Hottest Housing Market? Montana Surges in New Building Permits

For the last few years, Bozeman Montana has been one of the fastest-growing towns in America.

A quick drive around town and you can see all of the construction that is taking place. It seems like every few blocks new buildings are going up, many of these are apartments, condos, and townhouses.

According to one article that I read, even with all of the construction taking place, the demand for homes is still extremely high with one report saying that the area could welcome thousands of new homes and it still wouldn't be enough to keep up with the demand.

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According to one source, Montana has seen one of the largest increases in building permits in the last year.

The U.S. Census Bureau took a look at all 50 states to determine which areas were requesting the most building permits and Montana is near the top. From January 2023 to January 2024 the request for new building permits in Montana has increased by 79 percent.

That puts Montana in 3rd place out of the 50 states according to This Old House. The only two states with a higher percentage are Nevada at 128 percent and Arizona at 126 percent.

Looking at the figures, it seems that the country's western region continues to grow with a large number of new requests from all the western states except for Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Oregon.

Bozeman isn't the only Montana city with massive growth, most of the bigger towns are seeing an increase in construction. The question is whether this growth is good or bad for the state.

While it's good for both the state and local economies, the real issue is that many Montanans struggle to pay for these new properties. With the single-family home price hovering around 500 thousand dollars across Montana and 800 thousand dollars in Bozeman, most Montanans can't afford to buy a home.

The hope is that with more continuing building of properties, the supply will catch up with the demand and somehow prices will become more affordable, however, that might just be wishful thinking.