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Yellowstone National Park faces immense rural housing problems despite post-pandemic real estate superboom
Yellowstone National Park attracted more than 4.5 million visitors last year, but its popularity has become a double-edged sword.
Rangers and other staff who work within the park are coming up against increasingly unaffordable housing in the small towns at the park's borders, such as Gardiner and Silver Gate in Montana.
During and after the pandemic, Montana and Wyoming saw an influx of people moving from out-of-state cities, as remote workers and young families looked for a different lifestyle among their natural beauty.
At peak season in the summer, the park and its catering, accommodation and retail partners employ more than 3,000 workers.
A quarter of those workers earn less than $51,000 a year, and half earn less than $64,000, according to the National Park Service.
By contrast, Gardiner, a small community at the north of the park, has seen its median property list prices rise a staggering 250 percent since 2017.
Yellowstone is one of the most popular parks for visitors in the United States
Median home sales in Gardiner, where many staff live, are now above $1 million
The median home sale in the town is now more than $1 million, according to Realtor.com data.
West Yellowstone in Montana - the nearest town to the park's famous attractions such as Old Faithful and the Grand Prismatic Spring - has seen home prices almost double since 2017.
The median list price in the town, where many park staff live, reached $840,000 last year.
Equally, other small gateway communities such as Silver Gate and Cooke City in Montana have seen explosions in property valuations since the pandemic.
Homes in the area are being listed for more 50 percent more than in 2020, according to the price history of properties currently for sale on Zillow.
Park officials are clear that the housing crisis has led to problems recruiting and retaining staff as they simply cannot find affordable places to live.
'I can count at least five critical positions where we've tried to recruit, but we got turned down by the applicant because of a lack of housing,' Park Superintendent Cam Sholly told NPR.
'Affordable housing for employees in and near national parks is increasingly scarce and expensive,' the park service said in February.
The issue reflects 'a trend impacting communities across the country, forcing park employees to commute long distances between work and home,' the service, which is facing similar issues in parks such as Yosemite, explained.
Yellowstone National Park attracted more than 4.5 million visitors last year
West Yellowstone in Montana is the nearest town to the world-famous Grand Prismatic Spring
West Yellowstone is at risk of becoming unaffordable to staff and long-time local residents
The picturesque town of Butte, Montana lies at the border of Yellowstone National Park
'NPS is committed to innovative solutions that contribute to meeting the demand for employee housing across the National Park System,' Director of the National Park Service, Chuck Sams, said.
In February, an anonymous donor gave a $40 million gift to Yellowstone to build new homes for park staff.
The gift 'will fund more than 70 new modular units to address the critical shortage of employee housing at the park,' the park said at the time.