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

The airport – with a renovation under way – gets a steady stream of private traffic ferrying the rich to their homes at places like the exclusive Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, about an hour south, where stars like Justin Timberlake and Tom Brady own multi-million-dollar piles.

“Any given day out 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 by cash offers from out of state. So many people bought homes sight-unseen that the state realtor association added a new disclosure form to its contract library. And while Montanans were finding it impossible to get onto the property ladder, others were finding it equally unfeasible to even still rent.

“Every developer in America heard about the exorbitant rental rates in Bozeman and how attractive it was to develop here,” Corner says. Apartment blocks and townhomes began materialising everywhere – fast – with rent for one-bedrooms coming in at $2000 a month or more – something no locals could afford, particularly those on single incomes.

It was on this wave of frustration that Mayor Morrison swept to victory in November 2023.

Now 30, the mayor lives with his fiancée – and two roommates. Before that, about 10 years ago, he rented a room in a duplex for $333; that same room now rents for $900, he says.

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

“It really was this huge groundswell… that was clearly saying: We want one of us to represent us in City Hall,” he says.

He sees “a lot of hopelessness out there for the ability to stay in this state, stay in this city in particular,” he says.