Aren’t they drilling like crazy out there?
I’ve heard that you can’t rent a room hardly anywhere, due to all the oil workers living in them.
Is this actually the case?
“...can’t rent a room anywhere...is it true?...”
It is true but only in the western part of the state where the drilling occurs.
The reach of the boom is long. You’ll see oil company trucks gassing up early in the morning in Miles City, Montana, which is over one hundred miles from the heart of activity, and the same thing in Minot, N.D., which is 175 miles from the Montana border.
But you could rent a room in Miles City or Minot. You talk about Williston, right on the state line, over past Stanley and Parshall, seventy or eighy miles away-—you will live in a camper if you can find one or pay mightily.
My sister lives in Watford City, just east of Williston. Friend of hers rented out his whole house (he built a new one for himself I think), four bedrooms, couple baths, nothing fancy, to six guys for $1500/month...apiece. That’s nine grand a month. In North Dakota. In winter!
Five years ago that house would have brought $600 a month...
My brother is a surveyor, and is in the Williston area right now. He sees future plans for development and there is a lot coming.
The housing shortage is real. Not enough housing for the oil crews, and certainly no housing for housing construction crews.