Property Tax in Missoula County, Montana

What the Missoula County numbers mean

The median is the midpoint of the county's actual bills: half of Missoula County homeowners pay more than $3,833 a year and half pay less. The exact bill for any one home depends on its assessed value, exemptions, and which school, municipal and special districts cover it.

Set against the median home value of $423,100, the median bill works out to a derived effective rate of 0.91%. That rate is an estimate computed from the two medians — no county publishes a rate calculated this way — but it adjusts for home prices, which makes comparisons between counties more meaningful.

Missoula County by the numbers

*Estimate derived from Census medians (tax ÷ value), not an official rate.

Missoula County at a glance

• Median tax rank in Montana: #1 of 56 counties
• Median home value rank in Montana: #6 of 56
• Population rank in Montana: #3 of 56 (119,639 residents)
• Population density rank: #4 of 56 (46 people per square mile)
• Land area rank in Montana: #25 of 56 (2,593 sq mi, 1.8% of the combined county land area)
• Median tax as a monthly figure: $319; per $1,000 of home value: $0.91

How Missoula County compares

Of the 56 Montana counties with published data, 0 have a higher median property tax bill than Missoula County's $3,833, putting the county at #1 in the state. Its bill is about 51% higher than the state median of $2,535 and about 29% higher than the national median of $2,969.

Rates and values pull in opposite directions: an expensive housing market can produce big bills at ordinary rates. Here the derived rate is 0.91%, versus 0.98% derived nationally, and the median home value ranks #6 within Montana.

Some extra context for Missoula County: the median bill works out to about $319 a month, and the derived rate equals roughly $906 of tax per $100,000 of home value. The county is home to 119,639 people — the #3 most populous county in Montana, spread over 2,593 square miles, a density of about 46 people per square mile. Its median home value, $423,100, ranks #6 among the state's 56 counties with data.

Nationally, Missoula County's median bill of $3,833 ranks #250 of 3133 counties with published data — inside the top 8% of counties by tax paid. The county accounts for about 10.8% of Montana's population, its median home value is about 25% above the state median, and at the derived rate the median home would hand over roughly 9.06% of its value in tax across a decade. Within the state, the distance from Missoula County to the most expensive county, Missoula County ($3,833), is $0 a year.

Counties nearest Missoula County in the Montana ranking

Missoula County and its population peers

Population is a useful lens on these figures, so the table below sets Missoula County beside the counties closest to it in population anywhere in the country — communities of a similar scale operating under different state and local tax systems. Ranked by median tax paid within this peer group of 9, Missoula County's $3,833 bill is #2 of 9.

The closest population match is Douglas County, Kansas (119,547 residents), where the median real estate tax paid is $3,508 on a median home value of $281,600 — $325 more than Missoula County pays.

Inside Montana itself, the counties closest to Missoula County in population are Yellowstone County (167,340 residents, median tax $2,669 on a median value of $317,600); Gallatin County (122,194 residents, median tax $3,625 on a median value of $604,900); Flathead County (108,445 residents, median tax $2,867 on a median value of $467,700); Cascade County (84,601 residents, median tax $2,236 on a median value of $243,300). Same state, same broad tax framework — yet the median bills still differ, because assessed values and the mix of county, municipal and school-district rates are set locally.

How the tax is worked out

The bill is built in stages. First the assessor puts a market value on the property. Exemptions — a homestead exemption above all — then reduce the taxable amount. Finally the combined local rate is applied. To see the scale: at the county's derived rate of 0.91%, each $100,000 of value corresponds to about $906 of tax a year, and a $400,000 home to roughly $3,624. Real bills use the official assessment and district rates, not this derived figure, so treat the example as a sense of scale only.

Illustrative bills in Missoula County at the derived rate

The derived rate of 0.91% is only an estimate built from medians, but applying it to different home values gives a sense of scale for Missoula County — and a quick way to compare with the state derived rate of 0.75% and the US figure of 0.98%:

Illustration only: real bills are computed from the assessed value, exemptions, and the combined rates of the property's actual taxing districts.

Checking your assessment in Missoula County

If your bill looks wrong, work through these steps:

1. Get your property record card from the assessor and check the basics — living area, lot size, bedrooms, condition, and any exemptions you should have.
2. Compare your assessed value with recent sale prices of similar homes in Missoula County.
3. Talk to the assessor's office informally first; clear errors are often fixed without a hearing.
4. If needed, file a formal appeal with the local review board before the deadline on your assessment notice, with your evidence attached.
5. Keep paying the bill as issued while the appeal runs, unless your notice says otherwise — unpaid taxes accrue penalties regardless of an appeal.

More Montana counties

• Gallatin County, MT — $3,625
• Flathead County, MT — $2,867
• Cascade County, MT — $2,236
• Lewis and Clark County, MT — $2,886
• Yellowstone County, MT — $2,669
• Ravalli County, MT — $2,303

Frequently asked questions