Unaffordable, overcrowded, and losing its charm
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1/17/2022
My 2022 updated review, only touching on the recent changes.
Kalispell is no longer affordable for most middle class people. The world discovered us during COVID and thousands of people moved here in 2020, and probably more in 2021. In an area this size, that is a MASSIVE flood of people. Add that to our seasonal tourism and you get a mess.
Housing prices rose 21% in 2021. My 3BR house I bought for $300k in 2017 is now estimated to be worth $580k. Rentals are absurdly difficult to find and overpriced. I have seen larger houses here renting for more than they would in California. So many people bought properties to become Airbnb or just summer places that only rent a few months in winter. If you have a pet it's almost impossible to rent.
It now consistently takes 4+ hours to get your car registered at the court house. Five years ago the wait was maybe 20 minutes.
The $16/hr job market is hot but employees are burned out everywhere. I have seen some of the most incompetent employees here this last year because businesses cannot find anyone. Sometimes businesses close early or even for days at a time. This weekend I ordered two coffee orders and both were screwed up as to be undrinkable. That had never happened at that place.
Traffic here now feels similar to Whitefish. I used to be relieved driving home from Whitefish to Kalispell but now it has the same traffic vibe, and so many new drivers from Washington, Texas, and other states who bring their aggressive and careless driving habits.
Sprawl is happening as city planners rubber stamp developments which are either densely packed single-family neighborhoods with no open space or affordable housing apartments which are beginning to blot the skyline views. These new developments will soon devour much of the gorgeous farmland of the West Valley area.
Healthcare is in a crisis here obviously due to the flood of new residents. There are maybe three child psychiatrists here taking patients, one of which is awful, and the other is aloof and uninspired. The third one which has no reviews isn't seeing a new patient until seven months from now.
This valley attracts mediocre doctors who cannot make it in more competitive areas. I have literally had to override two doctors on medications based on my own research, and was proven correct in each instance.
The best doctors are not taking new patients, which means a GP who is taking new patients may be on of the worst doctors you have ever had. I know the worst doctor I ever had was in this town. And because of the opioid epidemic, good luck getting an effective painkiller. My grandfather fell and got stitches and a cracked neck bone and they released him from the ER the same day with no pain killers.
Glacier National Park now uses an annoying ticketing reservation system where you have to sign up early. This year it only gives you a three-day pass. With thousands of permanent new residents also using the park, these tickets are going to be even more scarce. Even Glacier National Park can be ruined by overcrowding, so I understand why they had to institute this system, but it's a sign of the times.
Unfortunately what is happening to Kalispell is happening all across America as people flee the places ruined by crowds and politics and then move to the smaller and slower paced places and then proceed to ruin them by overcrowding and by voting for the same policies that ruined the places they fled from. The bummer is that the governments in these small towns simply lack the training and skill to manage this level of growth.
Jason | Kalispell, MT