Saint Ignatius, Montana.
Typical home $538,434 (+2.8% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,771 (+168%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $14,670 +3%
- $523,764$538,434 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $108,485 +25%
- $429,949$538,434 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.
- Saint Ignatius$2,826
- Montana$2,453
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in Saint Ignatius, MT rose 2.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Saint Ignatius, Lake County, Montana
Saint Ignatius is a town of 768 people in Lake County. Half its households earn more than $50,000 a year and half less, against $63,360 across Lake County; 22% of its people live below the poverty line. 71% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 29% 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 professional services.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Saint Ignatius is a small town in Lake County, Montana, and most of its homes are lived in by their owners. Incomes here run below the county's, and more households live below the poverty line than most people would expect in a place where so many own their homes. Winters are cold, with the coldest days in December, and summers are warm, peaking in July. The year brings a modest amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in professional and business services, government, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Across Lake County, some of the largest workplaces are St. Luke Community Hospital, Salish Kootenai College and Ronan Elementary Schools. Unemployment across the county is lower than it was a year ago, though the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before. A fair number of people work from home, and the typical commute is a moderate one.
Things to do. The CSKT Bison Range, a protected area, is a short drive away, as are Ninepipe National Wildlife Refuge and the Jocko River. The Garden of One Thousand Buddhas, a park, is also a short drive from town. For a longer outing, Mission Mountains Wilderness and Holland Lake are a longer drive away.
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- 334households
- 25%of adults have a degree
- 22%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
- 11%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 36° and lows near 22°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 52°. About 17 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Saint Ignatius weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Lake County
- Rocky Mountain TwistBits, drill, metalworking, manufacturing263
- St Luke Community HospitalCritical access hospital257FTE
- Salish Kootenai CollegeUniversity or college249
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters211
- Providence St Joseph Medical CTRCritical access hospital178FTE
- Ronan Elem SchoolsSchool district160FTE
- Polson Elem SchoolsSchool district150FTE
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores92
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,045 people in all across the county; Saint Ignatius has two of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) 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
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
- AvalanchesRelatively moderate
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Saint Ignatius’ 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.
Saint Ignatius home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Saint Ignatius$538,434
- Montana$467,275
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Saint Ignatius 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.
- Saint Ignatius29.22%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Saint Ignatius22
Zip codes with a Saint Ignatius address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Saint Ignatius — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.