"There’s so many things in our society that have gotten homogenized. We eat the same French Fries, we drink the same Starbucks coffee exactly the same. We’re even starting to talk the same as you go to different parts of the country but housing is totally unique. The prices are different, the taxes are different, the style and availability are different and people don’t realize that until you start researching it." ~ Pat Barkey

For years, residents of the Flathead Valley have seen rising housing and rental prices as the area becomes more popular, a trend that was only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and work-from-home movement, which saw record growth in the area.

Pat Barkey, the director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana has been involved with economic forecasting and policy research for more than 30 years, and recently gave an economic outlook seminar in Kalispell that focused on the rippling effects of high housing costs. He joins host Micah Drew to talk about the trends seen in the Flathead as well as around the state, and breaks down some of the data from the most recent studies.

Later in the show, Micah runs through the latest news of the week.

Read more about all of this week's stories and get the latest breaking news at flatheadbeacon.com and sign up for our new daily newsletter at flatheadbeacon.com/newsletter.

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The music in this this episode is “Thinking Music” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, The episode also features two songs from local singer/songwriter Mike Murray's album We Are Like Warriors, "The Good Ol' Days You're In" and "Moment of Time," used with permission.

Read more about all of this week's stories and get the latest breaking news at flatheadbeacon.com and sign up for our new daily newsletter at flatheadbeacon.com/newsletter.

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