Bigfork, Montana.
Typical home $803,233 (+3.2% in a year), asking rent $2,069 . Kalispell, MT metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,712 (+180%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $25,037 +3%
- $778,196$803,233 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $154,098 +24%
- $649,135$803,233 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.
- Bigfork$4,216
- Montana$2,453
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Bigfork, MT rose 3.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Bigfork, Lake County, Montana
Bigfork, in Lake County, had 5,118 people in the 2020 census. Half its households earn more than $85,307 a year and half less, against $63,360 across Lake County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 80% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 20% are rented. Unemployment in Lake County was 3.3% in August 2026, and the county had 0.8% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Bigfork is a small community in Lake County where residents are older than in most American towns, and most homes are lived in by their owners rather than rented. Household incomes run well above the county's, and relatively few people live below the poverty line. Adults here are more likely than in most places to hold a four-year degree, and home values are high.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, in professional and business services, or in the building trades. Among the largest workplaces in Bigfork are the Bigfork elementary and high school districts and Anderson Masonry, a bricklaying contractor. Commutes are fairly short, a good number of people work from home, and unemployment across Lake County has eased over the past year even as the number of jobs there slipped slightly.
Things to do. Wayfarers State Park and the Swan River are in or beside town, and Echo Lake and Jewel Basin, a protected area, are a short drive away. Flathead Lake is a longer drive. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers are warm, with August the warmest, and precipitation is moderate through the year.
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- 2,381households
- 50%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 18%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Lake County had 9,694 jobs in 2025, 0.8% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 18°; warmest in August, with highs near 81° and lows near 48°. About 51 inches of snow and 19 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Creston weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Bigfork
- Bigfork Elem SchoolsSchool district73FTE
- Bigfork H S SchoolsSchool district37FTE
- Anderson MasonryBricklaying contractors29
- Swan River Elem SchoolsSchool district21FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 1 workplace with 20 or more staff, 29 people in all. School districts come 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
- AvalanchesVery high
- WildfireRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Earthquakesrelatively high in parts of BigforkRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Bigfork’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 Lake County and the Kalispell, MT metro.
Bigfork home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Bigfork$803,233
- Montana$467,275
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Bigfork 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.
- Bigfork23.54%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Bigfork174
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Bigfork30
Zip codes with a Bigfork address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Bigfork — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.