Ekalaka, Montana.
Typical home $140,116 (-10.0% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$434 (+144%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $15,598 -10%
- $155,714$140,116 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $32,612 +30%
- $107,504$140,116 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.
- Ekalaka$735
- 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 Ekalaka, MT fell 10.0% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Ekalaka, Carter County, Montana
Ekalaka is a town of 399 people in Carter County. Unemployment in Carter County was 1.4% in August 2026, and the county had about as many jobs in 2025 as the year before. The most people in Carter County work in farming, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Ekalaka is a very small town in southeastern Montana, the seat of Carter County, and the people who live here are older than in most of the country. Homes cost less than in much of the nation, and household incomes across the county sit below the county's neighbors in a broader sense of rural Montana living, though the town is a place where residents tend to know one another. Winters are cold and snowy, summers are warm, and the year brings fairly little rain and melted snow.
Work. Most residents who work do so in farming, forestry and mining, in schools, hospitals and social care, in the building trades, or in government. Unemployment across Carter County is very low, and the number of jobs has held about steady from one year to the next. Among the largest workplaces in town are Dahl Memorial Healthcare Association, which runs the critical access hospital, and Ekalaka Elem Schools.
Things to do. The Carter County Museum is in or beside town, and it is the easiest place to start. A short drive away is Ekalaka National Forest, a protected area good for time outdoors. Farther afield, a longer drive brings you to Medicine Rocks State Park and Long Pine National Forest, both protected areas.
Report a mistake
- 176households
- 12%of adults have a degree
What people in Carter County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Carter County had 326 jobs in 2025, about as many as the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 11°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 57°. About 48 inches of snow and 18 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Ekalaka weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Ekalaka
- Dahl Memorial Healthcare AssociationPhysicians' offices84
- Dahl Memorial Healthcare AssocCritical access hospital53FTE
- Ekalaka Elem SchoolsSchool district28FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 1 workplace with 20 or more staff, 84 people in all. 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- WildfireRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively 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 Ekalaka’s 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 Carter County.
Ekalaka home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Ekalaka$140,116
- 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.
Zip codes with a Ekalaka address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Ekalaka — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.