Oil Boom Hurts Elderly In North Dakota

HuffPo (via nc links):

Thanks to new drilling techniques that make it possible to tap once-unreachable caches of crude, a region that used to have plenty of elbow room is now swarming with armies of workers. Nodding pumps dot the wide, mostly barren landscape.
But because it has limited housing, the area is ill-prepared to handle the influx of people. The result is that some rents have risen to the level of some of the nation's largest cities, with modest two-bedroom apartments commonly going for as much as $2,000.
The skyrocketing cost of living is all the talk at the senior center in downtown Williston.
"Grandma can't go to work in the oil fields and make a 150 grand a year," said A.J. Mock, director of the Williston Council for the Aging. Many of the seniors who are moving out "have lived here their entire lives and wanted to live here until they die."

The article says a mobile home is listed for sale at $149,500.  There is something insane about the oil economy.  The boom/bust cycle, combined with a rush to produce as much as possible, seems ridiculously inefficient to me.