Montana Governor calls housing affordability his state’s most pressing crisis.
A March 9, 2024 Business Insider article entitled “The Trump-supporting governor of Montana is staking his reelection on a set of ‘Miracle’ YIMBY housing policies.
Blaming the 2018 Paramount series “Yellowstone”, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte says a flood of wealthy out-of-staters have fallen in love with his state and are making it their new (or second) home. The economy in Big Sky Country grew faster in 2021 than it had in four decades. Statewide, home prices have soared by 60 percent since 2020. In the city of Bozeman single-family home prices have surged from under $500,000 pre-Covid to over $800,000 today. Now Bozeman is filled up with campers and RVs where unhoused workers and locals priced out of better housing are living.
Montana’s state legislature only meets for 90 days every other year and when it convened in early 2023, it passed a number of housing and land-use reform bills that make it much easier to build. These bills loosen zoning, allow more housing density, and require localities to devise a land-use plan. Republicans and Democrats supported most of these bills, and refer to this program as the “Montana Miracle”. Montana’s new laws are focused on stripping away government regulations and empowering landowners and developers to do what they want with their property Some examples are : allowing accessory dwelling units on single-family lots, duplexes to be built anywhere single-family homes are allowed, and making residences possible in commercial areas. The emphasis is on creating more housing, keeping down costs and focusing on reducing government red tape rather than subsidizing renters or lower-income buyers.
Governor Gianforte’s arguments were compelling enough to convince a significant number of his fellow Republican legislators to join in, but Democrats were much more supportive of the various pieces of pro-housing legislation.