Private jets flock to Montana - but locals can't afford the trailer park

Here is the latest breaking news from around the world: Private jets flock to Montana - but locals can't afford the trailer parkImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, The rugged beauty of Montana has attracted the rich and famous BySheila FlynnSenior US Reporter, Reporting fromBozeman, MontanaPublished33 minutes agoGrandmother Sara Folger sits in the kitchen of her single-wide trailer, the Rocky Mountains looming in the distance, and remembers the Bozeman, Montana she fell in love with decades ago. Back then, Folger says, the rural western outpost was filled with "back-to-the-land hippies, college students, cowboys and ski bums". But nowadays, the formerly sleepy streets are awash with diggers, orange construction cones and out-of-state license plates.

Since the pandemic, Bozeman's population has grown by about 20% - a huge jump for a town that had fewer than 50,000 people in 2019. The influx was fuelled by a unique set of drivers. The state had for years been drawing in conservatives from around the country, who were attracted to the state's historic emphasis on rugged individualism and self-reliance - as well as its lack of sales, luxury and inheritance taxes.

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Their numbers increased exponentially as droves began "fleeing the Covid mess … on the East Coast and West Coast," says Mark Corner, president of Southwest Montana Realtors. And that made housing prices soar. Many are choosing to pack and leave their hometown, while developers from elsewhere have gotten rich.

A recent rent strike by two mobile home parks has epitomised the ongoing socioeconomic culture clash between the haves and have-nots - while highlighting a growing grass-roots effort to fight for the survival of the working class. Image caption, Sara Folger, who works part-time at Montana's first Whole Foods, which opened in 2023, has lived in Mountain Meadows mobile home park for 17 yearsBozeman Mayor Joey Morrison, who was elected at 28 on a platform focused on affordable housing, says the rapid change has created a sharp divide between locals and people from out of state. "We were watching our rent double or triple in the span of a year or two," he says.

"Suddenly, every coffee shop is full of people coding on their computer or working for an organisation that has never stepped foot in the state of Montana. "One factor fuelling outsider interest in Bozeman, according to many, was the "Yellowstone Effect" – transplants drawn to the state by the fictitious runaway hit drama Yellowstone, starring Kevin Costner. The show depicts the power struggles between patriarch John Dutton III, his children, the locals, and the outsiders seeking to change their bucolic ranching way of life.

"Everyone in Montana believes the Yellowstone television show, with its dramatic scenery and montages of Montana life and how beautiful it is here… had an impact on the housing market," says Jeff Michael, director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana.

The story has become one of the most prominent items on the global agenda.