Home purchase

[Southern Elk]

Paying only $250k for a house that cost $750k in MT accounts for a LOTTTT of NR tags, and even a couple of sheep hunts!

Some of us got here before prices skyrocketed and we still pay nothing for resident tags.

 

[Pagosa]

Some quick math based on some national averages:

Housing Increase Median House Price 2015-2025 ($289,200-$410,800): 42%
S&P500 Increase 2015-2025 (someone else verify): 250-300%
Average Hourly Earnings 2015-2025 ($24.75/hr to $36.53/hr): 48% Increase
Average Rental Price Increase 2015-2025 ($959-$1539): 60.4% Increase

Based on the numbers above, there was a way to not purchase a house and still get ahead. Is buying a home harder now than it was 10 years ago, definitely. What I've seen is folks giving up, and rather than putting that money in other money making vehicles, they end up using it on newer vehicles, ski passes, fancy gym memberships, tv subscriptions, expensive phones, ect., ect. Consumerism is alive and well, hence the market improvement shown above....I have a hard time listening to people complain that show up to work in a newer truck with a 200$ pair of sunglasses and a stone glacier laptop backpack.

Dont forgot jacked up diesels and boob jobs

 

[MNElkNut]

Ironically, I just saw a John Stossel report on this very thing. Look it up as it was very interesting. It compared the housing situation from the 50s and 60s to now. Apparently, home ownership has RISEN. One thing he points out, homes back then were a 3 bedroom rambler, no air conditioning, no garage, no dishwasher, very simple, etc. I retain some optimism for todays young adults. I have a niece who is about 1.5 years out of college knocking down $120k in her degreed field and her and her electrician fiancé just bought a pretty nice house. It can be done, but you have to be smart and not make big mistakes.

 

[SAJ-99]

Example: WI out-paces MT by approximately $6k per year in household income, yet the median come price is roughly $180k less. That is loco.

Mean and median prices are not apples to apples. Montana prices are skewed by large ranches and resort towns. You have to really drill down to specific locations and properties. When you do that, you find the prices are pretty comparable. Incomes have the same problem because the towns have a different mix of businesses. It's a legit argument, but an argument that can be made on any comparison between two areas.

Montana "vacant" homes, a proxy used for vacation properties, is about 10%. Wisconsin is much higher, closer to 20% (think Chicago ownership). I'm not sure how to normalize the numbers for a reasonable comparison. Every area has its problems and every resident complains about the vacationers. Tale as old as time.

Taxes showing as Madison home $8719, Billings home $3667.

 

[TOGIE]

billings looks cheap AF compared to my town

 

[Forkyfinder]

billings looks cheap AF compared to my town

Burning questions hang over the Billings methamphetamine incineration

The fiasco — including 188 pounds of unspecified materials burned by law enforcement — has drawn concern about safe disposal methods for Montana’s most commonly seized narcotic.

montanafreepress.org

Free meth fumes too

 

[TOGIE]

Burning questions hang over the Billings methamphetamine incineration

The fiasco — including 188 pounds of unspecified materials burned by law enforcement — has drawn concern about safe disposal methods for Montana’s most commonly seized narcotic.

montanafreepress.org

Free meth fumes too

that journalist probably couldn't contain himself when he came up with that headline.

very un-analytically it would look like a comparable home to mine in bozeman is going for about 10-15% more. the reason that's actually sucky is i don't live in that cool of a place IMO; very nice yes, not that cool.

i'd take laramie before bozeman. very unpopular opinion with my wife.

 

[Elky Welky]

Burning questions hang over the Billings methamphetamine incineration

The fiasco — including 188 pounds of unspecified materials burned by law enforcement — has drawn concern about safe disposal methods for Montana’s most commonly seized narcotic.

montanafreepress.org

Free meth fumes too

All the pets now also need homes, and pets definitely add to the cost of rent

 

[Ballistic]

You’re right. Poor choice of words.

The fact that a tiny percentage of people have an outsized influence on how much money they make without oversight is problematic to me. Especially when it affects people in a huge way.

I don't know how deeply we disagree. I have real problems with folks who lie, cheat, and steal to make any amount of money big or small. Sadly given the available information consumers are complicit in most of these cases and seem to be happy to give away their own future for short term gratification.

 

[Pagosa]

I think housing, gold, beef, vehicles, etc have not risen price but our dollar is devalued through money printing by the govt and we are living through a period of stagflation. It started seriously in 2009, and every president has continued to increase debt. Stagfalation started about 4-5 years ago and inflation about 7-10 years ago.

 

[bayoublaster7527]

Yeah, really. CO, where I have been for 16 years now is a prime example. Native Coloradans aren't pushing the crazy increase. It is east and west coast folks coming from even crazier cost areas, flush with cash, paying OVER asking price for anything decent and bringing the horrible tax/government/social policies that drove where they came from into the toilet and made them want to leave. Look at the Denver/Aurora metroplex vs what it was 15 years ago. There is absolutely NOTHING better than it was and THAT population base rules the state.

And that urban-metro boom ushered in a blue wave with single party rule and a shift from center-moderate to left-progressive policies, which brings us to our current predicament, a wildlife commission dominated by anti-hunting activists.

 

[cookchris]

I think housing, gold, beef, vehicles, etc have not risen price but our dollar is devalued through money printing by the govt and we are living through a period of stagflation. It started seriously in 2009, and every president has continued to increase debt. Stagfalation started about 4-5 years ago and inflation about 7-10 years ago.

And its gonna get worse in my opinion

 

[SAJ-99]

Finished new construction shows a soft market in some areas.

Homebuilder unsold completed inventory sits at a 16-year high: Housing markets to find deals in

The number of unsold completed new single-family homes at the end of August 2025 reached its highest level since July 2009. However, this supply isn’t evenly distributed.

www.resiclubanalytics.com

 

[Ballistic]

I'm not arguing your property hasnt doubled in value in 5 years.

I believe it.

What I fail to understand is how that is sustainable long term?

Certainly good for the person that was fortunate to buy at the bottom, but in all my years I worked, the best yearly wage increase I got was close to 5 percent.

Your home annualized at 14 or 15 percent.

Everyone has bought their home at the bottom when you look at it through the lens of time. I wish I bought everything when I thought it was unaffordable.

 

[Ballistic]

Do you think today's twenty somethings will get to benefit from their investments when they become fifty somethings, like buzz has? If they work hard, live within their means, and invest wisely. Or is that a thing of the past too?

This is actually accelerating. For the very same reasons people complain about home prices, quality securities continue to grow faster.

 

[frisser]

not at the moment

 

[shrapnel]

My son just bought a new home, his first. We are really happy for him!

Tomorrow I will go over and help him take the tires off of it…