Big Timber, Montana.
Typical home $442,981 (+9.5% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,522 (+190%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $38,307 +9%
- $404,675$442,981 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $143,456 +48%
- $299,526$442,981 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Big Timber$2,325
- Montana$2,453
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 9 years.
Typical home values in Big Timber, MT rose 9.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Big Timber, Sweet Grass County, Montana
Big Timber is a city of 1,650 people in Sweet Grass County. Half its households earn more than $66,898 a year and half less, against $77,000 across Sweet Grass County; 10% of its people live below the poverty line. 80% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 20% are rented. Unemployment in Sweet Grass County was 2.0% in August 2026, and the county had 9.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then construction.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Big Timber is a small city where most households own the home they live in, and incomes run below the county's as a whole. Winters are cold and snowy, with December the coldest month, while July brings the warmest days, and the year's moisture is on the dry side. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and the trip to work is short for most people.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by the building trades, farming, forestry and mining, and shops. Pioneer Medical Center and the Big Timber elementary and Sweet Grass County high school districts are among the largest workplaces in town. Across Sweet Grass County, unemployment is lower than it was a year ago, though there were fewer jobs last year than the year before, and some people work from home.
Things to do. The Boulder River runs in or beside town and is the closest place to get out on the water. A short drive away, Greycliff Prairie Dog Town State Park is a protected area where visitors can see prairie dogs. Farther out, a longer drive leads to the Shields River and to Fort Parker, a historic fort.
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- 707households
- 16%of adults have a degree
- 10%below the poverty line
- 19 mintypical commute
- 12%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Sweet Grass County had 1,478 jobs in 2025, 9.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 37° and lows near 20°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 54°. About 55 inches of snow and 17 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Big Timber weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Big Timber
- Pioneer Medical CenterCritical access hospital58FTE
- Big Timber Elem SchoolsSchool district42FTE
- Sweet Grass County H S SchoolsSchool district34FTE
Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- WildfireVery high
- Inland floodingVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- LightningVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- HailRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Big Timber’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Sweet Grass County.
Big Timber home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Big Timber$442,981
- Montana$467,275
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Big Timber listings — the market is roughly in balance.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Big Timber18.90%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Big Timber28
Zip codes with a Big Timber address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Big Timber — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.