Circle, Montana.
Typical home $249,393 (+13.1% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$916 (+233%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $28,952 +13%
- $220,442$249,393 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $98,469 +65%
- $150,924$249,393 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.
- Circle$1,309
- Montana$2,453
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 7 years.
Typical home values in Circle, MT rose 13.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Circle, McCone County, Montana
Circle is a town of 591 people in McCone County. 85% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 15% are rented. Unemployment in McCone County was 3.0% in August 2026, and the county had 1.8% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then other services.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Circle is a small town on the open plains of eastern Montana, small enough that neighbors tend to know one another. Nearly everyone owns the home they live in, far more than in most towns, and a four-year degree is less common here than across the country. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and summers turn properly hot in July. The year brings little rain and melted snow, so the climate is dry by most measures.
Work. People in Circle work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in other services, the building trades and local shops. Across McCone County, the largest workplaces include Farmers Union Oil of Circle Montana, the McCone County Health Center and CHS, which reflects how closely the local economy follows farming and ranching. Unemployment across the county is a little higher than a year ago, while the number of jobs there has edged up.
Things to do. The one nearby place worth knowing is Lake Circle, a lake a longer drive away from town. It makes sense as a longer outing rather than a quick stop, and the warm months are the natural time for it.
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- 241households
- 25%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 6%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. McCone County had 562 jobs in 2025, 1.8% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 28° and lows near 8°; warmest in July, with highs near 87° and lows near 57°. About 14 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Circle weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in McCone County
- Farmers Union Oil of Circle MontanaAgricultural organizations50
- Mccone County Health CenterCritical access hospital30FTE
- CHSFarm supplies merchant wholesalers21
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 71 people in all across the county; Circle has one of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- Cold wavesVery high
- HailVery high
- Strong windVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Circle’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 McCone County.
Circle home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Circle$249,393
- Montana$467,275
- United States$366,157
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
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Circle5
Zip codes with a Circle address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Circle — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Circle
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 59215 | Circle | 1,015 | — | $217,697 |
| 59223 | Fort Peck | 19 | — | $388,532 |