Montana's housing crisis: Locals priced out as wealthy newcomers flood Bozeman

Grandmother Sara Folger sits in the kitchen of her single-wide trailer, the Rocky Mountains looming in the distance, and remembers the Bozeman, Montana she fell in love with decades ago. Back then, she says, the rural western outpost was filled with "back-to-the-land hippies, college students, cowboys and ski bums". But now the formerly sleepy streets are awash with diggers, orange construction cones and out-of-state licence plates.

Since the pandemic, Bozeman's population has grown by about 20% – a huge jump for a town that had fewer than 50,000 people in 2019. The influx was fuelled by conservatives attracted to the state's lack of sales, luxury and inheritance taxes, as well as droves "fleeing the Covid mess … on the East Coast and West Coast," says Mark Corner, president of Southwest Montana Realtors. That made housing prices soar.

“Bozeman rents have doubled as wealthy newcomers flock to Montana, leaving locals like grandmother Sara Folger unable to afford their trailer parks.”

Bozeman Mayor Joey Morrison, elected at 28 on a platform focused on affordable housing, says the rapid change has created a sharp divide. "We were watching our rent double or triple in the span of a year or two," he says. "Suddenly, every coffee shop is full of people coding on their computer or working for an organisation that has never stepped foot in the state of Montana."

One factor fuelling outsider interest, according to many, was the "Yellowstone Effect" – transplants drawn by the runaway hit drama starring Kevin Costner. "Everyone in Montana believes the Yellowstone television show … had an impact on the housing market," says Jeff Michael, director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana.

Realtors and owners watched as "our home values jumped 40% in two years," says Corner – and the prices keep going up. A recent rent strike by two mobile home parks has epitomised the ongoing socioeconomic clash between the haves and have-nots, while highlighting a grass-roots effort to fight for the survival of the working class. Folger, who works part-time at Montana's first Whole Foods (opened in 2023) and has lived in Mountain Meadows mobile home park for 17 years, now finds herself unable to afford the place she calls home.