Montana State in Bozeman plays an even bigger role in the state’s booming tech industry. The school is leading one of 32 new regional tech hubs designated by the federal government. Oracle, Snowflake and other large software, robotics and photonics firms also work with the university. Along with Bozeman’s proximity to Yellowstone National Park and the Big Sky Resort, this attracts a steady stream of wealthy homebuyers.
“Bozeman is a price and luxury leader in Montana for non-resort properties. This will continue and indeed grow,” Brewer says.
Underscoring the appeal of university towns among luxury homebuyers is the fact that many of these buyers have no previous connection to either the town or the local university. Ansley broker Gena Knox told Mansion Global in a May 2022 interview: “They’ll just read an article and say, ‘Oh, we heard it’s a great place to live and a good place to raise our family.’”
While the #1 inflow city to Madison is Chicago (located just 90 minutes away and home to many UW alumni), San Francisco and Seattle are in the top 5, and Denver, San Diego and Spokane round out the top 10.
“It’s about quality of life,” says LeGrand. “The walkability, the short commute times even if you live or work two towns over. There are people here from all over the world, so there’s diversity of culture, diversity of cuisine. And people enjoy the seasons.”
In other words, college towns are interesting, if not downright entertaining, most of the time, and people want that, especially as they near or enter retirement.
“The young, energetic feeling of university towns is really appealing to the 50- to 75-year-old crowd,” notes Joe Taggert, president of LandVest Christie’s International Real Estate, which has a large presence in Boston, Burlington, Vt. (University of Vermont), and the Berkshires, the latter being home to several of America’s top liberal arts colleges.
