Best PlacesSanta Rita, MT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Santa Rita, 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.
Santa Rita ranks 16,946th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and education levels rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Santa Rita
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.
Santa Rita's strengths and weaknesses
Where Santa Rita ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 98% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 98% of towns
- Household income$131,447 median, better than 95% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 93% of towns
Where Santa Rita ranks low
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 1% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 1% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 2% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Santa Rita
A household needs to earn about $86,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Santa Rita home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $131,447, 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 Santa Rita's effective rate of 1.00%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Santa Rita
Santa Rita runs older than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Santa Rita.
Who works in Santa Rita, and how
Work in Santa Rita centers on admin & support services and public administration. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 3%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Santa Rita
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Santa Rita.
What the weather is like in Santa Rita, month by month
Santa Rita sees roughly 149 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 13. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 23° | 13° |
| April | 55° | 40° | 27° |
| July | 85° | 67° | 49° |
| October | 57° | 42° | 29° |
Flying in and out of Santa Rita
The nearest airport, Glacier Park International, is about 93 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Boise Air Trml/Gowen Field, about 401 miles away.
The best schools in and around Santa Rita
Schools across Santa Rita average a C, better than 35% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Valley View Elementary SchoolB · 48% proficient
Top high schools
- Clark Fork Jr/sr High SchoolC+ · 35% proficient
- Cut Bank High SchoolD− · 14% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Santa Rita school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Santa Rita 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 Santa Rita against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Santa Rita
Is Santa Rita a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Santa Rita ranks 16,946th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, low disaster risk, and what local pay buys, and lowest on education levels and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Santa Rita expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $319,000. The overall cost of living runs about 20% below the national average. Set against a $131,447 median income, cost of living beats 98% of towns.
Is Santa Rita safe?
Santa Rita is safer than 4% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $965 per resident a year.
Compare Santa Rita with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Santa Rita. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Santa Rita 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.
Santa Rita detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Santa Rita: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Santa Rita: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Santa Rita: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Santa Rita: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Santa Rita 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.