MT lack of affordable housing (Billings, Missoula: renters, loan, how much)

[jenzebel]

From the Billings Gazette article, dated Oct. 2003, about a study completed by the Rural Collaborative, a six-state nonprofit organization of affordable housing advocates:


In Missoula, the median price of a newly built house totals $209,000. Only three out of 10 Missoulians can afford that .... And in Lake County, $5 million homes are under construction, while local workers cash paychecks at the median wage rate of $29,000 per year.

...58 percent of Missoulians cannot afford the average price of a home today and 28 percent cannot afford fair market rent. New homes are unattainable for most Missoulians and the cost of land lots increased 145 percent in the last decade.

While housing costs increased 31 percent from 1997 to 2001, incomes increased 6 percent, the report shows.

And yes, I have seen it with my own eyes and in other Montana towns, not just in Missoula. Since the article was published, it has only gotten worse.


Billings Gazette article link (http://www.billingsgazette.com/newdex.php?display=rednews/2003/10/29/build/state/54-housing.inc - broken link)

[truckingbronco]

I know house prices are bad in MT but that article has to be more recent then 2003

[imbobbbb]

this is a problem in a lot of the country,not just montana.almost half the population in missoula are renters which is a real bad thing for long term stability.

[Rickers]

There is very affordable housing in my town, so long as you don't mind being in a town that looks run down with few jobs and hardly any stores !

[Montanaman1]

Originally Posted by rickers

There is very affordable housing in my town, so long as you don't mind being in a town that looks run down with few jobs and hardly any stores !

Sounds like my kind of place.

[Rickers]

If you work from home or are retired it's perfect. It's really nice to be able to walk to the tubs, too bad it's not free anymore !

[JoeJoeMan]

Jenzebel - the lastest figures I saw have the median house price for the missoula area at 229k.
I think the median house price is a misleading figure though in some ways..in that it doesn't reflect what you are really getting for your money....the median house these days is a lot less house than the median house was say even 5 years ago. Also the median price is an indicator of just how much the public can really afford and be stretch to beg, borrow or steal(NINANJ loan) to get into a house. Also I would think the the median house 229k is not being bought by the median person, as they couldn't afford it, it's being bought by people who sell their other home, thus bring that inflated equaity to the purchasing table. Perhaps years ago the median house reflected a first time buyer, but it evidently doesn't today. Also I wouldn't be at all surprise if the numbers there realestate stats' are being cooked in some way, after all everyone else in the market, wallstreet and especially government are cooking the stat' numbers all the time - ie the government's CPI - consumer price index say inflation is running at 2 percent - I guess they think we must be all monkeys to beleive that, how stupid can they be to beleive that we are that stupid.
Have you bought any yogurt lately ? They've manage to push the price up to most tolerable level and reduce the size from 8 to 6 ounces and removed all the fruit and fat(flavor). And in the case of "Whipped" yogurt they actually whip air into it, reducing the actual contents even more, if you can beleive that. So the price reflects how far they can actually push and fool the buy and reduce the quanity and quality. The same can be said for the realestate market.

[jimj]

To heck with yogurt, look what they've done to our staple of life, ICE CREAM! Dryers in now telling us a 1/2 gallon (supposed to be 2 quarts) is really only 1.75 quarts and for the same price! What a deal......

[Arleigh-20]

I am involved in selling my home. I purchased 6 years ago, at half of the appraised value
today. My permanent pension would not allow me to buy a home of any
quality at the time in the Greater Seattle area. Fortunately, like other home purchasers in MT, I had a steady reliable lifetime income.With the help of the VA,
I purchased a home.I think the problem here is the people who have good steady
incomes are still lost, because the incomes are so low. Somewhere, either in the forum,
or the news paper, I read that Montana had not had a cost of living raise federally,
or State in ten years. So many folks are hired part time, it is a wonder where the buyers are coming from to buy the row house west of Missoula?
I could not afford to buy my house. I am moving to another area where one can get more home for the buck.

[8 SNAKE]

From the sound of things, western Montana's housing market is getting ready to take a nose-dive. The disparity between income and home prices can only spread so far, and then the market will correct itself and either A) incomes will increase (seems unlikely based on what everyone here has indicated) or B) home prices fall.

I'm sure Arleigh isn't the only person looking to cash out from the recent housing boom in the area and move on to a more affordable location. I think we'll see a glut of homes hit the market (probably already do) and a lot fewer buyers to compete for. There will be a period of limbo, where sellers hold out for prices that they could have gotten at the peak of the market but can't now, and buyers hold out for bargains. Eventually, the buyers and sellers will come together and houses will start to sell (at much lower prices). The problem with western Montana is the lack of employment needed to attract new buyers once prices come down. As someone on this forum likes to say, you can't eat the scenery.