A typical Ekalaka home is worth about $149,000
Down 10.3% in a year, 69% below the Montana typical home.
What kind of housing town is Ekalaka?
Read from the numbers below. The page puts what stands out first.
What it takes to buy in Ekalaka
Try your own numbers below.
That covers a typical Ekalaka home, with $143K to spare.
A two-bedroom rents for about $1,090 a month here, $220 more than owning.
An estimate, not a loan offer: payments of up to 28% of income, a 30-year fixed loan, the Montana typical property tax (0.72% of value a year, from the Census) and insurance of about 0.35%. Mortgage insurance, HOA fees and other debts aren’t included.
Up 28% in five years
About the same pace as Montana (25%).
Show as a table
| January | Ekalaka | Montana |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | $70,000 | $233,000 |
| 2018 | $75,000 | $248,000 |
| 2019 | $88,000 | $262,000 |
| 2020 | $87,000 | $277,000 |
| 2021 | $104,000 | $318,000 |
| 2022 | $116,000 | $406,000 |
| 2023 | $139,000 | $434,000 |
| 2024 | $152,000 | $447,000 |
| 2025 | $178,000 | $464,000 |
| 2026 | $160,000 | $468,000 |
| August 2026 | $149,000 | $472,000 |
A typical Ekalaka home worth $74K in September 2016 is worth about $149K today.
Zillow Home Value Index: the typical value of all homes (middle third), smoothed and seasonally adjusted, through August 2026.
A two-bedroom rents for about $1,090
Renters already here pay a median of $646, so moving in tends to cost more than staying put.
Fair Market Rent a month, utilities included
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Fair Market Rents by ZIP code (Carter County, MT): the 40th-percentile rent plus utilities for a standard unit. Median rent and renters: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey.
5 new homes permitted in 2025
Builders were permitted 5 new homes in Ekalaka in 2025: 3 single-family houses and 2 in buildings with two or more homes, worth about $1.3 million to build. Over the past 10 years, Ekalaka has permitted 19 homes in all.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, Ekalaka gained 67 residents while 13 new homes were permitted: about 5.2 new residents per new home. Population grew faster than building, so existing homes filled up: a sign of tight supply. Across Montana: 2.4 new residents per new home.
Every year as a table
| Year | New homes | Single-family | 2+ per building | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (Jan–Aug) | 2 | 2 | 0 | $593,000 |
| 2025 | 5 | 3 | 2 | $1.3 million |
| 2024 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2023 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $382,000 |
| 2022 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2021 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2020 | 5 | 5 | 0 | $317,000 |
| 2019 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2018 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2017 | 7 | 7 | 0 | $355,000 |
| 2016 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $23,000 |
| 2015 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $90,000 |
| 2014 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $30,000 |
| 2013 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $87,000 |
| 2012 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2011 | 2 | 2 | 0 | $150,000 |
| 2010 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2009 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $130,000 |
| 2008 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2007 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2006 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2005 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2004 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2003 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2002 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2001 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
Homes authorized by building permits, counted in the year the permit was issued. U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey.
67% of Ekalaka households own their home
Half of Ekalaka’s homes were built before 1972.
Montana: 69% own.
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 · figures for a place this size carry wide margins of error.
Neighbors talk housing
What Ekalaka buyers, sellers and renters are saying.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Home values: Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), Zillow Research, August 2026. Sales, days on market and supply: Redfin Data Center. Income, ownership, taxes and rent: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey. New homes: U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey. Fair Market Rents: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Listings link to their publishers. The calculator is an estimate, not a loan offer.