Stanford, Montana.
Typical home $245,474 (+1.7% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$782 (+155%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $4,172 +2%
- $241,302$245,474 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $55,154 +29%
- $190,320$245,474 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.
- Stanford$1,288
- Montana$2,453
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Stanford, MT rose 1.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Stanford, Judith Basin County, Montana
Stanford is a town of 403 people in Judith Basin County. Unemployment in Judith Basin County was 2.2% in August 2026, and the county had 5.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Judith Basin 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Stanford is a small town in Judith Basin County, Montana, and its size means people tend to know one another. Winters are cold, with December the coldest month and highs staying close to freezing, while summers are warm, peaking in July. Precipitation comes as a mix of rain and melted snow across the year, and the totals are modest.
Work. Many residents work in farming, forestry and mining, which fits the open ranch and grain country around the town. Others work in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, or in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Across Judith Basin County, the largest workplaces are school districts, including Stanford K-12 Schools, Hobson K-12 Schools and Geyser K-12 Schools.
Things to do. For time outdoors, Dry Wolf Creek is a stream a short drive away. A longer drive brings you to the Judith River and Big Spring Creek, both rivers, and to Ackley Lake State Park, a protected area suited to a day out.
Report a mistake
- 28%of adults have a degree
- 14%below the poverty line
- 8%work from home
What people in Judith Basin County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Judith Basin County had 521 jobs in 2025, 5.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 38° and lows near 16°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 52°. About 17 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Stanford weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Judith Basin County
- Stanford K-12 SchoolsSchool district34FTE
- Hobson K-12 SchoolsSchool district27FTE
- Geyser K-12 SchoolsSchool district21FTE
School districts come 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
- Cold wavesVery high
- LightningVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Stanford’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 Judith Basin County.
Stanford home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Stanford$245,474
- 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 Stanford address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Stanford — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.