Are More People Leaving Montana Than Moving In?

For the last few years, it seems one of the biggest topics of conversation amongst Montanans has been the huge number of out-of-staters that have moved to The Treasure State.

Not only has this significantly affected the housing market, but it's also put a big strain on the infrastructures of several Montana towns and cities. Throw in the fact that several of these "newbies" have different ideas about how Montana should be, and well...you get the picture.

But what if I told you that according to a source, things look like they're changing here in Montana? Could the "Montana Migration" be coming to an end? And if so, is that good news?

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The website Moovitapp recently listed the states that people are leaving and wouldn't you know it, Montana made the list. While there are other states with a higher outbound rate, Montana still has a significant percentage of people leaving Big Sky Country.

READ MORE: Property outside of Bozeman listed for almost 80 million dollars.

What percentage of people are leaving Montana?

According to the website, Montana has an outbound rate of 55 percent. Now the question is, are the majority of those folks transplants deciding Montana isn't for them OR are they locals that simply have had enough and decided to go elsewhere?

The website says the high outbound rate is due to the following:

"The amount of people moving to Montana in recent years has started to slow down, which is probably a relief for locals after years of population growth and rising property prices. Despite all of the growth in recent years, Montana is still extremely rural in a lot of places, which means there aren't a whole lot of good-paying jobs, or at least not enough to go around for everybody."

While that statement might be true, what they fail to mention is that in certain spots of the state fast-food workers are making over 20 dollars an hour and still can't afford rent. In places like Bozeman and other popular towns, businesses struggle to find workers and offer above-average wages in hopes of staying afloat.

So while people moving here might have slowed down, it looks like several people moving away might be locals who can't afford to live here anymore and that certainly isn't good news.