Darby, Montana.
Typical home $563,767 (+3.2% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,829 (+162%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $17,473 +3%
- $546,294$563,767 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $75,841 +16%
- $487,927$563,767 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.
- Darby$2,959
- Montana$2,453
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 24 years.
Typical home values in Darby, MT rose 3.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Darby, Ravalli County, Montana
Darby is a town of 783 people in Ravalli County. Half its households earn more than $43,627 a year and half less, against $71,283 across Ravalli County; 14% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in Ravalli County was 3.2% in August 2026, and the county had 0.1% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Ravalli County work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Darby is a small town in the Bitterroot Valley of Ravalli County, home to a small community of residents. Household incomes here run well below the county's, and a larger share of residents live below the poverty line than many would expect for a mountain town. The typical home is priced high compared with what local paychecks would suggest, and relatively few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with December highs hovering around freezing, and summers are warm without being hot; the year brings a modest amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in the building trades, and in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Across Ravalli County, some of the largest workplaces are Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital, Hamilton K-12 Schools and Corvallis K-12 Schools. Unemployment in the county is a little lower than it was a year earlier, though the number of jobs has slipped slightly.
Things to do. Lost Trail Powder Mountain, a ski area, is in or beside town, and the Bitterroot River is a short drive away. A longer drive leads to Bitterroot National Forest, a large protected area of mountain country. Those who like a view can head, also a longer drive away, to Gardiner Peak Lookout, a tourist attraction.
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- 15%of adults have a degree
- 14%below the poverty line
What people in Ravalli County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Ravalli County had 13,744 jobs in 2025, 0.1% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 32° and lows near 19°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 50°. About 15 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Darby weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Ravalli County
- Marcus Daly Memorial HospitalCritical access hospital535FTE
- Corixa Corporation (dBa GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals North America)Penicillin, uncompounded, manufacturing303
- Stock Farm ClubGolf and country clubs267
- Hamilton K-12 SchoolsSchool district207FTE
- TC RanchResort hotels without casinos205
- Corvallis K-12 SchoolsSchool district173FTE
- National Institutes of HealthFederal government · Department of Health and Human Services170
- Forest ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture155
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 22 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,496 people in all across the county; Darby has two of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026); 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
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- AvalanchesRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Darby’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 Ravalli County.
Darby home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Darby$563,767
- Montana$467,275
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Darby listings — the market is cooling.
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.
- Darby15.63%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Darby38
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Darby4
Zip codes with a Darby address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Darby — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.