Why the hell is Montana so expensive?
I scratched my head at that one too. A friend bought a nice ten acre farm there with a house and outbuildings a couple of years ago for under 500k. Seemed like a good deal.
A ratio can be a useful metric, but to understand it you need either the numerator or the denominator, otherwise information is lost. I have a feeling the answer to your question is in part that Montana may not be that expensive but that the average income is low. Combine this with new home construction costs and that out west, lots of land is restricted government land or the infrastructure is not in place to easily build or what is being built is geared for rich Hollywood types who need a second or third home to sink their millions into. The average Joe can’t keep up with those economic pressures.
Gazillionaires flooding the really nice parts.
Income isn’t very high.
The last time I was in Montana (Red Lodge) it was pretty clear the people around me were not from there. They mostly seemed to be from the west coast and very wealthy. Given Montana’s sparse natural population it would only take a few thousand building their mansions to skew a housing and land market.
Compare that with West Virginia. When I’m there I meet locals and the housing and land are cheaper. I would take Huntington WV over Red Lodge any day.
I wondered that about Montana too
I wondered that about Montana too
During the Plandemic people flooded into Bozeman and Big Sky mainly, although all the towns near a ski area in the state saw triple digit appreciation over a two year period.
Remote work is the main culprit.
Also “Yellowstone” the show has increased interest, and Costner keeps running around talking about the mountains and how great it all is...without mentioning that most of the production is done in and around Park City.
Houses that sold for $300K in 2018 now sell for $650-700K, in a state that has virtually no manufacturing jobs, just construction and hospitality. Thus the adverse price to earnings ratio.
“Why the hell is Montana so expensive?”
Because.
All the rich leftists moving there to devour it like locusts.