Best PlacesChinook, MT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Chinook, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime both read low, and the nearest big city is a drive away. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Chinook ranks 9,460th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Chinook
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.
Chinook's strengths and weaknesses
Where Chinook ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- Short commute11.7 minutes each way, better than 99% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 98% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 92% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 143 pleasant days a year, better than 90% of towns
Where Chinook ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 7% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 7% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 10% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 21% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Chinook
A household needs to earn about $57,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Chinook home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $67,168, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Chinook's effective rate of 0.79%, 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 Chinook
Chinook 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 Chinook.
Who works in Chinook, and how
Work in Chinook centers on retail trade and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 77%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Chinook
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Chinook.
What the weather is like in Chinook, month by month
Chinook sees roughly 143 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 32, with lows near 8. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 32° | 20° | 8° |
| April | 59° | 43° | 28° |
| July | 91° | 72° | 53° |
| October | 60° | 43° | 30° |
Flying in and out of Chinook
The nearest airport, Havre City-County, is about 24 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Boise Air Trml/Gowen Field, about 481 miles away.
The best schools in and around Chinook
Schools across Chinook average a D, better than 10% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Zurich SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Meadowlark SchoolD+ · 23% proficient
Top middle schools
- Chinook 7-8D · 21% proficient
Top high schools
- Chinook High SchoolD− · 14% proficient
- Harlem High SchoolF · 5% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Chinook school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Chinook 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 Chinook against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Chinook
Is Chinook a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Chinook ranks 9,460th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on walkability, short commutes, and civic engagement, and lowest on distance from a big city and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Chinook expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $219,192. The overall cost of living runs about 24% below the national average. Set against a $67,168 median income, cost of living beats 63% of towns.
Is Chinook safe?
Yes, Chinook is safer than 76% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $329 per resident a year.
Compare Chinook with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Chinook. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Chinook 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.
Chinook detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Chinook: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Chinook: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Chinook: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Chinook: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Chinook 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.