Sun River, Montana.
Typical home $449,510 (+3.1% in a year). Great Falls, MT metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,516 (+180%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $13,617 +3%
- $435,893$449,510 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $131,869 +42%
- $317,641$449,510 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.
- Sun River$2,359
- Montana$2,453
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 10 years.
Typical home values in Sun River, MT rose 3.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Sun River, Cascade County, Montana
Sun River, in Cascade County, had 95 people in the 2020 census. Unemployment in Cascade County was 3.3% in August 2026, and the county had 0.9% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Cascade County work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Haiku 5.5 wrote this on 22 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Sun River is a small community in Cascade County, Montana, where the typical resident is much older than the typical American. Many of the people who live here have spent a long stretch of life in the area, and the pace of life tends to follow the seasons. Its quiet setting suits those who prefer a small town to a busy city.
Work. Most residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, or in the building trades. Fewer people are out of work than a year earlier, though the county had slightly fewer jobs in the most recent year on record. Winters are colder than in most of the country, and the area gets less rain and snow than most places, so outdoor work follows the warmer months.
Things to do. Roe River, a river a longer drive away, offers a quiet place to spend time by moving water. Great Falls, a waterfall also a longer drive away, is a well-known spot for a day trip. First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park, a protected area only a short drive away, is a good choice for a nearby outing.
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What people in Cascade County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Cascade County had 36,192 jobs in 2025, 0.9% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 37° and lows near 14°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 48°. About 13 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Sun River South weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Cascade County
- Benefis HospitalsGeneral hospital2,511FTE
- Great Falls Elem SchoolsSchool district925FTE
- Great Falls H S SchoolsSchool district393FTE
- Great Falls Clinic Medical CenterGeneral hospital379FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters351
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters348
- University of ProvidenceUniversity or college197
- Sletten Construction CompanyCommercial building construction general contractors178
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 64 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 4,651 people in all across the county; Sun River 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 colleges from IPEDS (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
- Inland floodingVery high
- LightningRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Sun River’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 Cascade County and the Great Falls, MT metro.
Sun River home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Sun River$449,510
- 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 Sun River address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Sun River — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.