Columbus, Montana.
Typical home $462,166 (+8.3% in a year). Billings, MT metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,495 (+161%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $35,282 +8%
- $426,884$462,166 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $109,132 +31%
- $353,034$462,166 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.
- Columbus$2,426
- Montana$2,453
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Columbus, MT rose 8.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Columbus, Stillwater County, Montana
Columbus is a town of 1,857 people in Stillwater County. 77% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 23% are rented. Unemployment in Stillwater County was 2.8% in August 2026, and the county had 13.8% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then farming.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Columbus is a small town in Stillwater County, Montana, with a population that skews older than the typical American community. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and a four-year degree is held by a minority of adults. Winters are cold and snowy, summers are warm, and the year is fairly dry, with moisture falling mostly as rain and melted snow.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with farming, forestry and mining, restaurants and hotels, and shops also employing a good number. The largest workplaces in town are Columbus Elem Schools, Stillwater Billings Clinic and Columbus H S Schools. Unemployment in Stillwater County is low and a little lower than a year ago, though the county had notably fewer jobs last year than the year before. Commutes are on the longer side, and few people work from home.
Things to do. The Stillwater River runs in or beside town, so time on the water is close at hand. A longer drive away are Cooney State Park and Greycliff Prairie Dog Town State Park, both protected areas, and Rock Creek, another river. The Fromberg Opera House, a theatre, is also a longer drive away.
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- 893households
- 24%of adults have a degree
- 11%below the poverty line
- 27 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Stillwater County had 2,931 jobs in 2025, 13.8% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 37° and lows near 11°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 50°. About 48 inches of snow and 16 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Columbus weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Columbus
- Columbus Elem SchoolsSchool district58FTE
- Stillwater Billings ClinicCritical access hospital42FTE
- Columbus H S SchoolsSchool district35FTE
School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals 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
- LightningVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- WildfireRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Columbus’ census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 Stillwater County and the Billings, MT metro.
Columbus home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Columbus$462,166
- Montana$467,275
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Columbus 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.
- Columbus22.19%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Columbus32
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Columbus9
Zip codes with a Columbus address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Columbus — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.