GILLETTE -- For the past few years Rebecca Thomas has struggled to find affordable, quality housing to rent.

A single parent to 6-year-old Jordyn, Thomas lived in low-income housing in 2007, but earned too much money during her first year living there to qualify to stay.

"I made too much for low income housing, but not enough for a regular apartment, so it was frustrating,” Thomas said. “It was like I was never going to get ahead.”

Thomas has continued to struggle to find affordable housing. A small business owner, Thomas has worked two jobs in addition to her massage therapy business just to keep up with bills.

“The cost of living here is so high,” Thomas said. “The costs have just skyrocketed. It just costs so much to rent anything here.”

Thomas is living with her boyfriend's family while trying to save enough to buy a house in the next six months. Tired of renting, Thomas said buying a house with her boyfriend seems more sensible than throwing money away on rent.

“We're trying to save for a house,” Thomas said. “We just think we'll be financially stable to buy then.”

Hoping to take advantage of the tax credit now available to first-time home buyers, Thomas is just one of many Gillette residents helping keep the community's housing market stable.

After a slow second quarter, real estate sales are picking up again, Re/Max broker/owner Ryan Conklin said.

"Our third quarter was a little slower than what we were anticipating, but the fourth quarter here has been pretty active,” Conklin said.

With just under 400 houses on the market now, the current market is similar to that of a year ago, but a long way from a few years ago when there was only a handful of homes on the market.

“We've, for the last 12 months, been pretty stable and steady,” Conklin said. “There's a longer time on the market, but the prices haven't necessarily dropped that much.”

With more houses on the market, it allows people more options and time to consider purchases before putting in offers.

"There's more homes for people to look at,” Conklin said. “Buyers have choices – they aren't forced to pick between a couple of homes. It creates a more steady, stable market.”

The biggest factors affecting the length of time on the market are the condition of the home and the price range. Homes in the $200,000 range are still selling relatively quickly, Conklin said, but the upper-end homes are taking more time.

“We've consistently had a lot of homes on the market under contract lately, which is a good sign,” Conklin said. “But the upper end is definitely slower than it used to be.”

For the first time in several years, Conklin said, Gillette is experiencing more foreclosures. With fewer foreclosures than the rest of the nation, the foreclosures currently aren't affecting home prices. Wyoming's foreclosure rate has hovered around .04 percent for most of the year, while that national rate has been nearly .3 percent.

"We've seen a few more foreclosures coming on, but it hasn't been detrimental to our market so far,” Conklin said.

With the $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers extended to April 30, Conklin hopes the housing market will stay strong despite reports of the economy slowing in the Gillette area and more businesses reporting layoffs.

"We're anticipating it [2010] being pretty similar to 2009,” Conklin said.

Also the owner of three rentals, Conklin said the rental market has loosened up in the last few months compared to the last three years, when the vacancy rate hovered around zero percent.

“It's taking a little longer to rent something out, and rents have come down a little,” Conklin said.

The vacancy rate is now 6.1 percent.

Gillette Public Information Officer Joe Lunne said new apartments and the first-time home buyer tax credit are helping to ease the rental market that for the past two years has seen a .1 percent vacancy rate.

“For two years solid we had a .1 percent,” Lunne said. “If there's a low vacancy rate, it's not good for someone trying to find an apartment.”

In 2006 there were just 1,351 apartments in the community, and today there are about 1,800.

“It's easier for the young people trying to find a place to live,” Lunne said. “It takes some of the stress off.”

The lack of affordable housing, often cited as a negative factor in enticing new workers into Campbell County, is now slowly easing. Now, the recruitment efforts are being hampered by other issues, including the difficulty people are having in selling homes in other states so they can relocate to Wyoming.

“They can't sell their house in other states,” Lunne said. “That's really the struggle for us now.”

While the Campbell County housing market continues to stay clear of many of the struggles plaguing the rest of the nation, the number of new housing permits issued in 2009 stayed steady. By the end of October, 434 permits had been issued in Gillette, while by the end of November 2008 only 372 permits had been issued.

“It doesn't look to me like anyone is slowing up,” Lunne said.