Best PlacesStone, MT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Stone, 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.
Stone ranks 41,884th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Stone
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.
Stone's strengths and weaknesses
Where Stone ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 92% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 89% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 89% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 114 pleasant days a year, better than 77% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 69% of towns
Where Stone ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 7% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 8% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Stone
A household needs to earn about $87,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Stone home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $63,565, 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 Stone's effective rate of 0.39%, 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 Stone
Stone 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 Stone.
Who works in Stone, and how
Work in Stone centers on retail trade and construction. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Stone
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Stone.
What the weather is like in Stone, month by month
Stone sees roughly 114 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 16. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 24° | 16° |
| April | 60° | 45° | 31° |
| July | 91° | 71° | 51° |
| October | 60° | 44° | 32° |
Flying in and out of Stone
The nearest airport, Missoula Montana, is about 47 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Boise Air Trml/Gowen Field, about 252 miles away.
The best schools in and around Stone
Schools across Stone average a C, better than 45% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Elk City SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Hall SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Drummond SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- Philipsburg 7-8C− · 31% proficient
- Drummond 7-8D− · 16% proficient
Top high schools
- Timberline High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
- Drummond High SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
- Granite High SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Stone school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Stone 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 Stone against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Stone
Is Stone a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Stone ranks 41,884th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, low property taxes, and low taxes, and lowest on an overheated housing market 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 Stone expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $352,795. The overall cost of living runs about 8% above the national average. Set against a $63,565 median income, cost of living beats 16% of towns.
Is Stone safe?
Stone is safer than 19% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $604 per resident a year.
Compare Stone with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Stone. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Stone 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.
Stone detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Stone: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Stone: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Stone: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Stone: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Stone 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.