Cheyenne

[updated september 2024]

SO, roomiematch.com's Cheyenne roommate rundown:

Cheyenne is cheap and clean and open and gorgeous.

It's also wet, Western, and WINDY.

The pace of life is slow. The cowboys don't hurry much. Or humor vegetarians much.

But they will not charge you taxes much either.

Or roommate rent. All costs of living are low, so you and your roommates should spend whatever's extra maintaining your motor vehicles, which everyone needs to navigate the heavy rain and high winds which you will experience alongside few public transport options.

Cheyenne = Have Good Car.

(No roommates will ever have much fun as exceptions to that rule.)

The rest of the Cheyenne roommate lowdown:

• Cheyenne is the capital of Wyoming, the most populous city in the state, and its commercial center, located in the southeast corner. But even though it's the most populous, that's still only around 65,000 folks? With the rest of Laramie County, about 100,000.
• Cheyenne is a small town character for sure, including the low crime rate and less polluted air . . . which also means it's a smaller roommate market. So you can find a roommate in Cheyenne, but best results will mean giving yourself as much lead time as you possibly can.
• Cheyenne is slow-paced. It's more gorgeous and natural and open than the average American city.
• Cheyenne is named in honor of the Cheyenne Native American tribe.
• Many residents are employed by the U.S. Air Force, the Wyoming National Guard, or local ranches.
• home to the Laramie County Community College
• Cheyenne weather is extra for most because it's extra unpredictable and extra windy. Cheyenne is even known for dramatically different weather in different parts of the city at the same moment in time. Summer features dry days mixed with severe storms with very heavy rain. Winter features snow. And locals say you can experience all four seasons every spring, often including tornados. But fall tends to be peaceful.
• Cheyenne is closer than many imagine to Denver, about 90 miles north. Depending on traffic the trip takes about 90 minutes, and high speed rail routes are planned for the future.
• Cheyenne is laid out simply in a grid, and on-street parking is available! Which will be very helpful to you and your roommates with cars which you hope will be all of them because public transport is just a few bus lines and a trolley. Everyone will want access to a reliable vehicle. Don't get stranded in the proverbial middle of nowhere during a dark and stormy night.
• With zero income tax plus low property, sales, auto, and state taxes, Cheyenne is one of the "tax friendliest" cities in the country.
• Cheyenne is long famous for celebrating "true Western" culture. Cowboy hats, boots, and belts are forever welcome and never out of place. They may be seen on actual cowboys driving trucks toward chicken-fried steaks or elk and bison burgers.
• Meanwhile, Cheyenne is not the nicest place for vegetarians. This is cattle country, and ranching is a way of life.

After you're settled down, you and your roommates should experience Cheyenne's:

• Cheyenne Frontier Days: Ten days near the end of July known as the largest rodeo festival in the world. In addition to professional bull riding, you can also watch bareback riding, barrel racing, bronc riding, calf roping, steer roping and wrestling, team roping . . . and a carnival with rides! And a parade!
• Yellowstone National Park: KIND OF. Meaning . . . not really, but if you're brand new to the Northern Great Plains, it's about a 9-hour drive and worth it, but only if you won't mind at least two long drives across the plains. You and your roommates in a reliable vehicle could visit over a very long weekend, MAYBE. But probably better to take the week.
• The Stars: In the sky. There are a lot, and you can see them in Cheyenne. Outside larger urban areas this activity is called "stargazing."

Here's the city of Cheyenne's listing of Community Recreation & Events.

Notes

1.   The non-traditional roommate rent average for this city we've experienced over the last 3 years. We can't predict future rental availability, because we're neither in control of any rental market nor psychic, sorry!

But in most cities most of the time, the recent and relatively recent past are the best predictors.


2.   This idea came from smartasset.com's ranking of what a roommate saves you in 50 cities. They ranked where roommates will save you the most money, based on the average cost of a 1BR as opposed to a 2BR ÷ 2. Unsurprisingly, the more expensive the city, the more you can save, but the savings are significant in all larger metros. So we got the data for the rest of our cities from Zumper too.

This is really the minimum you could save, as you could live with more than one roommate, split more services, share food or other supplies, etc. More sharing tends to lead to more savings too, as per our roommate roadmap.

As per the rest of the description at the top of this page, we're calling this "traditional" roommate rent.


3.   From zumper.com.


4.   Directly quoted from the Trust for Public Land's parkland rating system.

"The ParkScore index awards each city up to 100 points for acreage based on the average of two equally weighted measures: median park size and parkland as a percentage of city area. Factoring park acreage into each city’s ParkScore rating helps account for the importance of larger “destination parks” that serve many users who live farther than ten minutes’ walking distance."

While each city's rundown already includes their individual ParkScore, nature lovers might like to see all roommate cities ranked for parkland.


5.   Directly quoted from Walk Score's Cities and Neighborhoods Ranking. They've ranked "more than 2,800 cities and over 10,000 neighborhoods so you can find a walkable home or apartment."

While each city's rundown already includes their individual Walk Score, dedicated pedestrians might like to see all roommate cities ranked for walkability.


6.   From various lists here on our own best roommate cities.


7.   From hoodmaps.com: a collaborative map where residents use tags describing social situations you're likely to find. Other users can thumb up or down, so the largest tags have been thumbed up the most.