Building boom- While the rest of the state has been in a slump, new homes in Missoula and Gallatin counties are being erected at a brisk pace

Second only to Gallatin County for the number of new houses built, Missoula County growth has kept construction workers among the busiest in the state according to recent census estimates.

By ROB CHANEY of the Missoulian

While the rest of the state has been in a slump, new homes in Missoula and Gallatin counties are being erected at a brisk pace

If you think the sound of house construction is too loud in Missoula, stay out of Belgrade.

Or Stevensville for that matter. But most of the rest of the state is ominously quiet on the home-building front, according to U.S. Census figures released last week.

"I ask myself, ‘where are we coming up with these people?’ " said Jim Decker, a Missoula architect and vice president of the Missoula Building Industry Association. "But I go home after work and Malfunction Junction is backed up to Stephens – the volume is there."

Missoula County was second only to Gallatin County for building new housing units between 2000 and 2002, according to census estimates. But just 17 Montana counties showed growth over the period, and only Yellowstone, Sweetgrass and Flathead counties joined the top two in posting more than 1 percent growth. Recent powerhouse Ravalli County added just 103 housing units, or 0.7 percent, over the two-year period.

Gallatin County opened 1,241 new homes for a 4.8 percent growth rate. That jibes with recent population estimates that show the town of Belgrade ballooned 15 percent since the 2000 census was taken. Only Stevensville joined it in double-digit population growth, climbing 11.5 percent to 1,553 residents.

Missoula County’s housing stock grew 2.8 percent with 1,016 new homes between 2000 and 2002. Its headcount increased 2,282, to 59,518 people.

And only a third of Montana communities showed any growth at all. Of the 182 places in the state where the Census Bureau computed estimates, 120 had zero population increase or lost people. The Butte area showed the most significant loss, with 1,176 residents leaving in the past two years. That’s a 3.5 percent rate of decline, not as bad as Hysham’s 9.1 percent at the bottom of the chart. But then, Hysham needed to lose only 30 people to earn that spot.

"You get a very skewed view living in Missoula and Gallatin counties," said S.D. Long and Co. partner Bob Seidenschwarz in Missoula. "The majority of the state is not experiencing that kind of growth."

The census figures cover the recent period of stock market turmoil at the end of the technology boom. Seidenschwarz said he saw a lot of Missoula investors move their money out of the market and into local real estate.

While the number of Missoula-area property taxpayers grew about 2.3 percent in the past two years, gauged by the number of bills sent out of the Missoula County Treasurer’s office, nearly all of that growth was local. Barely a dozen new out-of-state addresses joined the rolls in the same period.

"When the markets got bad, guess where people were putting their money – rental properties," Seidenschwarz said. "These cycles tend to come and go. We’re probably getting very close to a top. Everybody and his dog is building a rental now. They’ll probably overbuild."

What people aren’t seeing is an obvious source of jobs to support all this construction and home-buying. While interest rates are down and contractors are scrambling for skilled builders, the only other big numbers in the job market usually refer to layoffs at places such as Touch America.

"A lot of Missoula has been carried by the building industry lately," Decker said. "I’m as busy as I’ve been for the last seven years. Even when interest rates were high we were still busy."

Nationally, Montana ranks 46th for overall housing growth with a statewide 1.1 percent increase. Nevada led the country with 9 percent overall growth between 2000 and 2002. Teton County, Idaho, which sits in close proximity to wealthy Jackson Hole, Wyo., got into the top-10 fastest growing counties with a 17.2 percent increase, while Georgia had four counties with over 17 percent growth in the top 10. Douglas County, Colo., the outskirts of Denver, had the nation’s fastest housing growth rate at 21.7 percent. Builders there put up 13,761 new homes in the past two years.

Reporter Rob Chaney can be reached at 523-5382 or at [email protected]

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