Heron, Montana.
Typical home $559,455 (+5.1% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,800 (+158%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $27,181 +5%
- $532,274$559,455 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $96,945 +21%
- $462,510$559,455 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.
- Heron$2,936
- Montana$2,453
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 18 years.
Typical home values in Heron, MT rose 5.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Heron, Sanders County, Montana
Heron, in Sanders County, had 173 people in the 2020 census. Unemployment in Sanders County was 4.6% in August 2026, and the county had 1.8% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Sanders County work in schools and health care, then construction.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Heron is a very small community in Sanders County, in the northwest corner of Montana, and its population is among the smallest of any place with its own listing. Homes here are valued well above what the county's modest household incomes might suggest. Winters are cold, with December highs hovering around freezing, and they bring a great deal of snow, while summers are warm and the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in the building trades, and in farming, forestry and mining, with some jobs in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Across Sanders County, the largest workplaces include Clark Fork Valley Hospital, Thompson River Lumber Company of Montana and the Forest Service. Unemployment across the county is a little lower than a year ago, and the county has added a small number of jobs.
Things to do. Cabinet National Forest, a protected area, is a short drive away and is the nearest place for walking and time outdoors. Farther afield, a longer drive brings you to Lake Pend Oreille, a large lake, and to Kootenai National Forest, another protected area. With long, snowy winters, the outdoor season here leans toward the warmer months.
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What people in Sanders County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Sanders County had 3,364 jobs in 2025, 1.8% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 32° and lows near 23°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 47°. About 84 inches of snow and 34 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Heron Northwest weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Sanders County
- Clark Fork Valley HospitalCritical access hospital149FTE
- Thompson River Lumber Company of MontanaSawmills72
- Plains K-12 SchoolsSchool district66FTE
- Thompson Falls Elem SchoolsSchool district51FTE
- Forest ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture43
- Empres Operated by EvergreenNursing homes42
- Hot Springs K-12 SchoolsSchool district35FTE
- Thompson Falls H S SchoolsSchool district26FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 321 people in all across the county; Heron has none 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- WildfireRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Heron’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 Sanders County.
Heron home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Heron$559,455
- 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.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Heron address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Heron — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.