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Uncommon Ground

Freedom to Live

Something happened over the past two years in Montana and suddenly housing and rent is unattainable

By Mike Jopek

As rain fell, we sat under the canopy with Sheriff John Brown, an American brown ale brewed by Bonsai Brewing Project over the viaduct in Whitefish. What a great place, good people. We enjoyed the freedom to sit outside and pursue happiness with friends. A lot changed over the past couple years in the Flathead, but friendship remains true.

Autumn is in the air, for days now, with cold overnights, damp mornings, hot daytimes and early evenings. The light changed. The smoke from regional forest fires hasn’t choked out the valley, but as every local knows, it still could get bad. Let’s hope not. We don’t need more troubles.

With rapid housing inflation and persistently low Montana wages the economy remains the top concern for working families across the valley. Something happened over the past two years in Montana and suddenly housing and rent is unattainable.

Whitefish recently released its latest Housing Needs Assessment as part of its Strategic Housing Plan update, indicating that the zip code area’s median rent of $3,000 monthly was affordable to households earning some $140,000 annually.

The report reveals a valley wide housing market run afoul of local wages. Flathead County saw housing costs increase 188% from 2015/2016 to June 2022 with a $697,000 median residential sale price, up $455,000 from the $242,000 of six years ago. 

Kalispell increased 243% in the same timeframe to a median of $650,000. Bigfork increased 206% to a median of $850,000 while Whitefish increased 197% to an eye-popping $950,000 median.

Even working towns like Columbia Falls saw 174% increases over six years to a median sale price of $575,000. That staggering housing inflation is bursting pocket books for workers simply seeking the freedom to live in the Flathead.

The exorbitant fuel and food inflationary dollars are indeed painful but no match for Montana housing inflation which add thousands of dollars extra in rent costs for workers. It’s truly a dream today for a working family to buy a home in the Flathead.

The past couple years proved painful for Montana workers. The boys running the state seem more interested in national ideological divisions and diversions than helping fix local household issues for citizens lucky enough to live in our very rapidly changing state.

Oddly, the state made our valley wide housing crisis significantly worse by repealing the ability of local governments to require big national developers to also build some smaller, working-class homes, instead of only McMansions that local wages can’t afford. 

Local state legislators from Columbia Falls, Kalispell and Bigfork voted to exasperate this housing crisis by preempting vastly popular local subdivision review tools. Send these men back to Helena and you’ll get more of the same. Next, they’re likely repeal more property rights, cramming high-density development into previously peaceful neighborhoods. 

Even the eagerly anticipated hard rains of fall won’t wash the stringent ideology off firebrand politics. Hotheads continue to ignore that we’re all in this together, our community is as strong as our people, and the best way forward is working with others.

It’s been a painful couple years for working families. Our freedom to learn has been jeopardized by a pandemic, the state is hindering the development of worker housing, and child care is outrageously expensive, essentially non-existent. The rent is so high that workers suffer.

Montanans are freedom loving and independent minded. We love our community and respect hardworking professions like teachers, nurses, firefighters, and police. The past two years made our freedom to live in the valley much harder. 

We need more independently minded leaders headed to Helena to work for safer, stronger communities, with homes where locals live and good opportunities nearby. You gotta be tough to live in Montana, and fortitude combined with good leadership open doors to freedom.