Ten years ago Williston, North Dakota was a quiet agricultural town with a population of around 12,000.
Now, oil prices and drilling advancements have turned Williston into one of America's biggest oil boomtowns, pushing its population to over 30,000.
The influx of workers has caused apartment rents to skyrocket. According to Apartment Guide, it's now the most expensive place in America to rent an entry-level apartment, with 700-square-foot, one-bedroom, one-bath apartments topping $2,000 a month. That's more than a similar apartment would go for in New York or San Francisco
Simply put, there aren't enough apartments to meet demand from workers arriving in town, many of whom are lured by six-figure salaries.
And these workers aren't paying top dollar for ultra-luxury buildings with fancy amenities. According to Apartment Guide, many new buildings feature mudrooms in the front, where workers can remove their dirty shoes and overcoats. Even trailers are expensive. The ratio of men to women in Williston is about 12 to 1.
We visited Williston in March 2012 to see how the oil boom was changing the once-sleepy town. Click through to see what life is like in what is now America's most expensive town.
Julie Zeveloff contributed to this article.
Williston, North Dakota is in the Northwestern portion of the state, not far from Montana and Canada.
The town happens to sit in the center of the large Bakken oil formation — 640 square miles of oil, holding up to 34 billion barrels.
Recent advancements in fracking allow operators to go deeper, more precisely than ever before.
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