All homes and bedroom counts
RENTAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Bozeman, MT
Bozeman is a selective-investigation market, best suited to buyers who can tolerate a low current return and test asset-level pricing carefully; yield-focused or highly leveraged buyers should avoid it.
Median price$708k
Median rent$2,237
Gross yield3.8%
Job growth▼ 0.2%
Composite Market ScoreRank #522 of 571 scored US market areas
Direct rental answer
How much is rent in Bozeman, MT?
Zillow's metro-wide Observed Rent Index is $2,237 per month for 2026-06-30. That is up 1.01% from a year earlier.
Occupied rental units paying rent
Two-bedroom standard
These figures are not averaged together. Zillow and Realtor describe asking-rent markets, ACS measures rent paid by surveyed households, and HUD publishes administrative bedroom standards.
Exact county schedules
HUD rent benchmarks inside Bozeman
Every row keeps its own county FIPS schedule. No county is selected as a metro proxy and no synthetic metro FMR is calculated.
| County | Studio | 1 BR | 2 BR | 3 BR | 4 BR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gallatin County, MTFIPS 30031 | $1,485 | $1,642 | $2,154 | $2,996 | $3,537 |
The read
Why this market scores where it does
Bozeman is a selective-investigation market, best suited to buyers who can tolerate a low current return and test asset-level pricing carefully; yield-focused or highly leveraged buyers should avoid it. The median home value is $707,777, while gross yield is 3.79% and price-to-income is 7.57.
The opportunity is modest rent resilience alongside softer acquisition conditions: asking rent rose 1.01% year over year as home values fell 0.6%, and homes took 70 days to sell. Positive net migration of 347 households and movers' $6,171 income gap support demand, but employment fell 0.16%, so that support is not broad-based.
Supply is the central risk: 1,346 total permits sit alongside 4.7 months of inventory, indicating both a development pipeline and room to negotiate. Inland flood is the dominant hazard, though the recorded climate loss ratio is small. Investigate only where achievable rent, insurance terms, flood exposure and nearby development preserve the deal after conservative underwriting.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
Is household migration positive, and what is the income profile of movers?
Tax filings show 5,356 households moved in and 5,009 moved out, for net migration of 347; average income was $80,346 for inbound movers and $74,175 for outbound movers.
What evidence indicates buyer negotiating room?
Months of supply is 4.7, median days on market is 70, and the price-drop share is 17.64%.
What is the main property hazard?
Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and the climate loss ratio is 0.1294% of building value per year.
Investor Quick Takeaways
Gross Yield: 3.8%
Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.
Rent Momentum: ▲ 1.01%
Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.
Investor Activity: 11.8%
Originated investment purchase share (CFPB HMDA).
Climate Exposure: FEMA NRI
Annualized loss ratio evaluated for flood & hurricane risk.
Put the evidence to work
Test the market, then test the deal
Keep Bozeman as the starting point or move into a more specific property and rent check.
Run cash flowStarts with this market's measured price and rentSave to shortlistCompare this metro with up to four other placesCheck rent by ZIPMove from metro context to a local rent benchmarkFind a comparison marketRead a curated two-market decision analysisShare this analysisEmail the canonical link without adding page scriptsReport a data issueSend the figure, source and release period to review
Market pulse
The current market in eight signals
Fast-moving Redfin conditions sit beside the slower fundamentals so a buyer can separate today's negotiating climate from the long-run investment case.
Months of supply4.7 mo.▼ from 5.0 mo. a year ago
Median days on market70 days▲ from 63 days a year ago
Listings with price drops17.6%▼ from 20.4% a year ago
Sale-to-list ration/a2026-05-01
Home value growth▼ 0.6%Zillow ZHVI · trailing 12 months
Rent growth▲ 1.01%Zillow ZORI · trailing 12 months
Gross rental yield3.8%Rent × 12 ÷ price
Payroll job growth▼ 0.2%CES · 12m to 2026-06
Release-to-release evidence
What actually changed
This comparison exists because at least one underlying source period advanced. Rebuilding the same data never creates a new observation.
Published score held steady29→29
0 ptsThe published component scores did not move in this release.
Weights were unchanged at metro-2026-07-v2-omb2023, so the movement comes from refreshed evidence and percentile ranks.
The named source periods advanced, but the measured values on this page held steady.
Composite breakdown
What each component measures
Weights are published, not hidden, and the arithmetic is shown. Five components, each measured as a national percentile across all tracked metros.
Published arithmeticComponent × weight = points
29| Signal | Score | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job growth | 38 | 30% | 11.40 |
| Rent trend | 17 | 25% | 4.25 |
| Affordability | 27 | 15% | 4.05 |
| Supply pressure | 6 | 15% | 0.90 |
| Climate risk | 58 | 15% | 8.70 |
| Published score | 29 | ||
Bozeman, MT scoreRank #522
29Job growth38/100
CES employment fell 0.16% year over year -> near-term tenant-demand support from jobs is weak.
Rent trend17/100
Asking rent rose 1.01% while gross yield is 3.79% -> rent momentum is positive, but the current income return is thin.
Affordability27/100
Rent is 28.7% of median income and price is 7.57 times income -> renting is more accessible than buying, while acquisition pricing remains demanding.
Supply pressure6/100
The permit rate is 10.85 per thousand and inventory is 4.7 months -> buyers have negotiating room and landlords face meaningful supply competition.
Climate risk58/100
The climate loss ratio is 0.1294%, with inland flood dominant -> property-level flood and insurance review remains necessary despite the small recorded loss share.
The numbers
What this market costs and what it earns
Every derived ratio below recomputes from the same source record used by the article and score.
ZHVI Median Price
$708k
YoY ▼ 0.6%
ZORI Median Rent
$2,237
YoY ▲ 1.01%
Gross Rental Yield
3.8%
Rent × 12 ÷ price
$2,237 × 12 ÷ $707,777
Job Growth (YoY)
▼ 0.2%
CES payrolls
Job signal 38/100
Median Household Income
$94k
Census ACS 5-year
Rent Burden
28.7%
Annual rent ÷ household income
Price-to-Income
7.6x
Median value ÷ household income
HUD 2BR Fair Market Rent
$2,154
Market rent 103.8% of FMR
Historical affordability context
Compare aligned 2019 and 2024 asking-rent and nominal household-income endpoints across the direct-overlap metro set.
Independent rent evidence
One market, several legitimate rent benchmarks
These releases observe different homes and different moments. RentMarker keeps them separate: ZORI remains the scoring baseline, while the other sources test how sensitive the market story is to bedroom mix and measurement method.
Monthly benchmark4 of 4 reported values
Zero-based scale$2,237Primary RentMarker baseline
2026-06-30
All homes and bedroom counts
A smoothed metro rent index for observed rentals; it is the primary rent used by RentMarker scores and career ratios.
View source release ↗$1,642−$595 vs ZORI
FY2026 FMR
One-bedroom standard
An administrative gross-rent benchmark used by HUD programs; it is neither a listing median nor a prediction of one lease.
View source release ↗$2,154−$83 vs ZORI
FY2026 FMR
Two-bedroom standard
An administrative gross-rent benchmark used by HUD programs; it is neither a listing median nor a prediction of one lease.
View source release ↗$1,694−$543 vs ZORI
ACS 2024 5-year
Occupied rental units paying rent
A five-year survey estimate of contract rent plus applicable tenant-paid utilities; it is not a current asking-rent index.
View source release ↗Take the next step
Keep Bozeman as context, then replace market-wide evidence with the candidate property's facts.
Direct local rental evidence
Recent leases and rental-market liquidity in Bozeman, MT
These Apartment List observations match the exact metro CBSA code 14580. They are kept separate from Zillow asking rent, Census occupied-home rent and property-level comparables.
Direct recent-lease rent history
Monthly overall-rent index; missing observations are not filled from another geography.
Recent-lease rent$1,4392026-07 · +2.5% year over year
Rental vacancyn/an/a
Time on marketn/an/a
Regional price level
What feels expensive inside Bozeman
BEA compares each category with the United States, which equals 100. This is a 2024 price-level comparison—not annual inflation.
BEA Regional Price Parities · 2024US = 100
Occupation wage lens
How asking rent sits against major local occupations
Annualized Zillow asking rent is divided by each BLS annual median wage. This is a screening ratio for one wage, not a household budget or affordability verdict.
Six largest published major groupsannual rent ÷ median wage
Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations$35,750 median wage
75.1%
Office and Administrative Support Occupations$48,340 median wage
55.5%
Sales and Related Occupations$45,130 median wage
59.5%
Construction and Extraction Occupations$63,160 median wage
42.5%
Management Occupations$107,320 median wage
25.0%
Transportation and Material Moving Occupations$47,670 median wage
56.3%
Supply pipeline
What is being built, and for whom
Permits are the 12-to-24 month early warning. The total matters less than the mix: apartments compete with a rental the day they open.
National supply context
Compare this authorization pipeline with asking-rent growth, jobs and for-sale liquidity across the evidence-complete metro set.
Building permits by structure type
units per year · latest year annualised
1,222 units authorised in 2026, 33% of them in 5+ unit buildings. A meaningful share is apartments, which discount first when they lease up. ✓ recomputed from series
Who is arriving, and who is buying
Demand, and the competition for it
Tax filings say how many households moved and what they earn; mortgage disclosures say how many local purchases went to someone who will not live there. Moves between counties inside this metro are netted out of both flow figures.
Net Household Move
+347
5,356 in vs 5,009 out (IRS SOI)
▲ 6.5% of arriving households
Mover Income Gap
+$6,171
Arriving $80,346 vs leaving $74,175
Average AGI per tax return (IRS SOI)
Investor Purchase Share
11.8%
164 of 1,387 originated purchase loans
CFPB HMDA 2024
Dominant Hazard
inland flooding
0.129% building value annual loss ratio
FEMA NRI · risk type: water
Compare yield and FEMA exposure →Households arrive mainly from: Yellowstone County · Park County · Missoula County · King County · Lewis and Clark County
✓ 5,356 in − 5,009 out = 347 netDirect market links
Where tax-return households moved from and to
These are the largest flows where both counties map to a RentMarker market area. They are a documented subset of the all-US IRS totals above.
Leading inbound markets
- Billings, MT217 arriving
- Helena, MT202 arriving
- Denver, CO189 arriving
Leading outbound markets
- Helena, MT311 leaving
- Billings, MT281 leaving
- Seattle, WA169 leaving
The other side
What would make this a bad buy
Generated from the same figures with the instruction to argue against the score, and published unedited. A page that only agrees with itself is an advertisement.
Three ways the case breaks
- A 3.79% gross yield leaves limited room for operating costs and financing before net cash flow is assessed.
- Employment fell 0.16% year over year, leaving the market without a positive job-growth signal.
- The combination of 1,346 permits and 4.7 months of supply makes rental and resale competition a material underwriting risk.
Inside this metro area
Move from the market-area average to local evidence
Use the available county and city pages to add local price, rent, housing, migration and hazard context to the market-area view.
County records
Cities in this market
Statistical peers
Market areas that behave like Bozeman
Nearest neighbours on price level, income, yield and job growth — not on geography. Every market page gets a different peer set, which is the point.
| Market area | Score | Price | Rent | Yield | Job Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bozeman, MT (Target) | 29 | $708k | $2,237 | 3.8% | ▼ 0.2% |
| Bend, OR | 37 | $672k | $2,205 | 3.9% | ▼ 0.4% |
| Durango, CO | 31 | $692k | $2,019 | 3.5% | ▲ 0.1% |
| Oak Harbor, WA | 59 | $647k | $2,052 | 3.8% | ▲ 0.8% |
| Mount Vernon, WA | 53 | $590k | $2,143 | 4.4% | ▲ 0.5% |
Provenance
Where every figure came from
“Checked nightly” means every source is re-pulled and re-verified each night. It does not mean every source moves nightly — the release column tells you how fresh each number can possibly be.
| Dataset Source | Method | Release Period | Pulled Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Census ACS 5-year — household income and gross rent | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-08-05 |
| Census ACS 5-year — historical household income | direct | ACS 2019 and 2024 5-year | 2026-08-05 |
| Census ACS 5-year — population | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-26 |
| Apartment List Rent Estimates — recent-lease rent index | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| Apartment List Time on Market — listing liquidity | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| Apartment List Vacancy Index — rental vacancy | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| BEA County Personal Income — income and population | direct | 2024 County Personal Income (released 2026-02-05); history 1969-2024 | 2026-08-03 |
| BEA Regional Price Parities — metropolitan price levels | direct | 2024 Regional Price Parities (released 2026-02-19); history 2008-2024 | 2026-08-03 |
| BLS CES — payroll employment | direct | CES SM current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS LAUS — resident employment | direct | LAUS current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS OEWS — occupation employment and wages | direct | May 2025 OEWS estimates (released 2026-05-15) | 2026-08-03 |
| BLS QCEW — county employment and wages | direct | annual county employment and wages 2021-2025; latest 2025 vs 2024 | 2026-08-02 |
| OMB/BLS delineation — metro geography | direct | OMB July 2023 delineation | 2026-07-30 |
| Census Building Permits Survey — permitted units | direct | BPS through 2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| Census ACS 5-year — city population, households and housing | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-29 |
| Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| Census ACS five-year — ZCTA housing and income | direct | ACS 2024 5-year ZCTA | 2026-08-08 |
| FEMA National Risk Index — hazard loss ratios | modelled | NRI counties (FEMA ArcGIS) | 2026-07-26 |
| FHFA House Price Index — annual county appreciation | direct | annual county HPI history 1975-2025; latest 2025 | 2026-08-02 |
| HMDA / CFPB — purchases by occupancy type | direct | HMDA 2024 purchase originations | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD CHAS — renter burden by HAMFI income band | direct | HUD CHAS 2018-2022 ACS 5-year (released 2025-12-23) | 2026-08-03 |
| HUD Fair Market Rents — Section 8 standard | direct | FY2026 FMR | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD USPS crosswalk and Small Area FMRs — ZIP rent fallback | direct | ZIP-CBSA 2025Q4 + SAFMR FY2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD-USPS ZIP-to-county residential-address crosswalk | direct | HUD-USPS 2026Q1 | 2026-08-09 |
| IRS SOI — county migration and mover income | direct | SOI migration 2022-2023 | 2026-07-26 |
| Freddie Mac PMMS — mortgage rates | direct | week of 2026-07-30 | 2026-08-06 |
| Census ACS 5-year — effective property tax | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-08-06 |
| Realtor.com Economic Research — county listing inventory | direct | county inventory 2026-06 | 2026-07-28 |
| Realtor.com Rental Report — top-50 asking rents | direct | top-50 rental asking rents 2026-05 | 2026-08-05 |
| Redfin Data Center — inventory, days on market, and price cuts | direct | metro tracker through 2026-05-01 | 2026-07-26 |
| Redfin Data Center — ZIP resale activity and supply | direct | ZIP rolling 3 months through 2026-06-30; updated 2026-07-03 | 2026-08-12 |
| USDA ERS — Rural-Urban Continuum Codes | direct | USDA ERS 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes | 2026-08-02 |
| Zillow ZHVI and ZORI — county values and rents | direct | county ZHVI/ZORI 2026-06 | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — metro home values | direct | Metro_zhvi_uc_sfrcondo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — city home values | direct | zillow_zhvi_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI — metro market rents | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZORI — city market rents | direct | zillow_zori_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI - metro market rents, not seasonally adjusted | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_month.csv | 2026-08-15 |
| Zillow ZORI — ZIP market rents | direct | ZORI ZIP 2026-06 | 2026-08-08 |