What it costs to live in Montana
Price levels against the national average
Prices overall
-9.76%
below average
Housing
-23.26%
ranks 34 for shelter
A hundred dollars of shopping
$90
costs this here
Price rank
41
1 is the most expensive
What that actually means in Montana
- Montana is cheaper than the country as a whole, ranking 41 nationally on price. Prices sit about 9.76% below average, so a hundred dollars of shopping costs $90. Small on any one purchase. Considerable across a year of them.
- Look at what is actually cheap in Montana. It is not the shopping — that runs about 9.76% from the national average, which is not far. It is housing, at about 23.26% from average. The biggest bill most households pay is the one this state discounts.
- What does that do to a salary? Seventy-five thousand dollars, earned and spent in Montana, goes as far as $83,108 would at average American prices. Tax is a separate subject and comes out on top of this.
- Prices in Montana run about 9.76% below the national level, placing it 41 nationally. The one-hundred-dollar national-average basket costs $90 in-state. The parity is a fixed-basket price comparison, so the gap represents genuine purchasing power rather than a difference in what residents choose to buy.
- Decomposition puts Montana's housing parity about 23.26% below national against an overall about 9.76%, a divergence of about 13.5% and a shelter rank of 34. Non-tradeable goods absorb local conditions that tradeable ones cannot, which is why shelter drives nearly all interstate variation in measured price level. Any relocation model built on the all-items figure alone will therefore understate the gain here.
- Adjusting seventy-five thousand dollars for Montana's all-items parity yields $83,108 in constant national purchasing power. ⚠️ The figure is pre-tax and price-only; income, sales and local taxes are additional and independent of the parity. Nominal wage levels also correlate with parities in practice, so a full comparison of two states requires the local salary for the same role alongside this adjustment.
What the money buys here
A $75,000 salary
| Take-home, actual dollars | $58,716 |
|---|---|
| Price level, all itemsUS average = 100 | 90.244 |
| HousingUS average = 100 | 76.743 |
| Cheapest place to live | 11th of 51 |
Housing is where places differ most. Everything else moves far less than people expect.
Price parities are an index where the US average is 100 — a comparison between places, not a price.
The same pay, somewhere else
A $75,000 salary
| Take-home in Montana | $58,716 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $61,593 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$1,680 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What is expensive here
A $75,000 salary
- Housing76.743
- Goods94.29
- Services93.451
| Housing | 76.743 |
|---|---|
| Goods | 94.29 |
| Services | 93.451 |
| All items | 90.244 |
An index where 100 is the national average. Housing moves far more than anything else.
Housing, against the country
A $75,000 salary
| Cheapest housing | MS · 55 |
|---|---|
| Dearest housing | DC · 169 |
| This state, cheapest first | 18th of 51 |
A BEA index where 100 is the national average, not a house price.
Where the ranking flips
A $75,000 salary
| Montana on take-home | 30th |
|---|---|
| Once prices are leveled | 15th |
| Places moved | 15 |
Left is rank on take-home. Right is rank once local prices are leveled by BEA parities.
Montana against Texas
A $75,000 salary
| Measure | Montana | Texas |
|---|---|---|
| Take-home pay | $58,716 | $61,593 |
| Worth after local prices | $65,063 | $63,383 |
| Share of pay taxed | 21.71% | 17.88% |
| State sales tax | 0% | 6.25% |
| Groceries exempt here | Yes | Yes |
| Clothing exempt at $100 | Yes | No |
| Property tax rate | 0.72% | 1.49% |
| Price level | 90.2 | 97.2 |
| Housing prices | 76.7 | 97.4 |
| Fuel tax | 33¢ | 20¢ |
| Tobacco tax | $1.70 | $1.41 |
City income tax excluded. Sales-tax row: state-only. Exemptions: Montana, No general sales tax; Texas, Harris County (Houston). Clothing: one $100 item; higher prices can change tax.
What you would need there
A $75,000 salary
| To match take-home only | $70,911 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$2,321 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 90 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Where the difference actually sits
Each line compares Montana with the national average for that kind of spending. The overall figure is the three above it, weighted the way a typical household spends — which is why housing can pull it a long way on its own.
| What you spend on | Against national average | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | -23.26% | Rent and owners’ equivalent rent |
| Goods | -5.71% | Groceries, fuel, clothing |
| Other services | -6.55% | Haircuts, repairs, childcare |
| All items | -9.76% | The three above, weighted |
What a salary is worth here
A salary of seventy-five thousand dollars, spent at Montana prices, buys what $83,108 would buy at national average prices. That is a price adjustment only. No tax of any kind has been taken off it, and tax is a separate bill on the same money.
What this page cannot tell you
- This is one number for the whole of Montana, and no state is one place. A big city and a rural county can sit far apart on every figure here.
- These prices were measured in 2023. Rents in particular can move a long way in a couple of years.
- And this is prices only. It says nothing about what Montana charges you in tax, which is a separate bill and is covered elsewhere on this site.
- These parities are state-level aggregates. BEA also publishes metropolitan-area parities, and within-state dispersion between a large metro and a rural area routinely exceeds the difference between two states — so a state figure should not be read as descriptive of any particular address in Montana.
- The underlying survey vintage is 2023, which is the most recent BEA publication rather than a current reading. Shelter parities are the component most exposed to drift between vintages, so recent local rent movements in Montana will not be reflected here.
- Price parity and tax burden are independent quantities and this page models only the first. A low-parity state with high income tax and a high-parity state with none can leave a household in the same real position; comparing Montana to another jurisdiction requires both figures, not either alone.
Questions people ask
What does a lower cost of living actually get me?
Room that a bigger salary elsewhere might not buy. A hundred dollars here does the work of $90 at national prices.
Is this number a percentage?
No — it is an index, with the national average fixed at one hundred. A state at one hundred and eight is eight index points above the average, not eight percent more expensive than any particular thing. Reading it as a percentage is the mistake that makes these figures sound more precise than they are.
Which part of living here is actually different?
Almost entirely housing. The goods component sits close to the national average here, so the gap you feel is rent and property rather than the supermarket.
How should I compare a job offer here with one somewhere else?
Adjust the pay before you compare it, not after. A reference salary is worth $83,108 here once prices are taken into account — and the tax side moves separately, so a full comparison needs both adjustments rather than either one alone.
How does a below-average price level translate into real income?
Montana's all-items parity is at or below the national average, so nominal income understates purchasing power: one hundred dollars purchases $90 of national-average consumption. ⚠️ Parity measures prices, not availability or quality, and does not capture differences in the composition of what is bought.
How should a regional price parity be interpreted?
Regional price parities are index numbers with the national average normalized to one hundred. Differences are expressed in index points and are comparative rather than proportional to any specific price. They are estimated from a fixed national consumption basket, so they do not reflect state-specific spending patterns.
Which component drives this state's parity?
The housing parity dominates Montana's all-items figure, diverging from the national average by more than twice the goods component. Tradeable goods arbitrage across state lines and therefore cluster near parity; housing is non-tradeable, so its parity spans a far wider range and drives most interstate variation in the headline index.
How should nominal offers be adjusted across states?
Nominal offers should be deflated by the destination parity before comparison; the reference salary is equivalent to $83,108 in national-average terms here. ⚠️ Price adjustment and tax adjustment are independent and must both be applied — a state may be simultaneously cheap and heavily taxed, or the reverse.