Hamilton, Montana.
Typical home $529,339 (+1.3% in a year), asking rent $1,575 .
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,688 (+155%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $6,548 +1%
- $522,792$529,339 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $74,308 +16%
- $455,031$529,339 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.
- Hamilton$2,778
- Montana$2,453
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 23 years.
Typical home values in Hamilton, MT rose 1.3% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Living in Hamilton, Ravalli County, Montana
Hamilton is a city of 4,659 people in Ravalli County. Half its households earn more than $49,204 a year and half less, against $71,283 across Ravalli County; 9% of its people live below the poverty line. 56% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 44% are rented. 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 residents work in shops, 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Hamilton is a small city in Ravalli County, Montana, where most of the people who live here also work close to home. Household incomes run well below the county's, and most homes are lived in by their owners. Winters are cold and summers are warm and fairly dry, with December the coldest month and July the warmest.
Work. Residents work mostly in shops, in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, and in the building trades. Among the largest workplaces in Hamilton are Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital, Hamilton K-12 Schools and the National Institutes of Health. Commutes are short, and very few people work from home.
Things to do. Bitterroot National Forest and the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness are both protected areas a short drive away, good for hiking and time outdoors. The Ravalli County Museum is in or beside town. Lost Trail Powder Mountain, a ski area, is a longer drive away.
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- 2,748households
- 31%of adults have a degree
- 9%below the poverty line
- 12 mintypical commute
- 3%work from home
What residents 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 34° and lows near 18°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 50°. About 14 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Hamilton weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Hamilton
- Marcus Daly Memorial HospitalCritical access hospital535FTE
- Corixa Corporation (dBa GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals North America)Penicillin, uncompounded, manufacturing303
- Hamilton K-12 SchoolsSchool district207FTE
- National Institutes of HealthFederal government · Department of Health and Human Services170
- Hamilton Super 1 FoodsGrocery stores126
- AlbertsonsSupermarkets and other grocery stores118
- Forest ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture86
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores41
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 9 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,542 people in all. 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
- Cold wavesVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- AvalanchesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Hamilton’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.
Hamilton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Hamilton$529,339
- Montana$467,275
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Hamilton 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.
- Hamilton20.14%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Hamilton162
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Hamilton29
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Hamilton$506,688
- United States$371,407
Zip codes with a Hamilton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Hamilton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.