Miles City, Montana.
Typical home $246,140 (+8.5% in a year), asking rent $850 .
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$750 (+138%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $19,371 +9%
- $226,769$246,140 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $49,164 +25%
- $196,977$246,140 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.
- Miles City$1,292
- Montana$2,453
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Miles City, MT rose 8.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Miles City, Custer County, Montana
Miles City is a city of 8,354 people in Custer County. Half its households earn more than $67,727 a year and half less, against $70,605 across Custer County; 11% of its people live below the poverty line. 64% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 36% are rented. Unemployment in Custer County was 2.5% in August 2026, and the county had 2.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Miles City is a small city in Custer County, in eastern Montana. The people who live here are somewhat older than in the typical American town, and most homes are lived in by their owners. Incomes run a little below the county's as a whole, and a four-year degree is held by a minority of adults. Winters are cold, with the coldest weather in January, and summers are warm and dry-ish in the sense that yearly rain and melted snow add up to fairly little.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, or in government. The largest workplaces in Miles City include Walmart, Holy Rosary Healthcare and the Miles City Elem Schools. Jobs across Custer County were fewer last year than the year before, while unemployment has held steady. Commutes are short, and very few people work from home.
Things to do. The Tongue River runs in or beside town, and Pirogue Island State Park, a protected area, sits in or beside town as well. Fort Keogh, a historic fort, is a short drive away. Together they make an easy mix of time by the water and a look at the region's past.
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- 3,608households
- 26%of adults have a degree
- 11%below the poverty line
- 11 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Custer County had 5,261 jobs in 2025, 2.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 30° and lows near 9°; warmest in July, with highs near 89° and lows near 60°. About 13 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Miles City F Wiley Field weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Miles City
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters231
- Holy Rosary HealthcareCritical access hospital155FTE
- Miles City Elem SchoolsSchool district144FTE
- AlbertsonsSupermarkets and other grocery stores68
- Bureau of Land ManagementFederal government · Department of the Interior62
- Custer County H S SchoolsSchool district60FTE
- Veterans Health AdministrationFederal government · Department of Veterans Affairs47
- Ranch and Home SupplyRetail46
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 6 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 745 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
- Cold wavesVery high
- LightningVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- Strong windRelatively high
- HailRelatively 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 Miles City’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 Custer County.
Miles City home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Miles City$246,140
- Montana$467,275
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Miles City listings — the market is cooling.
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.
- Miles City17.09%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Miles City63
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Miles City13
Zip codes with a Miles City address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Miles City — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.