town has captured the hearts of many. Cody was named in some recent tourism rankings as the best city in Wyoming to live. Average listing price for home in Cody, 664,000 on realtor.com, and the average home value of 474,500 according to Zillow. So you can see Cody is a beautiful place to live, but there is a higher cost of housing. Keep going even further west and you will run into the most expensive place to live in Wyoming, Teton County, the home of Jackson, the most famous Grand Teton mountains, world-famous skiing, and home prices that run about 135% of the Wyoming State average. I’m not sure the 135% is average, even if it comes directly from the economics division of the state of Wyoming. According to realtor.com, the median listing price in Jackson is $3 million. Yes, $3 million. How about checking out the middle of the road and the middle of the state areas? I think of Casper, of course, where I live, as being in the middle of the state. But as far as home prices go, the average home value is around $311,066. The median sold price is $269,351 in the last year. So not as low as Worland, but not as high as Cody. Okay, so we’ve done Western and Central Wyoming. Let’s look at the southeastern part of the state where you will find our state capital, Cheyenne, close to the Colorado Wyoming border. Cheyenne is the largest Wyoming city by population, sitting at a little over 65,000 people. The average home value is 365,000. The median listing price is 435,000. With the affordability of homes in Cheyenne as compared to a lot of Colorado, some people even live in Cheyenne and work in Colorado. Moving west from Cheyenne, you’ll reach Laramie, home of our only four-year state university, the University of Wyoming, and where I went to college. Laramie is home to roughly 32,000 people. The average home value is pretty similar to Cheyenne at 358,000 with a median listing price of 425,000. If you’re looking for a medium-sized town with decent home prices, Laramie might be right for you. Keep heading west along the southern part of the state, and eventually you’ll get to Rock Springs, Wyoming with a population of 22,900, an average home value of 272,400, and a median home listing price of 267,000. Okay, I think I’ve covered almost all the corners of the state.
Wait, I need to talk about Northeastern Wyoming. Let’s look at Gillette, Wyoming. Gillette is home to about 33,500 people with homes a little more expensive than the opposite side of the state. The average home value in Gillette is around 320,000, and the median listing price is 392,000. In most Wyoming cities, you will find a range of home options to choose from. Of course, that is the nature of averages. What it means is that you can find homes that are more affordable and homes that are much more higher than the average, and of course, everything in between. Another thing to consider with housing is whether you are interested in new construction or existing homes.
Well, of course in Wyoming you can find homes that are over a hundred years old in some places, as well as new construction or opportunities to build what you want. If you do a quick internet search of new construction homes in Wyoming, there is a list of 407 homes listed specifically as new construction across the state out of the 5,300 homes for sale. That doesn’t seem like a huge percentage, but with almost 8% of homes currently listed being new construction, you still have some options. Benefits of new or new construction include not having to worry about immediate repair fees or extreme maintenance right out of the gate. One way to avoid at least some of the maintenance effort, if not the cost, would be to look at a property with a homeowner’s association. Now, everyone has a very defined opinion of an HOA. It does come with other costs that you need to consider when looking for a home. HOA fees can really impact the affordability of a home, so it’s good to know upfront what you might be dealing with. Wyoming doesn’t have a huge percentage of homes that have HOAs, just 17% of homes, in fact. Not the lowest percentage in all 50 states, but certainly not the highest. Vermont, at 46%, wins that one. But it is still an important question to ask when looking at housing decisions.
When it comes to choosing where you wanna live in Wyoming, it will definitely come down to weighing many different factors, and home price is just one of them. Types of available jobs might be something you are interested in. Proximity to airports if you have to travel for work may be another thing to consider. Do you wanna be near mountains, or are you more of a plains person? Are you interested in being near a top tourist destination, or do you wanna be off the beaten path? Lifestyle is one of the major things you need to consider when looking for where in Wyoming you want to live. You need to consider what you need and what is important to you. If what is most important is a location for work, then you might be a little bit more restricted in your choices. If you have a bit more freedom, you might consider what you enjoy doing outside of work. In Wyoming, you can find a lot of different terrains, weather and activities to suit many lifestyles.
Regardless of the lifestyle and location you choose, one cost to consider is homeowners insurance. Of course, that will depend on where you live, the home you’re considering, and the insurance company you choose. However many sites share numbers that range from around $1,100 to $2,200 in annual average cost. When deciding upon where to live, you might need to consider what type of jobs are available. Like many things in Wyoming, that will very likely be the deciding factor in where you’re looking to live. The major industries in Wyoming are mineral extraction, tourism, and agriculture. Many of these industries are spread across the state but are often more concentrated in pockets. For example, tourism is decidedly greater in the western and northwestern corner of the state near Jackson and Yellowstone. But tourism still exists throughout the state in other areas. Mineral extraction and the supporting industries are a bit more spread through the state.
The same is true for agriculture. Depending on whether you are talking farming or ranching, both are thriving in Wyoming. Of course, education and medical industry jobs are available as well. Speaking of education, this is often a big consideration when choosing where to live. The good news is Wyoming is ranked 12th in education overall and ranked fourth in the nation on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, NAEP, score state rankings in 2022. Overall, I would say education in Wyoming is pretty good. Some of our cities have traditional districts that dictate where your child will go to school, depending on where your home is located. If this is the case, you may want to do some research on specific schools before you buy a home. But some districts like Natrona County have school of choice, which means no matter where in Natrona County you choose to live, you can choose which school suits your family the best. There are private schools, charter schools, and public schools to choose from, so you will need to do some research on what your options are within the district you are considering. It is important to know that overall education in Wyoming is fairly highly ranked with lower teacher-to-student ratios.
I know I’ve touched a bit on different outdoor activities available in Wyoming, but really there are almost too many list. Again, it depends on where you’re looking, but throughout the state you can find hot springs, hunting and fishing, rock climbing, zip lining, boating, kayaking, skiing, both Nordic and Alpine, four-wheeling and horseback riding, just to name a few. If you can think it, Wyoming probably has it. Outdoor fun is one of the best things to find in Wyoming. And with the lower population, fewer people are here competing for outdoor space. You may need the right kind of weather. For example, to ski, you obviously need snow, which you can definitely find in the winter and fall and spring, and even summer sometimes. Well, maybe not really in the summer, except for in the higher elevations and occasionally on the fringes this summer.
When it comes to weather in Wyoming, you may think of wind. If not, you should check out my video about wind in Wyoming. But wind isn’t the only thing we have. We also have a lot of sunshine, an average of 244 days of it, in fact. With an average winter temperature of 29 degrees and an average summer temperature of 83 degrees, you’ll be able to enjoy lots of outdoor activities no matter the season. So there you have it, a quick overall guide to moving to Wyoming. If you decide Wyoming is in your future, be sure to give my team and I a call. We have time for you. We love to talk to you. We love where we live, and we want you to love where you live too. See you soon.