Interview: Joe Diamico, Brooklyn native, Dr. Nancy Hodur, NDSU
Building the Bakken Radio Episode 3 Segment 2: Bakken Housing
Brooklyn native Joe Diamico moved to the western North Dakota ten years to get away from all the people and the activity. He said the way the people keep coming in to the state, he may have to relocate.
Diamico compared housing prices of the oil patch with what his family is paying in New York. He said his cousin rents a 2-bedroom apartment in Long Island for $1300 a month compared to $1800 to $2000 he and his friends pay out in the patch.
When asked what does he love or enjoy about North Dakota living, Diamico said the people are “certainly more friendly, that’s for sure. It’s not so much high pace go-go-go, it more laid back.”
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Nancy Hodur, NDSU, interviewed by Jason Spiess at the Bakken Investors Summit. Photo by Kevin Tobosa.
Dr. Nancy Hodur, assistant research scientist has been collecting and examining data on how the oil and gas industry has been impacting the North Dakota’s economy, employment, population and housing for they past two years.
Hodur said the oil and gas industry has some unique workers, in terms to traditional models. The oil and gas industry has workers that will work in one place and live in another. Traditional models will not count these people.
Hodur said that is for a variety of reasons right now in the Bakken, but even if those issues were fixed, there are still transient workers like welders and others who “follow the pipe.”
Hodur said a new population metric had to be created and broken into several categories. She said Service Population are normal residents who are working, voting and using the schools of the community. Temporary Population are shift workers or live elsewhere and work in ND.
The study was conducted for the city of Dickinson and Williston. In addition to using Census data, building permits and other recorded information, Hodur said their staff worked with local officials and leaders to find out “how many you have living behind the shop at the diesel garage, how many peole in crew camps,how many people living in RVs, hotels, all that non traditional housing.”
The study then added the future projections. She said the process is relatively simple in principal, but the work is in the gathering the details from multiple sources and locations. Hodur continued by saying ” but at the end of the day you’ve got a very reliable estimate of how many noses are on the ground within a jurisdiction.”
Hodur believes the information is necessary for professionals looking into the Bakken and is good data for a dynamic situation.
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