Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetMT-HELENA-VALLEY-NORTHWEST-MT · Helena Valley Northwest, MT 5,070 pop · income 78th pct · 17 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Helena Valley Northwest
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Helena Valley Northwest on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Polson · lowest
51,463
Polson · lowest
51,463 median HH income
27.8% of the leader · rank #1
Anderson · near
101,250
Anderson · near
101,250 median HH income
54.6% of the leader · rank #2
Helena Valley… · this city
101,278
Helena Valley… · this city
101,278 median HH income
54.6% of the leader · rank #3
Sonoma · near
101,281
Sonoma · near
101,281 median HH income
54.6% of the leader · rank #4
Palisades Park · near
101,295
Palisades Park · near
101,295 median HH income
54.6% of the leader · rank #5
Alamo Beach · near
101,297
Alamo Beach · near
101,297 median HH income
54.6% of the leader · rank #6
Todd Creek · highest
185,417
Todd Creek · highest
185,417 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Helena Valley Northwest on ACS population and median household income
. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 5,070.
Helena Valley Northwest ranks in the 78th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
78th
percentile, household income
73rd
percentile, home value
61st
percentile, median rent
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Helena Valley Northwest, MT
Helena Valley Northwest is a small town in Montana, home to 5,070 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Helena Valley Northwest households earn a median of $101,278 annually, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 1.5%. Typical homes in Helena Valley Northwest are valued around $358,600, and the median resident age is 35.8 years. 36.9% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 66.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Living costs in Montana run below the national norm: the state registers 94.6 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,336 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Montana run around $175, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 33.3 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Helena Valley Northwest's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from within-city variation to housing and income to work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Helena Valley Northwest, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles.
No matched row is reported here for matched public-school count, local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Within-city variation
What can 17 Census tracts reveal inside Helena Valley Northwest?
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
PlainCities matches 17 Census tracts to this city.
How far does income reach against housing in Helena Valley Northwest?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 1.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
What does the journey to work look like in Helena Valley Northwest?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 66.2%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Which cities make useful reference points for Helena Valley Northwest?
Within Montana, the closest population matches are Hamilton (4,949 residents, $52,917 income); Bigfork (5,249 residents, $82,648 income); Orchard Homes (5,280 residents, $68,649 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Lone Grove, OK (5,070 residents); Todd Creek, CO (5,069 residents); Silver Hill, MD (5,068 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Montana average
B+
City profile score · Helena Valley Northwest, MT
76/100
4 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Poverty rate A
1.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income B+
$101,278
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share B
36.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Cost of living B-
94.6 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Helena Valley Northwest profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 89/100 (A) · 1.5%
Household income: 77/100 (B+) · $101,278
Bachelor's+ share: 70/100 (B) · 36.9%
Cost of living: 66/100 (B-) · 94.6 index
How does Helena Valley Northwest compare to other US cities?
Here's how Helena Valley Northwest stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income78% higher than other cities
Home value73% pricier than other cities
Median rent61% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Helena Valley Northwest against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Montana only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Montana-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Helena Valley Northwest near the bottom of Montana's cities
Among the 317 Montana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Helena Valley Northwest ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Helena Valley Northwest only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#24 of 282
91st percentile in Montana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 317
0th percentile in Montana
Median Home Value
#73 of 279
74th percentile in Montana
Poverty Rate
#222 of 315
29th percentile in Montana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#54 of 317
83rd percentile in Montana
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Montana only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
78th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Helena Valley Northwest's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$358,60027th percentilemore affordable than 27% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Helena Valley Northwest's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,142 of 15,516
More affordable than 41% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7,363 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.5×, Helena Valley Northwest sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,142 of 15,516 and #7,363 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$101,278Helena Valley Northwest, MT median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Helena Valley Northwest, MT median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Helena Valley Northwest, MT.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)36.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)1.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)66.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,070
Median Income
$101,278
Median Home Value
$358,600
Median Age
35.8
Poverty Rate
1.5%
Labor force participation
66.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
36.9%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
66.2%
Carpool
25.9%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.3%
Work from Home
6.2%
Other
1.4%
Based on 2,428 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Montana statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $175
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Montana at $175 (electricity about $80 , water and sewer about $40 ).
These are Montana statewide averages, not a meter reading for Helena Valley Northwest. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Montana's BEA cost-of-living index is 94.6 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Helena Valley Northwest is $1,336/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Montana statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 33.3 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Montana statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Helena Valley Northwest sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Helena Valley Northwest compares to similar-size Montana cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.