The Worst Places for Teachers to Afford Housing in Montana

What are the two worst places in Montana for school teachers to find housing? Despite massive growth across the state, the answer should come to no surprise for anyone following local issues.

Bozeman and Missoula. Those two cities are the worst in the state when it comes to teachers trying to find housing. This, according to a new report by The Missoulian: "In Missoula, the median income for a two-teacher household is about $100,000. DelCurto said the average home value in the county is about $559,000, so a two-teacher household making median income would be paying about 42.3% of their monthly gross income to the mortgage on a typical home...In Bozeman, a two-teacher household would pay around 56.1% of their income on a mortgage."

Why is this not surprising that Bozeman and Missoula are the worst cities in the state for school teachers to find affordable housing? Taxes and local government regulations. Bozeman and Missoula are two of the most liberal-run cities in Montana. They constantly raise taxes on their residents, which drives up the cost of housing even more. Then, they often times make it hard to build more housing with the extensive regulations that hinder development or flexibility.

What is driving up housing prices in general? Montana's economy is doing much better than most of the other states, for one. Two, people have been flocking to Montana since the COVID lockdown era forced people to flee other states like California and Washington. On top of that, massive inflation coming from the federal government spending in Washington, DC has driven up costs across the board (including housing) and across the country...that massive spending also drove up interest rates.