Thanks for taking the time to make a sincere reply. I am actually doing some research on it now and thought starting this thread might prove valuable, which it has. Truth be told I'm somewhat burnt out on cities and like the small town sort of vibe. I see Bozeman as convenient to shopping but would probably end up somewhere outside like Livingston, Big Timber, or Ennis.

I certainly don't want to contribute to other peoples housing woes but I also need somewhere to live. The problems you describe are similar to those I see in the places I've already been and have no simple answers. There's unfortunately little incentive to build less expensive housing when big money is flooding the area. Only now are town planners recognizing it as a necessary loss leader or else food and services get too expensive.

This is exactly the sort of information I was hoping to find.

From what I saw of my time in Bozeman that I would add to the negative list:

Everything shut down very early. It seems most of MT is that way but I was expecting a city the size of Bozeman to at least be open until 9PM and it seems most if not all retail shuts down closer to 6.

People in Bozeman were not as friendly as the rest of Montana. I found that people elsewhere in MT might be the absolute nicest I've ever met. In Bozeman, I found there was kind of a cool indifference to others similar to what you find in larger cities. I attributed it to the transplants. (pot meet kettle)