North Dakota Housing Impacts from Oil Growth

Increased oil and gas drilling activity in predominantly rural areas across the United States in recent years, driven by new drilling technologies that enable production from previously inaccessible rock formations, has caused serious disruptions in local housing markets in and around the new activity. When these housing market disruptions were brought to the attention of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in 2011, the Economic and Market Analysis Division (EMAD) in the Office of Policy Development and Research at HUD formed the Gas and Oil Task Force (GOTF) of field economists to explore and analyze the effect of gas and oil exploration and development activity on housing markets in the affected areas. This article provides a summary of the economists’ initial findings. View report »