Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Ami topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
AMI vs. local wages: West Yellowstone median worker earns roughly $45,000, presenters say
Summary
Presenters told West Yellowstone officials that using Gallatin County AMI will likely overstate local affordability: the median local worker makes about $45,000, placing many households well below county AMI and outside eligibility for some programs.
The HRDC presenter said the median worker in West Yellowstone earns about $45,000 a year, a level that places many local households at roughly 50% of Gallatin County area median income (AMI). That gap means countywide AMI thresholds can overstate who local programs will actually help, the presenter said.
The workshop drew attention to how AMI is calculated (HUD-provided gross income figures for a four-person household) and to recent AMI inflation in Gallatin County tied to in-migration during COVID. “Wetook the West Yellowstone Triplex,” the presenter noted while pointing to an example used to illustrate how county AMI can differ from local wages. Participants asked whether AMI is measured before or after taxes; the presenter confirmed HUD uses gross income.
Why it matters: eligibility bands set by AMI determine which residents qualify for many subsidy programs and shaped the discussion of tax-credit and homeownership tools that followed. The presenter advised officials to consider targeted local measures—such as project-level AMI targeting in predevelopment work—rather than relying purely on county AMI.
Provenance: topicintro SEG 033; topfinish SEG 076
