The Shocking Montana Town That Had the Biggest Rent Increase in the Country

We knew that Montana had been in a housing crisis, but this latest study puts it in perspective differently.

Recently, we covered the findings that Montana's home-to-income ratio is one of the worst in the country. Who would have ever thought that Montana would be on a list next to California and Hawaii?

 READ MORE: New Study Shows Montana's Home Affordability Problem Ranks Among the Worst in the U.S. 

The Montana City People Are Moving to 

For a while, it seemed that fewer people were moving to Montana, but Billings just showed up on a list where people want to move in 2024 and ranked #4 overall.

The City With the Biggest Rent Increase in Montana, U.S.

However, a new study shows how the difficulty with housing in Montana also affects rent prices. In the last few years, residents in Missoula and Bozeman have seen rent prices increase. Groups like the Missoula Tenants Union and Bozeman Tenants United work toward affordable housing and social justice, and it would be easy to assume that one of these cities is where rent has gone up the most in the last year.

But neither Missoula nor Bozeman appears in Cinch Home Services' "top ten cities seeing the biggest rent increases" from 2023-2024.

And not only is this Montana city in the top 10, it's #1.

"Butte, America" had the highest rent increase in the United States in the last year according to data from Zillow.

The study says Butte's rent increased 19.47% in the last year, more than 500 metro areas in the U.S. The average rent went from $1,126.82 to $1,346.24, an increase of just over $200.

Is it possible that Butte's proximity to Missoula and Bozeman affects the supply and demand for rentals? We can only conjecture.