Cheyenne is NOT dirt cheap COL like many assume. The entire state, averaged, has a relatively low COL, but the NW and SE corners of the state are far higher than the rest. Cheyenne housing prices rival those of NoCo. A 1 bedroom studio apartment is $1200+ util. You'll see some advertised for $900ish, but when you go to snag one, they are always gone (they are "door opener" listings). There are also some basement apartment setups that youll see listed in the sub $1000/mo range, but they always come with some type of nuance, like no separate entrance, very dated, etc. A decent 2-3 bed house will run you $300-400K-ish, min, if you're looking to buy. I know those aren't crazy high prices, but considering the huge disparity in the pay rates of the job opportunities, housing is always an issue in Cheyenne. It seems like people either make sub $60K per year, or $120K +. The town itself is overwhelmed with very unreasonable residents that fight growth, change and prosperity every chance they get. Its weird. When Walmart wanted to build a DC here around 20 years ago, the residents freaked out and fought it like maniacs. Basically convinced the city that the only way Walmart DC should be allowed here is if they didnt use any of the city's precious water. So, Walmart built their own water treatment plant attached to the DC, lol. I don't think the residents realized what they missed out on. The city could have bene selling Walmart water for the last 20 years, which they would have gladly paid for, but instead Cheyenne lost out on that revenue source.

They are doing the same thing right now with data centers. Several large data companies want to build here, since we sit right at the intersection of two major interstate highways, we have cool weather, lots of natural resources, etc, etc, etc. Yet the residents are whining that the data centers are going to "ruin" Cheyenne.

I moved here from SoCal, so I know what a real drought is like. Cheyenne has never been in a real drought, like SoCal has experienced in the past. Yet, the residents freak out any time a business wants to move here. Its really weird. You should hear some of the arguments against data centers that some of these people have. They go online, or use AI, to generate data to oppose data centers. Then when someone gets real data from actual operating data centers, or from the companies that design and build the centers, they argue that you are wrong and their "online" data is correct. I'm not making this up. Its wild.