Fascinating demand and prices for single family homes in Guymon, OK

[GON]

As my Wife and I continue our search for a retirement location, Guyman, OK came up on my Wife's radar. Guyman is within a day's drive to Denver (grandkids), and has a church my Wife thinks she would like. I agreed to take a look.

I was not expecting the prices to be so high in Guyman, OK. And even more, of all the searches for real estate I have done, Guymon has the highest percentages of homes under contract/ contingent. My guess, and a wild one, Guymon may offer people that want to stay near the Colorado/ New Mexico border and alternative to the taxes and such that Colorado, and especially New Mexico can have.

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Guymon_OK

 

[walterjay]

From where I sit the prices look pretty good.

 

[MNgopher]

You may want to look deeper into why prices are what they are - Many of the changes in this are are due to the big employer that located there in the mid-1990's. That has driven a lot of change - and the makeup of the city has changed dramatically as a result.

 

[5280]

Cheap compared to where I live near Denver. Rural life looks very nice nowadays.

 

[tyman]

Can confirm, Guymon is a crap-hole....no thx. Could give me a $600k house for free and I still wouldn't live there.

 

[CKN]

People are buying property because it's cheap. Man those are bargain prices!
$320,000 ($40K reduction)

• 4bed
• 3bath
• 3,363sqft

609 N Oklahoma St,
Guymon, OK 73942

Where else can you buy a house like that for less than a half-million in the 14 Western States.......................

If it's a hole that would explain the house prices.

 

[GON]

Can confirm, Guymon is a crap-hole....no thx. Could give me a $600k house for free and I still wouldn't live there.

I travel for work during the week, and now working weekends at my office. Busy times. To keep the peace with my marginally understanding Wife, I take actions of being interested like this when she suggests a place. And I TRY to keep an open mind.

If it was my choice; I would just move a mobile home on Slo-Town's central California estate and squat when he was on one of his out-of-town weekend racetrack endeavors - knowing the authorities would be slow to kick me out.... And after seven years of free squatting, maybe I would be grandfathered into the plot of land the mobile home was on.... I don't know California's squatting laws, if any.

 

[tyman]

I travel for work during the week, and now working weekends at my office. Busy times. To keep the peace with my marginally understanding Wife, I take actions of being interested like this when she suggests a place. And I TRY to keep an open mind.

I it was my choice; I would just move a mobile home on Slo-Town's central California estate and squat when he was on one of his out-of-town weekend racetrack endeavors - knowing the authorities would be slow to kick me out.... And after seven years of free squatting, maybe I would be grandfathered into the plot of land the mobile home was on.... I don't know California's squatting laws, if any.

I lived in Hugoton for a while and we also played Guymon whilst I was helping assistant coach football. It's every bit as awful as Oklahoma is known to be.

 

[PimTac]

I would look at Cheyenne Wyoming.

 

[Rhymingmechanic]

You may want to look deeper into why prices are what they are - Many of the changes in this are are due to the big employer that located there in the mid-1990's. That has driven a lot of change - and the makeup of the city has changed dramatically as a result.

The Seaboard hog operation?

Guymon is actually bigger than I thought. I drove through Boise City once, so that's what I was imagining. I remember Guymon figuring prominently in the Ken Burns Dust Bowl documentary.

It does fit some of your criteria--no humidity, and it won't be too cold for too long. Liking wind would be a plus. But if your idea of retirement extends beyond having a place to live and a lawn to water and mow, it might not be very fulfilling.

I'm curious about how it got onto your wife's radar. That must be a really good church.

 

[GON]

I would look at Cheyenne Wyoming.

We looked and looked in detail at Cheyenne.

Daughter, SIL, and grandkids live a bit south of Denver in Castle Rock. I am hoping at all costs of not driving through I25/ downtown Denver if I can avoid it. While my Daughter was building her house, she lived in Windsor, about 40 miles north of Denver. Cheyenne might have worked if she remained in Windsor.

I wish my Daughter would move far from Denver. That would possibly solve so many issues with us finding a place to live that we are finacially comfortable with; and not get killed financially on the visits. The airline tickets for my Grandon's birthday next month for two of us, are $900. We can get a lower fare, but not at a time that matches with my work schedule. Add in the cost of parking at SEA, uber to the Daughter's house..... big drain on finances having grandkids and living far away.

 

[GON]

The Seaboard hog operation?

Guymon is actually bigger than I thought. I drove through Boise City once, so that's what I was imagining. I remember Guymon figuring prominently in the Ken Burns Dust Bowl documentary.

It does fit some of your criteria--no humidity, and it won't be too cold for too long. Liking wind would be a plus. But if your idea of retirement extends beyond having a place to live and a lawn to water and mow, it might not be very fulfilling.

I'm curious about how it got onto your wife's radar. That must be a really good church.

We move often and my Wife studies to an extreme every potential Church's theology, any posts about the Church, she researches the pastor's education....... it is what it is. MAR 2020 caused many churches to broadcast and save services on youtube, so she can really dig deep, and she does. It is her thing.... She picked a church in Tacoma, WA well before we moved to Washington, and I suspect she knows more about the church than some of the parishioners that have attended that church for years.

 

[GON]

This is a home I recently found in Douglas, AZ (I know many think the area is a dupa place). Price is doable, I can find employment if I want with under a 1-hour commute. Wife doesn't like it.
https://www.realtor.com/realestatea...l_Douglas_AZ_85607_M96627-97573?ex=2946745181

My plan is to take here to this VRBO close to Douglas and spend a long weekend. The animals may get her to take a second look at the area:
https://www.vrbo.com/1644956?adultsCount=2&arrival=2022-12-13&departure=2022-12-16&unitId=2206351

 

[tyman]

This is a home I recently found in Douglas, AZ (I know many think the area is a dupa place). Price is doable, I can find employment if I want with under a 1-hour commute. Wife doesn't like it.
https://www.realtor.com/realestatea...l_Douglas_AZ_85607_M96627-97573?ex=2946745181

My plan is to take here to this VRBO close to Douglas and spend a long weekend. The animals may get her to take a second look at the area:
https://www.vrbo.com/1644956?adultsCount=2&arrival=2022-12-13&departure=2022-12-16&unitId=2206351

lol I love that it's literally in the middle of nowhere in desert but also right next to the city and ouch being like 2-3 miles from Mexico on a border town

the kitchen is awfully outdated but other than that, pretty decent setup

 

[BHopkins]

This is a home I recently found in Douglas, AZ (I know many think the area is a dupa place). Price is doable, I can find employment if I want with under a 1-hour commute. Wife doesn't like it.
https://www.realtor.com/realestatea...l_Douglas_AZ_85607_M96627-97573?ex=2946745181

My plan is to take here to this VRBO close to Douglas and spend a long weekend. The animals may get her to take a second look at the area:
https://www.vrbo.com/1644956?adultsCount=2&arrival=2022-12-13&departure=2022-12-16&unitId=2206351

I would definitely get along with the neighbors. But that is a full day's drive to get to your daughters.

 

[BHopkins]

Have you considered Moab, UT?

 

[AZjeff]

You may remember in your last Douglas Az thread I mentioned friends who grew up in Douglas moved away, recently retired and moved back to Sierra Vista. I talked with him after you posted the thread and he said Douglas is a hard no. There's a reason a 3500 sq ft house on 40 acres is that price. Hope you find it and could live with whatever it is. And it's 2 long day's drive to Castle Rock. If you have to be in southern Az look at Sierra Vista, you could walk to work.

 

[AZjeff]

Have you considered Moab, UT?

When is it not full of tourists? Houses are expensive there.

 

[BHopkins]

When is it not full of tourists? Houses are expensive there.

I've never priced housing in Moab, but I can see how it could be pricey.

I have a good friend who grew up in Moab. Moved away for a job, but if his wife would move away from her family, he would move back to Moab. The highways and downtown are packed with tourists during the summer months. And there are a few Jeep events during the off seasons that bring in a lot of tourists. But when you get into the neighborhoods, you are isolated from most of the tourism. And the locals know where to go, so they can avoid the tourists, for the most part.

 

[GON]

Have you considered Moab, UT?

I was actually asked to interview for a job in Moab last year. I checked the house pricing and found the public sector job did not pay enough to afford a very basic 1500 square foot single family home in Moab.

Unless the public's current dream of living in nature changes, which may be never- and the drive to move "West Young Man" changes, I doubt most places in Utah will ever be at a price point we are comfortable with.

We lived in Midway UT in 2018. We rented a wonderful home that the owner was unable to sell at $750,000. When we moved to South Carolina in 2021, the home went back on the market, and sold for $1,500,000. From no buyers at $750k to 1.5 million sale in under three years. I am not sure what changed, but a major muscle movement upward in Utah single family home prices.

A coworker of mine bough 60 acres in northern Idaho to build a home on a retire, he paid 100k for the 60 acres in 2017. He states he can sell the acres; one lot would sell for $100k. I know not all 60 acres are sellable, but just some observations on the market in many places in the West.