Tuesday, October 05, 2004
Maybe Bozeman is an expensive housing market; maybe it's not.
CNN has a survey of 324 housing markets around the country. Bozeman is exactly the median value at slot number 162 with a price a dollar shy of $256,500 for
Specifically, Coldwell Banker looked at a 2,200-square-foot house with 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, a family room and a two-car garage. The neighborhood - a more subjective measure - is one "typical for corporate middle-management transferees."
What does this really mean? Well, Bozeman's price is higher than every other city in MT by a significant factor.
- Great Falls ($130,525)
- Billings ($134,650)
- Helena ($158,100)
- Kalispell ($159,684)
- Bozeman ($256,499)
Furthermore, Bozeman's housing market is more expensive than:
- Tacoma, WA
- Denver, CO
- New Orleans, LA
- Orlando, FL
- Anchorage, AK
- Des Moines, IA
- Rochester, MN
But it's not as bad as:
- Any town in California
- Any town in Connecticut
- Any town in Massachusetts
- Seattle, WA
- Portland, OR
- Minneapolis, MN
Finally, it's noteworthy that Butte, MT, did not make CNN's list. At last count, I believe Butte, which has been in decline for decades and stands now at something like a third of its all time maximum population, still had a larger citizenry than Bozeman. However, nobody cares about Butte and people are fleeing the Mining City in droves. Perhaps those in support of Montana's inglorious I-147 should consider the causes of the waning of Butte and the waxing of Bozeman when they cast their votes.
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It's also interesting to compare the average wages in those towns. Houses are half the cost in Billings, but Billings wage earners make the same or more as Bozemanites. The difference, as I remember, is even more dramatic when you compare to Minneapolis or Connecticut/Massachusetts/etc, and even more shocking when you don't take the median house price but look at low-cost housing.
tpy
tpy
# posted by 
: 9:42 AM MDT
: 9:42 AM MDT
I should really go to the trouble of finding a list of average household income by city and produce a ratio of home cost to income.
I have a suspicion that California would have a much higher ratio.
I have a suspicion that California would have a much higher ratio.
Here's a list from Yahoo! with the median family incomes for a number of citites. Right off I can say that Detroit's housing price to median income ratio is going to spank Bozeman's, making it look generous.
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