Elliston, Montana.
Typical home $362,207 (+4.2% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,233 (+184%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $14,708 +4%
- $347,499$362,207 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $102,993 +40%
- $259,213$362,207 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.
- Elliston$1,901
- Montana$2,453
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 10 years.
Typical home values in Elliston, MT rose 4.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Elliston, Powell County, Montana
Elliston, in Powell County, had 227 people in the 2020 census. Unemployment in Powell County was 3.0% in August 2026, and the county had 0.4% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Powell County work in schools and health care, then government.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Elliston is a very small community in Powell County, Montana, where homes tend to cost a good deal and fewer residents live in poverty than in many places. Winters are cold, with December the coldest month, and summers are mild to warm, with July the warmest. Precipitation is modest across the year, falling as both rain and melted snow.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in government, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, and in shops. Across Powell County, the largest workplaces include Sun Mountain Lumber, Deer Lodge Medical Center and the Deer Lodge elementary schools. Most people who work travel a fair way to get there, and only a small number work from home.
Things to do. Elliston sits within reach of rivers, lakes and open country, though each is a longer drive away. Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site is a protected area with ranching history, and Great Divide Snowsports is a ski area for the cold months. The Little Blackfoot River offers a stretch of water to visit on a longer outing.
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- 7%below the poverty line
- 28 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What people in Powell County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Powell County had 2,457 jobs in 2025, 0.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 31° and lows near 10°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 46°. About 19 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Elliston weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Powell County
- Sun Mountain LumberStud mills164
- Deer Lodge Medical CenterCritical access hospital115FTE
- Deer Lodge Elem SchoolsSchool district58FTE
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores57
- Ivy HealthcareNursing homes35
- Powell County H S SchoolsSchool district24FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 256 people in all across the county; Elliston has none of its own. 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
- LandslidesRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively 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 Elliston’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 Powell County.
Elliston home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Elliston$362,207
- 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 Elliston address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Elliston — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.