akbeemer
SURVIVOR
According to a report I just read on Bloomberg, the character of Montana is rapidly changing. Between the expanding virus �� and “bucks up” migrating people from the cities, now working from “home”.
OM
Well-to-do celebrities have owned places in Montana for years, but tend to maintain a low profile. Paradise Valley is reported to be a spot where several Hollywood folks have large places. The Madison River Valley is also popular. Annie and I passed Jeff Bridges on I-90 last year when we were on our bikes. He was in an old pick-up with a dirt bike in the bed. He gave us a thumbs up and a big grin. We had a picnic lunch with the guy who produced and/or directed many of Kevin Costner's films (e.g Dances With Wolves) last week. His girl friend/partner of many years is a friend of a riding buddy and the reason we gathered. That's the extent of my knowledge of the lifestyle of the rich and famous.
The newer transplants are causing more concern. One reason is their numbers. A hundred or so wealthy people who have a second, or third, or sixth home here doesn't have much of an impact, but thousands may make a big difference. They seem to be buying up a large proportion of the available housing, and not just the 400 acre ranches that a celebrity would buy. My daughter's neighbor recently sold their house. It was built a few years ago for $400K on ten acres; they put it on the market for $550K; it sold for $720K to people from California who never visited the house and paid cash. The concern of the people in Montana is that the people who are moving here to get away from the problems found in many metropolitan areas (crowding, cost of living, crime, taxes, regulations) will begin implementing the policies that led to those very same problems. We are fairly new to Montana ourselves having lived here for nine years. When we first moved here and met people I would detect a wince when I said we were new to Montana, and then a visiable sign of relief when I said we had moved here from Alaska and not California, Oregon or Washington. An apocryphal story one hears is about the transplanted couple who buys a home next to a ranch that has been operated by the same family for over 100 years and immediately starts to complain about the smell, how the animals are treated, agricultural equipment on the roads.... etc.
This is not a new phenomenon. Migration has, and will continue to, reshape the character of just about every place and we just have to deal with it.