How the ‘Yellowstone effect’ transformed one rugged western American city

The airport, which is undergoing renovations, has a steady stream of private traffic ferrying the wealthy home from places like the exclusive Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, about an hour south, where stars like Justin Timberlake and Tom Brady have multi-million-dollar piles of cash.

“On any given day at our airport, there will be 80 to 100 private jets on the tarmac, primarily Yellowstone Club guests,” says Corner.

During Covid, local buyers were systematically outbid due to cash offers from out of state. So many people bought homes sight unseen that the state real estate agents’ association added a new disclosure form to its contract library. And while Montanans found it impossible to get on the real estate ladder, others still found even renting to be just as impossible.

“Every developer in America has heard of the exorbitant rent prices in Bozeman and how attractive it is to develop here,” Corner says. Apartment blocks and townhouses began popping up everywhere – quickly – with one-bedroom rents coming in at $2000 a month or more; This was something no local population could afford, especially those on single incomes.

It was on this wave of disappointment that Mayor Morrison rode to victory in November 2023.

The mayor, now 30, lives with his fiancée and two roommates. Before that, he had rented a duplex for $333 about 10 years ago; He says the same room is currently renting for $900.

Morrison, who grew up in eastern Montana with a nurse mother and an incarcerated father, was a founding member of Bozeman Tenants United, the union chapter that has since helped with the mobile home parks strike. He says the mayoral election is a referendum on housing policy and the perception that local government is abandoning the average Montanan.

“It was a really big wave … that clearly said: We want one of us to represent us at City Hall,” he says.

“There’s a lot of desperation about staying in this situation, especially in this city,” he says.