For Many Bozeman Families, There's No Room Left in the Budget

Bozeman is one of the most expensive places to live in Montana — 29% above the national average, with housing costs 55% higher than the rest of the country. A family of four with two working parents needs to clear over $140,000 a year just to cover the basics in Bozeman. Most families aren't clearing that. 

When the Iran war sent crude oil past $100 a barrel, Montana felt it fast. The state ranked among the most expensive in the nation for fuel at the peak, and Bozeman stations crossed $4 a gallon in July. The pre-war national average of $2.98 a gallon is already a distant memory for families filling up here.

The grocery bill tells the same story. At Albertsons and Walmart in Bozeman, ground beef runs $6.90 a pound, milk around $3.68 a gallon, eggs $3.93 a dozen. Every truck stocking those shelves runs on fuel, so when the conflict with Iran disrupted oil supply through the Strait of Hormuz, it raised the cost of moving everything to the shelf. The 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada pushed produce prices up on top of that, a cost that gets passed on directly to consumers. 

For a family that built their budget around what Bozeman cost a few years ago, there's no single line item to cut. Housing was already the biggest squeeze before any of this started. Then gas got more expensive. Then groceries. Then the tariffs hit produce and meat. Families are being hit from every direction, and there is no sign that those pressures will ease any time soon.