Montana city guide
Moving From California to Billings, MT
Montana's largest city and the medical center for the region, with by far the best value of the cities in this guide.
Housing comparison
California versus Billings, side by side
- Median home value
- $725,800
- $355,200
- Median annual property tax
- $5,114
- not available
- Median monthly cost, owners with a mortgage
- $2,844
- not available
- Population
- 39.0 million (state)
- 121,478
Figures are US Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020 to 2024 5-Year Estimates for the city place. Property tax and monthly cost rows cover owner-occupied units with a mortgage, so they describe what current owners pay, not what a new buyer would pay at today's prices. California column is the statewide baseline used across this site.
Why Californians look at Billings
Billings is Montana's largest city and the commercial and medical hub for a region that stretches into Wyoming and the Dakotas. It sits along the Yellowstone River below the Rimrocks, a distinctive sandstone bluff that borders the city on the north side.
Unlike Bozeman, Missoula, or the Flathead Valley towns, Billings has not been transformed by remote-worker and second-home demand to the same degree. It functions as a real working city with a broad economic base, and its housing costs reflect that, coming in well below the state's mountain and resort towns.
For a California household prioritizing value and services over mountain-town scenery, Billings is the straightforward choice in this guide. The ACS median home value is a fraction of Bozeman's or Whitefish's, and the city has the deepest healthcare system in Montana.
Billings fits you if
- You want the best combination of city size, services, and housing value that Montana offers.
- You or a family member need serious medical care. Billings Clinic and St. Vincent Healthcare give this region its deepest specialty medicine.
- You want a broader, more diversified job market than the state's mountain and resort towns provide.
- You are comfortable with a high-plains, working-city setting rather than a mountain-town identity.
Look elsewhere if
- You are moving to Montana specifically for mountain scenery and ski access. Billings is high plains, not mountains.
- You want the cultural density of Missoula or the outdoor-recreation identity of Bozoman and the Flathead Valley.
- You are sensitive to industrial activity. Billings has refineries and rail yards visible from parts of the city.
- You need frequent long-haul nonstop flights rather than regional connections.
Housing in Billings
Billings has the widest range of housing stock in Montana, from older neighborhoods near downtown and the Rims, to mid-century subdivisions on the West End, to continued new construction on the city's growing western and southern edges.
The ACS median home value for the city is $355,200, well below Bozeman, Whitefish, or Missoula and closer to a typical mid-sized American city than to a Montana resort market. Montana's statewide property tax structure applies here as elsewhere in the state.
Because Billings has not seen the same second-home and remote-worker surge as the mountain towns, inventory moves at a more normal pace and buyers have more negotiating room.
Work and the local economy
Healthcare is the largest single sector, anchored by Billings Clinic and St. Vincent Healthcare, both major regional referral systems that draw patients from across Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas.
Energy, including oil refining and related industry along the river, plus agriculture, rail transportation, and regional retail and distribution round out a genuinely diversified base by Montana standards.
Billings is the one city in this guide where a newcomer has a realistic shot at finding local private-sector work in a range of fields, not just tourism, education, or a single employer.
Climate and setting
Billings sits at about 3,120 feet on the high plains along the Yellowstone River. Winters are cold with real snow and occasional sharp cold snaps, but generally less severe than the mountain valleys to the west.
Summers are warm to hot and dry, and the city sees more sun overall than the mountain towns, since it sits east of the Continental Divide's wetter weather patterns.
Wind and occasional dust are part of life on the high plains here, though Billings is less consistently windy than Wyoming's plains cities to the south.
Getting around, care, and schools
- Commercial air
- Billings Logan International Airport (BIL), the busiest airport in Montana, with the state's widest range of nonstop flights.
- Highways
- Interstate 90 and Interstate 94 both pass through the city.
- Hospital
- Billings Clinic and St. Vincent Healthcare, both major regional medical centers.
- Public schools
- Billings Public Schools.
- Higher education
- Montana State University Billings and Rocky Mountain College.
- Elevation
- About 3,120 feet.
The trade-offs
- The setting is high plains and river valley, not mountain scenery, a real difference from the rest of this guide.
- Parts of the city sit near refineries and rail yards, visible and occasionally noticeable industrial activity.
- It lacks the cultural density of Missoula or the outdoor-town identity of Bozeman and the Flathead Valley.
- Winters bring real cold snaps even if average snowfall is lower than the mountain valleys.
Other Montana towns people compare
Bozeman
Montana's most in-demand and most expensive market, built on Montana State University, tourism, and Yellowstone access, with prices that now rival parts of California.
Missoula
The state's most walkable and culturally active city, home to the University of Montana, with milder winters than the eastern half of the state.
Kalispell
The commercial hub of the Flathead Valley, anchored by a large regional hospital and close to Glacier National Park, with more affordable housing than nearby Whitefish.
Whitefish
A ski and lake town with a large second-home and vacation-rental base, the highest-equity buyer concentration of any Montana town in this guide.
Helena
Montana's state capital, with a stable state-government employment base and small-town scale that still has real services.
Statewide figures, tax detail, and the full Montana picture are on the Montana page. Compare property, income, and sales tax across all 49 destination states on Taxes, and see where Californians are actually moving on Stats.
Sources
- US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020 to 2024 5-Year Estimates, table B25077 (median home value), retrieved via Census Reporter, September 3, 2026.
- US Census Bureau, ACS 2020 to 2024 5-Year Estimates, table B25103 (median real estate taxes paid, owner-occupied units with a mortgage), retrieved September 3, 2026.
- US Census Bureau, ACS 2020 to 2024 5-Year Estimates, table B25088 (median selected monthly owner costs, owner-occupied units with a mortgage), retrieved September 3, 2026.
- US Census Bureau, ACS 2020 to 2024 5-Year Estimates, table B01003 (total population), retrieved September 3, 2026.
- Billings Clinic hospital and services information, billingsclinic.com.
- Billings Logan International Airport flight information, flybillings.com.
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