Best PlacesBig Horn, MT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Big Horn, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Big Horn ranks 37,801st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and biking ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Big Horn
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
Big Horn's strengths and weaknesses
Where Big Horn ranks high
- Short commute18.8 minutes each way, better than 91% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 89% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 130 pleasant days a year, better than 85% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 76% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 69% of towns
Where Big Horn ranks low
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 6% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 12% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,133 a month, better than only 15% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Big Horn
A household needs to earn about $72,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Big Horn home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $63,183, so buying stretches a typical household.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Big Horn's effective rate of 0.59%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Big Horn
Big Horn runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Big Horn.
Who works in Big Horn, and how
Work in Big Horn centers on agriculture & forestry and transportation & warehousing. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 69%
- Work from home 25%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Big Horn
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Big Horn.
What the weather is like in Big Horn, month by month
Big Horn sees roughly 130 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39° | 27° | 17° |
| April | 60° | 45° | 33° |
| July | 92° | 75° | 59° |
| October | 63° | 48° | 36° |
Flying in and out of Big Horn
The nearest airport, Billings Logan International, is about 57 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Salt Lake City International, about 431 miles away.
The best schools in and around Big Horn
Schools across Big Horn average a C, better than 32% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Tongue River ElementaryB+ · 55% proficient
- Hysham SchoolC · 31% proficient
- Custer SchoolC · 31% proficient
Top middle schools
- Tongue River Middle SchoolA · 60% proficient
- Hysham 7-8B+ · 50% proficient
- Custer 7-8D+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- Tongue River High SchoolB+ · 57% proficient
- Custer High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Hardin High SchoolF · 5% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Big Horn school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Big Horn measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Big Horn against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Big Horn
Is Big Horn a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Big Horn ranks 37,801st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, low taxes, and the weather, and lowest on biking and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Big Horn expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $282,665. The overall cost of living runs about 1% above the national average. Set against a $63,183 median income, cost of living beats 19% of towns.
Is Big Horn safe?
Big Horn is safer than 21% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $583 per resident a year.
Compare Big Horn with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Big Horn. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Big Horn represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Big Horn detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Big Horn: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Big Horn: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Big Horn: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Big Horn: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Big Horn detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.