Polson, Montana.
Typical home $573,740 (+1.5% in a year), asking rent $1,635 .
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,901 (+171%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $8,651 +2%
- $565,089$573,740 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $110,989 +24%
- $462,750$573,740 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.
- Polson$3,011
- 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 Polson, MT rose 1.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Polson, Lake County, Montana
Polson is a city of 5,148 people in Lake County. Half its households earn more than $53,418 a year and half less, against $63,360 across Lake County; 18% of its people live below the poverty line. 55% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 45% are rented. Unemployment in Lake County was 3.3% in August 2026, and the county had 0.8% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Polson is a small city in Lake County, Montana, with colder winters than much of the country and warm summers. It gets little rain and melted snow across the year. Incomes in town run below the county's, and about as many homes are lived in by their owners as rented ones, though typical home values and rents are high for a place this size.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, restaurants and hotels, and professional and business services. Among the largest workplaces in Polson are Providence ST Joseph Medical CTR, a critical access hospital, along with the Polson elementary and high school districts. Most people work away from home, with a fairly short typical commute, and the county has seen a slight dip in jobs lately.
Things to do. Flathead Lake, a lake a longer drive away, is the best known place nearby. For something closer, Pablo National Wildlife Refuge and Finley Point State Park are both a short drive away. The CSKT Bison Range, a protected area, is a longer drive away.
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- 2,380households
- 30%of adults have a degree
- 18%below the poverty line
- 20 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Lake County had 9,694 jobs in 2025, 0.8% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 33° and lows near 22°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 53°. About 15 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Polson weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Polson
- Providence St Joseph Medical CTRCritical access hospital178FTE
- Polson Elem SchoolsSchool district150FTE
- Polson H S SchoolsSchool district72FTE
- Ranch and Home SupplyRetail45
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 313 people in all. 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- WildfireRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- AvalanchesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Polson’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 Lake County.
Polson home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Polson$573,740
- Montana$467,275
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Polson listings — the market is heating up.
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.
- Polson24.11%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Polson134
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Polson23
Zip codes with a Polson address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Polson — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.