OIl Boom Spurring Bismarck Building Boom -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Link here.

Because there is not enough housing in Dickinson, Minot, or Williston, some workers are moving their families as far away as Bismarck.

Oil patch action in the western North Dakota might be driving a home building spurt here.

Chad Wachter, vice president of Wachter Development, started dirt work this fall for the 100-plus acres of the Heart Ridge Addition, north of Mandan's Fort Lincoln Elementary School. It is designed to hold a mix of 123 single family and multi-family homes. He is starting by cutting road for 40 single family lots there. "I have a list of contractors who want to buy them," he said. The company also is also building 70 new homes in northeast Bismarck and south of the Bismarck.

Lot sales have at least doubled in the last three years, Wachter said. He estimates as much as 40 percent of his jump in lot sales are due to mounting demand from people working in energy industry.

"I've got a lot of people working in Williston and Dickinson that can't find housing andare having their families live here," he said. "Some residents in Dickinson and Williston are selling their houses to people who need it more and moving here."

This is truly incredible.