Best PlacesBillings, MT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Billings metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime read low across the board, which puts the choice down to which part suits you. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Pruhter, CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
Billings ranks 76th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It earns the spot by being affordable and steady rather than flashy: everyday costs run well below the national average, and crime is low. The trade is distance from a big city: the nearest large city and its jobs, flights, and culture are a drive away.
The best neighborhoods in the Billings metro
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.
The best areas in Billings
The towns and districts of the Billings metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Downtown Billings
Biking is better and fewer homes sit empty.
Lockwood & Shepherd
More households have young kids and crime runs lower.
Columbus, Red Lodge & Park City
It is quieter, though prices have run up more.
Billings shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 14% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Billings' strengths and weaknesses
Billings ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. A strong job market, low disaster risk, and short commutes carry most of that.
The one real hole is distance from a big city, near the bottom of the country. Transit and tree cover also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Billings ranks high
- Local economyBetter than 90% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 90% of metro areas
- Short commute19.8 minutes each way, better than 88% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 85% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 84% of metro areas
Where Billings ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 14% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,072 a month, better than only 30% of metro areas
- School gradeC+, better than only 36% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Billings
A household needs to earn about $93,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Billings home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $84,177; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Billings' effective rate of 0.75%, 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 Billings
Billings's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Billings.
Who works in Billings, and how
Work in Billings centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Billings
Billings has more restaurants and bars per resident than 74% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 84% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Billings and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Billings growing, and who is moving in?
Billings has grown about 10% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Ravalli County, MT.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Billings go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Billings, month by month
Billings sees roughly 135 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 Billings
The nearest airport, Billings Logan International, is about 1 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Salt Lake City International, about 386 miles away.
The best schools in and around Billings
Schools across Billings average a C+, better than 36% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Meadowlark SchoolA− · 61% proficient
- Arrowhead SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Boulder SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
Top middle schools
- Tongue River Middle SchoolA · 60% proficient
- Broadview 7-8A · 60% proficient
- Rocky Mountain Middle SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
Top high schools
- Broadview High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Billings West High SchoolB− · 41% proficient
- Skyview High SchoolC · 32% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Billings school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Billings 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 Billings against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Billings suits
Families
Schools land around the 36th percentile and crime safety beats 80%.
Retirees
The weather beats 80% of metro areas and health care access beats 68%.
Common questions about living in Billings
Is Billings a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Billings ranks 76th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on a strong job market, low disaster risk, and short commutes, and lowest on distance from a big city and transit. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Billings expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $357,301. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $84,177 median income, cost of living beats 67% of metro areas.
Is Billings safe?
Yes, Billings is safer than 80% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $362 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Billings?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 39 with lows near 17. That works out to about 135 pleasant days a year, more than 80% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Billings?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Downtown Billings, Lockwood & Shepherd, and Columbus, Red Lodge & Park City. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Billings good for families?
Schools beat 36% of metro areas, crime safety beats 80%, and childcare runs $1,072 a month.
Is Billings good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 67% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 38% of metro areas. About 9% of workers already work from home.
Compare Billings with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Billings. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Billings 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.
Billings detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Billings: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Billings: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Billings: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Billings: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Billings 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.