Media Coverage

Three Forks has developed a plan for mitigating flood risk, but failed to receive federal funding when it applied earlier this year. However, under the trillion-dollar infrastructure bill passed in Congress last week, FEMA’s program for reducing flood damage has seen its budget more than triple to $700 million annually.

• Decreasing flood risk in rural communities: a pilot program in Three Forks, Montana
• Improving benefit-cost analyses for rural areas

“Now, with this bill, they are likely to get that money,” Ms. Hernandez said. “And their flood risk reduction project will also help the region’s housing affordability and economy.”

• Decreasing flood risk in rural communities: a pilot program in Three Forks, Montana
• Improving benefit-cost analyses for rural areas

“The scale of the transition, from a fiscal point of view, is beyond what any one community or county can handle,” Smith said. “There is not a single industry — sports and events or otherwise — that will be able to generate revenue like coal has for Campbell County.”

• How state and local budgets are vulnerable to climate change

“A lot of times the folks who own these places are able to bid up the prices and pay a little more for those houses knowing that they can recoup some of that price premium by renting the house out,” says Megan Lawson, an economist with the nonprofit Headwaters Economics.

• Unaffordability for renters made worse during the pandemic

A report from Headwaters Economics shows that the cost of building a fireproof structure from the ground up doesn’t differ significantly from the cost of building any other home from scratch. 

• Building a Wildfire-Resistant Home: Codes and Costs

A new report from Headwaters Economics shows that 20 rural counties across Kansas are now considered unaffordable for renters.

• Unaffordability for renters made worse during the pandemic
• Housing costs broke records across the U.S.

“What was very apparent to us is that these unprecedented price increases that we’ve been seeing lots of anecdotes about aren’t isolated,” said Headwaters Economics researcher Megan Lawson. “It’s incredibly widespread.” 

• Housing costs broke records across the U.S.
• Unaffordability for renters made worse during the pandemic

“The housing bubble pales in comparison to the price increases we are seeing now. Hopefully, it slows down,” said Megan Lawson, an economist with Headwaters who conducted the study.

• Housing costs broke records across the U.S.
• Unaffordability for renters made worse during the pandemic

Costs in lesser known areas in practically every corner of Utah are also ballooning — even in off-the-beaten-path or rural communities that were previously considered more affordable.

That’s according to new data released last month by the nonprofit Headwaters Economics, which highlight skyrocketing housing costs throughout the United States. 

• Housing costs broke records across the U.S.
• Unaffordability for renters made worse during the pandemic

A new analysis from Headwaters Economics paints a picture of soaring housing costs across the West and beyond. 

• Housing costs broke records across the U.S.

“Communities are seeing outdoor recreation as a way to even out the booms and busts of those extractive industries . . . as they respond to big macroeconomic fluctuations,” Lawson continued. “That’s something that I’ve really seen change.”

Still, recreation economies are no silver bullet. For one, Lawson said, counties with developed recreation economies have lower wages and higher housing costs on average. But wages are growing at a faster rate than those in counties without recreation, according to Headwaters Economics data.

• Housing in recreation-dependent counties is less affordable

The oil and gas industries also made up the lion’s share of revenue in previous years, according to a recent report issued by Headwaters Economics, a Montana-based group.

The report recommended four different activities to diversify revenue generated on New Mexico state trust land – renewable energy, commercial development, outdoor recreation and conservation.

• Diversifying Revenue on New Mexico State Trust Lands

The Oregon Home Builders Association testified the measures would add substantial cost to a home’s price, even though other assessments found fire-resistant homes would be minimally higher or even cheaper. The state did approve fire mitigation codes in 2019 but left them optional.

• Building a Wildfire-Resistant Home: Codes and Costs

From 2005 to 2020, nearly 60,000 structures were destroyed by wildfires in California — comprising 67% of the 89,210 structures to burn in the entire U.S. during that time, according to Headwaters Economics.

• Wildfires destroy thousands of structures each year

Headwaters Associate Director Kelly Pohl says those factors can add to the impact of wildfires, which are becoming more severe and frequent due to climate change.

“Wildfire smoke and environmental stress can exacerbate existing medical conditions, which are more common among the elderly, the disabled and people living in poverty,” Pohl said.

• The unequal impacts of wildfire

Less than 10% of the total expenses incurred by wildfires are related to suppression, which is generally paid for by state and federal government, according to a report by Headwaters Economics, a think tank. The rest of the cost is from long-term, local rebuilding efforts such as road repairs, watershed restoration and home reconstruction. “All the costs, on all fronts, are going up,” said Kimiko Barrett, who researches community wildfire planning and policy at Headwaters Economics.

• Full Community Costs of Wildfire

The nonprofit research group Headwaters Economics analyzed each county’s susceptibility to fire and smoke, but also socioeconomic information about residents, including age, race, income level, and English proficiency. 

• The unequal impacts of wildfire

Nonprofit research group Headwaters Economics found that more than half the residents living in fire-prone areas are Black, Indigenous or people of color. 

Headwaters analyzed the risks of fire and smoke for each county in America, as well as information about residents – including age, race, income level and English proficiency. 

• The unequal impacts of wildfire

New Mexico is “well-positioned” to diversify uses of state land and reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, per a recent study published Tuesday.

• Diversifying Revenue on New Mexico State Trust Lands

Much of the action that would go the furthest toward reducing wildfire risk is outside the scope of federal authority, according to Kimiko Barrett, a wildfire policy expert at Headwaters Economics, a consulting group in Montana.