Best PlacesButte-Silver Bow, MT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Butte-Silver Bow, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Butte-Silver Bow ranks 11,763rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and internet speeds rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Butte-Silver Bow
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.
Butte-Silver Bow's strengths and weaknesses
Where Butte-Silver Bow ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 95% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 92% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 89% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 87% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 83% of towns
Where Butte-Silver Bow ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 1% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 6% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,081 a month, better than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Butte-Silver Bow
A household needs to earn about $105,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Butte-Silver Bow home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $96,321; 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 Butte-Silver Bow's effective rate of 0.45%, 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 Butte-Silver Bow
Butte-Silver Bow 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 Butte-Silver Bow.
Who works in Butte-Silver Bow, and how
Work in Butte-Silver Bow centers on construction and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Butte-Silver Bow
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Butte-Silver Bow.
What the weather is like in Butte-Silver Bow, month by month
Butte-Silver Bow sees roughly 119 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 6. The comfortable stretch runs June through August.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 19° | 6° |
| April | 54° | 38° | 24° |
| July | 85° | 66° | 45° |
| October | 58° | 41° | 27° |
Flying in and out of Butte-Silver Bow
The nearest airport, Bert Mooney, is about 11 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Boise Air Trml/Gowen Field, about 256 miles away.
The best schools in and around Butte-Silver Bow
Schools across Butte-Silver Bow average a B−, better than 56% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Elk City SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Hillcrest SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Salmon Pioneer Primary SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- East Middle SchoolC · 35% proficient
- Boulder 7-8D+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- Butte High SchoolC · 34% proficient
- Jefferson High SchoolC · 33% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Butte-Silver Bow school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Butte-Silver Bow 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 Butte-Silver Bow against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Butte-Silver Bow
Is Butte-Silver Bow a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Butte-Silver Bow ranks 11,763rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on heat safety, a strong job market, and low taxes, and lowest on internet speeds and biking. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Butte-Silver Bow expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $420,217. The overall cost of living runs about 1% above the national average. Set against a $96,321 median income, cost of living beats 73% of towns.
Is Butte-Silver Bow safe?
Yes, Butte-Silver Bow is safer than 87% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $261 per resident a year.
Compare Butte-Silver Bow with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Butte-Silver Bow. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Butte-Silver Bow 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.
Butte-Silver Bow detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Butte-Silver Bow: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Butte-Silver Bow: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Butte-Silver Bow: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Butte-Silver Bow: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Butte-Silver Bow 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.