Missoula Montana Housing & Lifestyle
Missoula: America’s Best Small City Lives Big
We know what makes Missoula special: we’ve been delivering expert property management services to companies, families, and individuals here for nearly 40 years. And we wouldn’t have it any other way. Missoula is home, and every time we return after a little trip, we’re reminded of how lucky we are.
In that spirit, we thought we’d take a step back and look at Missoula from a newcomer’s point of view. What attracts so many people to our little mountain town? And what convinces so many of them to stay?
Before you approach Missoula’s city limits, whether you’re driving or flying, you get a sense of what brings so many people to our neck of the woods. It’s…the woods. And the mountains and valleys. And the rivers and lakes. Missoula is a remarkable hub for nearly any outdoor activity you can name, from hiking and nature watching to whitewater kayaking and a host of double black diamond ski runs.
Missoula’s unique geography gives it a special place even among other cities with strong connections to the outdoors. Five mountain ranges converge here, and the Clark Fork River and its tributaries run through a series of valleys including the one that’s home to Missoula. The result is a huge variety of environments and activities, each one of them easy to reach from the city.
Missoula’s claim to fame may be its status as an outdoor paradise, but there’s plenty to enjoy indoors as well. The city is home to a vibrant arts scene, a constantly evolving music community, and world-class dining.
Some of this has to do with Missoula’s place on the map. In other states, a town of 75,000 might be a suburb. Here, it’s Montana’s second-largest city and a cultural hub. Montanans and out-of-staters alike come to Missoula to hone their talents and to share their visions with the world, and we all benefit.
Many of the artists, chefs, and other creative types who enrich our community initially came here as students. The state’s flagship university, the University of Montana, serves more than 10,000 students. That’s about the right size to complement the rest of town without completely dominating it the way some other universities do. The UM also serves the wider community with cultural events and a renowned teaching hospital.
Missoula’s commitment to education extends to a network of local two-year colleges and to its excellent public school system, which is regularly rated the state’s best.
For all it has grown in recent years and all the variety it supports, Missoula has maintained a remarkable sense of community. We know our neighbors here, and a big part of what makes Missoula special is the mutual support we give and receive from each other.
Like most small towns, we’re a community of doers and makers. When you visit a new restaurant, don’t be surprised to learn where each ingredient in your meal came from…and that they all came from pretty close by. Some of that has to do with our distance from other urban centers. Most of it, though, has to do with a soft-spoken civic pride that you can feel walking down any street in Missoula.
The same things that make Missoula so unique can also make it a bit spendy. While medical care, utilities, and transportation are a bit less expensive than in other parts of the US, the overall cost of living in Missoula is a bit higher. Groceries, for example, have to travel a bit farther to Montana than to most other parts of the country, which increases their cost. The same goes for household goods and other miscellaneous items.
Housing can be expensive, too. Missoula was already attracting attention from far beyond Montana’s borders when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. With more people working remotely than ever before, more are freer to move where they choose, and more of them are choosing Missoula. Geography and the cost of new construction have limited Missoula’s ability to meet a surge in demand with enough housing supply, and home values have climbed as a result.
Renting has emerged as a popular alternative to buying, either as a short-term strategy or as a long-term proposition. Leasing a home frees up the money renters would otherwise have set aside for a down payment and closing costs, and puts a new range of alternatives within reach. It makes sense from the homeowner’s point of view, too: leasing out a house helps owners grow their equity while covering monthly mortgage and maintenance costs.
Since 1983, we’ve served Missoula’s real estate market in good economic times and challenging ones. One thing we’ve learned is that opportunity still presents itself during rough times, and housing booms still call for expertise and caution. Whether you’re looking to rent a new place or to find the perfect renter for your home,
we’d love to hear from you.






