Note: This story is part of Squeezed Out, a series from Lee Enterprises that focuses on the escalating housing crisis in the West. Across the region, costs associated with renting or buying property have skyrocketed, forcing many individuals and families to redefine the meaning of home. More than one dozen reporters, photographers and editors across the West contributed to this project.
In Montana university towns like Missoula and Bozeman, the already-escalating housing prices soared even more during the pandemic as homebuyers bid $50,000 to $100,000 — and in one case even $1 million — over asking price. And, they paid in cash, pushing aside anyone clutching tightly to a down payment and the promise of a bank loan.
Besides not having a truckload of cash, I had other home-buying disadvantages. I’m single, while most first-time homebuyers are couples with two incomes. I have a modest income of just under $40,000, and I have some immodest student loan debt. After looking at several very small and very old and very beaten-up starter homes, all of them too expensive for me, I pursued the sinking-toilet house with a glimmer of hope. The asking price was $210,000, and the owner wasn’t kidding in describing it as a “fixer-upper.” But, it was close enough to my downtown office that I could walk to work if I felt like it, and it was in a gentrifying neighborhood with a bright future. It was the best house in my price range in the entire city.
There was a catch. The house was 35 miles away in Edgar, a tiny old ranch town with one bar and about 100 people. Edgar had not been on my radar, but I agreed to look at the property. I was still burning up to buy a house and saw homeownership as more than a financial investment, it was an investment in myself and my future.
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