{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1962645282?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"1962645282","authors":["Jonathan Bach"],"book_id":"9781962645287","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/high-desert-higher-costs-9781962645287","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781962645287.jpg?v=7d50cf12bba61b51","description":"Nestled against the Cascade Mountains, former lumber town Bend, Oregon, entices residents who long to live in a wonderland of sagebrush and forests. But like so many other communities across the West, Bend has too few homes for everyone clambering for access. In High Desert, Higher Costs , Jonathan Bach takes a closer look at the housing crisis in this mid-sized city that is both the population center for rural Central Oregon and a major recreation area. Bach uses Bend as a lens into the growing housing crisis in the region, where residents and tourists alike prize access to outdoor recreation, and housing issues have been brewing for decades. Like other cities in Montana, Idaho, and Colorado, Bend serves as a gateway to popular natural areas while also suffering from a limited amount of new housing, increasing populations, amenity migrants in the age of remote work, depressed or stagnating wages, and a widening gulf between homeowners and renters. High Desert, Higher Costs introduces us to regular people—from the former political candidate evicted during COVID-19 to the nonprofit worker hoping to build apartments for the houseless—who struggle to call Bend home. Bach explores the causes of these issues and the political, legal, economic, and cultural factors influencing them, and also offers potential solutions for current and future residents to build their lives now, and in the years to come, in Bend and throughout the American West.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781962645287","publication_date":"20250501","publisher":"Oregon State University Press","slug":"high-desert-higher-costs","subtitle":"Bend and the Housing Crisis in the American West","title":"High Desert, Higher Costs"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"HIS036110","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Pacific Northwest History","score":0.6936,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"SOC026020","confidence_band":"low","label":"Rural Life","score":0.6735,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036140","confidence_band":"low","label":"Western U.S. History","score":0.6686,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"HIS036110","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Pacific Northwest History","score":0.6936,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"SOC026020","confidence_band":"low","label":"Rural Life","score":0.6735,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036140","confidence_band":"low","label":"Western U.S. History","score":0.6686,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS036110","confidence_band":"high","label":"Pacific Northwest History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"POL002000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Cities & Urban Planning","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SOC045000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Poverty & Homelessness","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Pacific Northwest History","score":0.6936,"slug":"pacific-northwest-history"},{"label":"Rural Life","score":0.6735,"slug":"rural-life"},{"label":"Western U.S. History","score":0.6686,"slug":"western-u-s-history"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in housing affordability in the American West","Readers seeking policy, economic, and cultural perspectives on housing"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Carl Abbott"],"book_id":"9780812217797","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780812217797.jpg?v=dc3fb479e413f7ac","score":0.6462,"title":"Greater Portland","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780812217797"},{"authors":["O. 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Robbins"],"book_id":"9780295985480","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780295985480.jpg?v=4fcd7a3297d6c308","score":0.6042,"title":"Hard Times in Paradise","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780295985480"},{"authors":["Christopher P. Foss"],"book_id":"9780870719905","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780870719905.jpg?v=279b9d4e754638e4","score":0.6026,"title":"Facing the World","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780870719905"},{"authors":["Ted Conover","Random House Audio"],"book_id":"9780525563280","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780525563280.jpg?v=a93a3ddbfe148c6f","score":0.5961,"title":"Cheap Land Colorado","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780525563280"}],"topics":[],"what_you_get":["Themes: Housing crisis, Homeowner-renter divide, Western communities.","Reading lane: Pacific Northwest History and Rural Life.","Publisher: Oregon State University Press."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.94,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["Readers interested in housing affordability in the American West","Readers seeking policy, economic, and cultural perspectives on housing"],"themes":["Housing crisis","Homeowner-renter divide","Western communities"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":4,"goodreads_ratings_count":15,"goodreads_reviews_count":2,"quality_score":0.838}}