Townsend, Montana.
Typical home $449,466 (+0.7% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,457 (+162%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $3,288 +1%
- $446,177$449,466 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $98,006 +28%
- $351,460$449,466 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.
- Townsend$2,359
- 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 Townsend, MT rose 0.7% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Townsend, Broadwater County, Montana
Townsend is a city of 1,787 people in Broadwater County. Half its households earn more than $70,752 a year and half less, against $70,374 across Broadwater County; 16% of its people live below the poverty line. 73% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 27% are rented. Unemployment in Broadwater County was 2.9% in August 2026, and the county had 5.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Broadwater County work in schools and health care, then construction.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Townsend is a small city in Broadwater County, Montana, and most of the homes are lived in by their owners. Household incomes sit close to the county's, though a fair number of residents live below the poverty line, and a four-year degree is held by a minority of adults. Winters are cold and snowy, with December the coldest month, while summers are warm in July and the year stays fairly dry.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, the building trades, restaurants and hotels, and government. The largest workplaces in Townsend are Townsend K-12 Schools, Billings Clinic Broadwater and the Forest Service. Joblessness in Broadwater County is low, and the county had more jobs last year than the year before, with some residents working from home.
Things to do. The best known places nearby are rivers: the Missouri River, the Jefferson River and the Madison River, each a longer drive away. Canyon Ferry Lake, a reservoir, and Helena National Forest, a protected area, are also a longer drive away and offer room for time on the water or among the trees.
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- 861households
- 22%of adults have a degree
- 16%below the poverty line
- 14%work from home
What people in Broadwater County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Broadwater County had 1,568 jobs in 2025, 5.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 34° and lows near 14°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 52°. About 24 inches of snow and 11 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Townsend 3SE weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Townsend
- Townsend K-12 SchoolsSchool district92FTE
- Billings Clinic BroadwaterCritical access hospital32FTE
- Forest ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture22
School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) 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
- LightningVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Townsend’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 Broadwater County.
Townsend home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Townsend$449,466
- Montana$467,275
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Townsend 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.
- Townsend18.16%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Townsend51
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Townsend12
Zip codes with a Townsend address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Townsend — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.