Ghost Towns Remain After Rush to Build in North Dakota Oil Boom

Jennifer Oldham reports: "After struggling to house thousands of migrant roughnecks during the boom, [North Dakota] faces a new real-estate crisis: The frenzied drilling that made it No. 1 in personal-income growth and job creation for five consecutive years hasn’t lasted long enough to support the oil-fueled building explosion."

As recently as last summer, media outlets were lining up to report on the "man rush" to North Dakota. The downturn in the oil industry has left many of those who came to seek employment during those times without work. Oldham writes: "More than 4,000 workers lost their jobs in the first quarter, according to the state’s Labor Market Information Center."

Now many of the city's once at the center of the boom resemble ghost towns: "As the migrant workers leave, their castoffs pile up in scrap yards such as TJ’s Autobody & Salvage outside Alexander, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Williston. More than 400 discarded vehicles crowd its lot, including souped-up pickup trucks and an RV with rotting potatoes and a dead mouse in the sink."

Vacancies in "man camps" around the state have skyrocketed, forcing thousands of residential units to suddenly stall in the development pipeline. According to Oldham, "the average occupancy rate of new units in Williston was 65 percent in August, even as 1,347 apartments are under construction or have been approved there." Moreover, officials "in Watford City about 45 miles away have issued 1,824 permits for apartments, duplexes and homes in the past 18 months after only three houses were built between 1980 and 2000. They are in limbo, worried about filling the units."