Workers, renters and young families are getting priced out of Montana’s premier cities in an affordability crisis that reached new heights last year. But it’s not just competition over scarce housing from pandemic buyers that is driving up home prices. Strict local zoning regulations exclude low and middle-income residents and worsen Montana’s housing shortage.

The new Montana Zoning Atlas report from Frontier Institute reveals just how hard it is to build affordable housing in Montana. As a result of exclusionary zoning regulations like single-family zoning and minimum lot areas, the atlas finds 70% of primary residential areas in Montana’s most in-demand cities either outright prohibit or penalize affordable multi-family housing development.

Panelists: Housing crisis hamstrings economic growth in Montana

The lack of housing in Montana is stifling economic development because potential employees can’t find places to live, so even businesses that offer high salaries and want to expand can’t grow.

Kalispell Council Considers Housing Authority Establishment

City officials addressed affordable housing at a work session, which also included potentially easing zoning restrictions and collaborating with nonprofits