Town and Country Magazine: Today’s run on land out west is spreading not American power but five-star living dressed up as frontiersmanship. Welcome to the home of end-table antlers and Escalades.

Daily Montanan: Obviously, people have been moving to larger communities in Montana, the study said. But it said so much media attention has focused on the “decline and despair” of rural towns, “it is less known that people are also moving to Montana’s rural communities.”

Business Insider: There's a certain gloss associated with recent transplants in "Boz Angeles." The new nickname for Bozeman, Montana, is a wryly derisive nod to the cultural and economic changes spurred by new arrivals, and to their presumed origin. It's a gesture to the high-end coffee shops festooned with cowboy decor that are slowly encroaching on, say, affordable ranchland for real, living cows to graze on. It seems that at least some residents are in on the joke — and attuned to the tensions that lie beneath.

Montana Free Press: While the median home price in the city nears $500,000, officials believe a record number of housing permits last year is reason for hope.

NPR: Builders for many years just weren't building enough to keep up with demand. That lack of supply has pushed home prices to record levels.

The New York Times: With lift tickets above $225 and surcharges of up to $100 to ride the tram to the top, the vast Montana resort is delivering a high-end experience. Is it a solution to skiing’s problems?

Montana Public Radio: For decades, housing affordability has been a hot-button issue in Bozeman politics, a clear community pain point where the city’s elected leaders haven’t managed to deliver significant relief. As insider and outsider candidates campaigned for city offices in 2021, housing policy became the election’s key issue.

San Francisco Chronicle: Data shows that Montana has surged in popularity.

Mountain Journal: Outdoor recreation in America is worth nearly $1 trillion annually but like any consumptive industry, it can make nature a casualty.

Each year Prospera Business Network develops the Economic Profile of Gallatin and Park Counties to share a look at the state of our regional economy in Southwest Montana. Our goal is to assemble the most up-to-date information on economic, population and demographic trends to help business leaders plan for the future.

Mountain Journal: Maybe the only hope we have to stop our towns and wild places from changing is to change our belief that their destruction is inevitable. But, as Timothy Tate writes, it's almost impossible to do.

Bloomberg: Out-of-state buyers push western Montana home prices up 17%. Local Montanans face New York-Style Affordability Crunch.

Mountain Journal: What does it say about us when we have leaders who don't have the courage to act?