How Popular Is Living In Bozeman? Check Out These Numbers.

I suppose when you live in one of the most beautiful places in the world, you shouldn't be surprised when people start flocking to move here. With beautiful National Parks, world-class skiing, plus the lure of big game hunting, Montana is an outdoor paradise.

Oh, and just like any other paradise, there is a price to be paid.

My co-host is moving out of her Bozeman apartment because the property has changed ownership and they are raising the rent by 350 dollars a month.  That's not a typo, they're actually raising the rent by 350 dollars a MONTH.  Why? Because they can and people will pay for it.

OK, granted Bozeman is expensive, I will give you that. However, I became a little curious and decided to do a little research.  Surely there have to be some affordable places to live in Montana right?  I came across some information that was written back in 2018 by Livability.com.  They compared cities here in Montana and how affordable they were, then ranked the Top 5 Most Affordable Cities in Montana and to my absolute surprise, Bozeman made the list.

Yep, according to livability.com back in 2018, Bozeman was one of the most affordable cities to live in here in Montana.

In fact, the website says "although Bozeman’s median home price of $256,300 is higher than the state average, its median household income of $46,422 makes owning a home feasible, and most people have enough left over to take advantage of the community’s many fun things to do."

Once again, this was four years ago.  The median home price in Bozeman today is almost 750 thousand dollars.  So, in four years that price has jumped half a million dollars.  That's unbelievable and quite frankly, ridiculous.

In case you're curious as to what is available for 256,300 dollars today, let's take a look. According to realtor.com, you can get a 3 bedroom, 1 bath mobile home for 225,000 dollars in Belgrade OR a 6000 square foot lot with nothing on it for 215,000 dollars also in Belgrade.

For those of you that are frustrated, I'm right there with you.  I make a good living and pay over 2000 thousand dollars a month for 2 bedroom apartment, but there is no way that I can afford a house that costs three-quarters of a million dollars. I'm guessing many of you are in the same boat as I am.

What's the solution? That's a great question and if someone had the answer, they would almost make enough money to buy a house here.

Credit: livability.com, realtor.com