Median Sale Price
$349,900
low-volume — YoY suppressed
Active Inventory
1
Days on Market
273 days
Price Drops

Single-Family vs. Condo

Source: Redfin (property-type breakdown)
Single-Family Median
$349,900

Buyer vs. Seller Market Indicators

Latest month — Redfin
Months of Supply
1.0 mo
Seller market

Inventory ÷ monthly sales. Below 3 = strong seller market; 3-6 balanced; above 6 = buyer market.

% Sold Above List
0%
Buyer-favorable

Share of closed sales priced above asking. The single cleanest read on bidder competition.

What does your sqft target cost in Phillips County, Montana?

$434/sqft median (Redfin)
+$0 adj
+$0 adj
optional
Estimated price
$868,238
Above median range (+148% vs median)
Region median
$349,900
all homes
Price-tier reverse lookup — what sqft does each price band buy?
$600,000
≈ 1,382 sqft
$1,200,000
≈ 2,764 sqft
$2,000,000
≈ 4,607 sqft
$5,000,000
≈ 11,518 sqft

Estimate = (median $/sqft × your sqft) + bed/bath/lot adjustments. Bed and bath adjustments use Appraisal Institute / Fannie Mae standard rules of thumb (~$15K/extra bedroom, ~$20K/extra bathroom vs. a 3bd/2ba baseline; half-bath = half adj). Lot premium is a $1.50/sqft heuristic beyond a 6,000 sqft baseline — accuracy varies sharply by urban infill vs. acreage market. Quality, condition, year built, and HOA are not modeled here. For a deeper county-level hedonic AVM, see AVM Lite.

Rent + invest vs. buy + own — backtested

15-yr rolling history · S&P 500
Property type:
Upfront capital committed (both paths): $80K = 20% down + 3% closing on a $350K home
BUY + OWN
Median ending wealth $307K $188K real
Net gain on $80K upfront: $227K
Range: $307K → $307K
Wealth = home value (appreciated at 3%/yr) − remaining mortgage − 6% selling cost. Gain = wealth − upfront. Leveraged appreciation on full $350K asset comes from the 20% down.
RENT + INVEST
Median ending portfolio $918K $674K real
Net gain on $341K contributed: $577K
Range: $433K → $2.29M
Same upfront cash + each year's (own − rent) surplus invested in S&P 500 at actual annual returns. Median renter contributed $341K total.
Median wealth delta: $611K in favor of RENT + INVEST
What if you'd started in a recent year? (most-recent 15yr window: 2011–2025)
WindowBuy wealthBuy gainRent wealthRent gainWealth delta
2011–2025$307K$227K$1.33M$987K$1.02M rent
2010–2024$307K$227K$1.35M$1.01M$1.05M rent
2009–2023$307K$227K$1.29M$947K$981K rent
2008–2022$307K$227K$938K$597K$631K rent
2007–2021$307K$227K$1.22M$877K$911K rent
2006–2020$307K$227K$1.04M$698K$732K rent
2005–2019$307K$227K$937K$596K$629K rent
2004–2018$307K$227K$771K$430K$464K rent

Educational tool, not investment or real-estate advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Backtests use actual annual total returns including dividends from S&P 500 (Damodaran (NYU Stern) annual total return (with dividends), 1957-present.).

Buyer model: 30-yr fixed mortgage, P&I + property tax + insurance + maintenance (1% of value/yr) + HOA. Selling cost = 6%. Investor model: down payment + annual cashflow surplus invested in the chosen index at that calendar year's actual return.

Tax model: pre-tax comparison. Toggle "after-tax mode" to apply MID, SALT, LTCG, and the Sec 121 capital-gains exclusion.

This calculator does not adjust for: PMI (assumed 20%+ down), differential transaction costs by state, lifestyle factors (commute, schools, kids), illiquidity / forced-sale risk, or insurance availability constraints (e.g., FL/CA wildfire). Consult a fiduciary advisor and tax professional before acting on any of this.

Market Pressure Signals

Derived from Redfin trend
Inventory vs. Long-Term Avg
-60.0%
deficit — seller leverage
DOM vs. 24-Mo Avg
+138.2%
currently 273 days
Long-Term Avg Inventory
3
Long-Term Avg DOM
115 days

Mortgage & Price Stress

State HPI + national delinquency
State HPI YoY
+2.7%
positive — appreciating
State HPI vs. Peak
0.0%
at or near peak peak 2026-04-01
National Mortgage Delinquency
1.86%
benchmark — 2026-04-01 county-grain delinquency requires paid data

State-grain HPI YoY + drawdown from peak is the cleanest free price-stress proxy. The national delinquency rate gives the macro mortgage-stress backdrop. True county-level mortgage delinquency lives in paid datasets (MBA NDS, CoreLogic LP).

Getting a Mortgage Here

CFPB HMDA 2025
Applications Denied
17.2%
2.1 pts easier than Montana
Loans Actually Made
48
10 turned down
Average Loan Made
$190,208
what lenders here actually wrote
National Denial Rate
23.4%
benchmark — all 51 states

Every lender above a size threshold has to report each application and what they did with it. The denial rate here counts only applications a lender actually ruled on — approved or denied. Files the applicant withdrew, and files closed as incomplete, are left out of both halves, so this runs higher than tables that bury them in the denominator. Compare every state and county →

Value Ratios

Median home price ÷ county median income
Value / Income
6.0×
severely overvalued
Median Household Income
$58,156
Census ACS B19013

Historically affordable markets sit at 3–4× income; over 5× is stretched, over 6× is severely overvalued. Lower ratios point to bargain opportunities.

Housing Stock & Owners

Census ACS 5-year (B19013, B01003, B25002, B25003, B25034, B25007)
Population
4,224
total residents
Total Housing Units
2,235
all units, occupied + vacant
Vacancy Rate
20.9%
high vacancy
Homeownership Rate
74.8%
of occupied units owner-occupied
Boomer Owners (65+)
27.1%
of homeowner households
Millennial / Gen-X Owners (35-54)
7.0%
of homeowner households
Pre-1949 Housing Stock
30.3%
structures built before 1949

When boomer-owner share is high, expect more inventory hitting the market over the next decade as homes transition. High vacancy + high old-stock often signals deferred-maintenance markets where buyers can negotiate.

Who's Moving In (Census ACS)

Source: Census ACS B07001 (5-year)
Inbound Movers (1 yr)
220
5.3% of pop. — moved here from outside the county
From Other States
118
2.84% of pop. — interstate inbound
From Abroad
moved into the county from outside the U.S.
Same House 1 Year Ago
91%
stable residents

Census ACS asks where people lived 1 year ago, so this counts inbound movers but does not show outbound — true net migration would require IRS SOI parsing.

Trends

Up to 5 years of monthly data

Median Sale Price

Trailing 12 months

Active Inventory

Trailing 12 months

Days on Market

Trailing 12 months

Looking for state-level data? See Montana statewide stats →

Verify any number on this page: data sources, formulas, and cross-references →