How accurate is this video about Williston,ND?

[Roloff1976]

Originally Posted by springlake

about two months ago everything was put on hold in Williston. Crude oil trucks are not even seen anymore. I guess that's the reason starbucks and any other corporations never came here, they all knew it was going to bust. Oil was 10 bucks a barrel in 1998 so I suppose that's where its heading but who knows. 75% of the apartments in my building are now empty. rents have gone down some but will crash hard when the reality of what's happened starts to come true over the next 6 months. what goes up must come down and that's Williston right now.

Springlake...WHAT was put on hold? I just spent 4 days in Williston and there are projects going up all over the place. I saw earthmovers moving ground for more apartment complexes, housing and warehouses. I saw oil tankers and semi trucks coming and going along with all the rest of the traffic. So am curious what you refer to when you say "about 2 months ago everything was put on hold in Williston" In the Harvest Hills area, there are apartments and housing going up that had not even been started 2 months ago? The Fairhills area between Harvest Hills and Hagan Elementary has more construction going on now than it did 2 months ago? What projects have been put on hold?

[JanND]

I listened to the video. I have to say, beyond the fact this guy is frustrated by his experience....He isn't saying anything I haven't heard others say about how the companies aren't hiring just anybody, and haven't been for well over a year.

With the slow down, it has gotten even harder for job seekers, especially new to the area. Many oil fild jobs have been lost, so there is much more competition among those still rooted in Williston..and of course it helps if you know someone at the company that can put in a good word, when hasn't that helped in small town America, seriously.

Housing is an ongoing issue, slight improvement over the last year....but more availability hasn't translated to more affordability yet.

I'd say "mostly accurate"

[Roloff1976]

He's baaaaaaackkkkkkk.... I just saw a couple NEW video's where he drives around critiquing construction projects and apartment buildings. In his videos he claims the apartments are all empty and the oil workers have all left (but as he drives by you can see cars and pickups in the parking lots and personal items like bar b q grills on the decks. (but the vehicles and personal items on the apartment decks have probably been left behind as the workers high tailed out of town)

He also pulls up to construction sites and declares them as abandoned projects and suggests some of the developers have run out of money and can't finish the projects and some are working skeleton crews. He calls the apartments under construction an Apartment Ponzi Scheme

He drives down streets and proclaims there are no more trucks hauling oil and no more delivery trucks. He even pulls up to the new Menard's under construction and claims they must have stopped working on it and are in no hurry to finish it and obviously regret building this store in Williston.

Not sure what this guy's problem is, but he sure the heck doesn't have a clue on what is going on in Williston. But pretty hilarious for sure.

Things have slowed down temporarily in the oil fields, but the developers said they will continue on building because the demand is still there. But I guess he knows more than the developers.

I also noticed the way the sun was coming from the east...obviously a mid morning drive and I'm guessing it was on a SUNDAY...but he claims it is Saturday because all the workers are home (even though no one lives in the apartments) ...when many of the construction workers are off for the weekend.

I was in Williston a few weeks ago, and some of the apartments under construction he claims have been abandoned by the developers or sitting there since last summet, were only foundations and floor joists when I saw them. I was surprised to see how far along many of those projects come along in the past few weeks...so a big THANKS to him for updating the progress on the many new projects going up around Williston.

Hope he makes another trip up from Colorado this fall so he can make more videos of even more construction that takes place over the summer in Williston. All those developers building and building and building for no reason at all...they just want to spend all of their money on building something and anything in Williston just for the sake of building it...because that's what people do with their money....spend it so they get no return on their investments. Well in his mind anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL2ikbQfTf0 Too funny!!!

[ElkHunter]

My neghbor just got sent up to Sidney Monday to do a 2 week project. He was last in Sidney 2 years ago. I talked to him on Thursday and he said Sidney was just as busy as it was 2 years ago, no real change.

[Qazulight]

Originally Posted by ElkHunter

My neghbor just got sent up to Sidney Monday to do a 2 week project. He was last in Sidney 2 years ago. I talked to him on Thursday and he said Sidney was just as busy as it was 2 years ago, no real change.

My son is moving to Dickinson, out on the edge of the Bakken. The apartments have dropped the rent from 1150 to 1050. However the retail store he will be working at (cell phones) has had no year over year declines in sales.

I will note, we are still early the game, it took a full six months for the exodus to start in Houston in 1986 after the Saudis did the same thing, and another year for real estate to start taking down the savings and loans.

On the other hand, I Bakken is not offshore Gulf Of Mexico and the fall off in oil extraction will be quicker than the Gulf of Mexico, and demand seems to be popping up fairly quickly. Not only that the excess supply seems to have slowed to the point that the storage in Oklahoma will not reach capacity.

On the other hand, there are a lot of tanker cars parked on tracks in Southern North Dakota and North South Dakota around Watertown and Wapheton.

Cheers
Qazulight

[Roloff1976]

With the rig count in the Bakken cut in half, there is no question things have slowed a bit...but not stopped and definitely no bust. The builders are still building because they too know this is just a blip in the oil market and they continue to catch up on the demand that still continues to exist and grow. Things will be back to crazy (instead of busy) in a few more months. In the mean time, people are catching their breath and continuing on.

[ElkHunter]

If you look back at my predictons from 3 years ago, I said that it would level off about now. Not bust but it would give the town a chance to level off and catch up. Crude prices have dropped to the point of not allowing future development. But its not enough to stop development, only enough to allow the town infrastructure to catch up with growth.

[Dakota Gold]

The guy who shot that video must have been smoking some good geef, that's definitely
Sunday. No more construction. Right, the contractors are just going to leave thousands of
dollars worth equipment lay behind.

Nut case #1