Musselshell County, Montana Eviction Risk: Very Low

Musselshell County, Montana eviction laws carries an average eviction-risk score of 1.8/10 (Low), placing it in the middle third of the state at rank 36 of 56 Montana counties. That positioning means 35 counties present higher risk to landlords, while 20 are even more landlord-friendly. Across the county's 7 cities, scores range from 1.4 to 1.9, a tight spread that reflects a consistently low-tension rental market. With an average rent of $943 and a renter share of just 22.4%, this is a small, owner-dominated market where rental demand is modest and tenant disputes are relatively rare.

For landlords and investors, the practical read is straightforward: operating conditions here are stable. The county's total population of 2,633 means deal flow will be thin, but so will the kind of tenant-advocacy infrastructure that drives risk scores higher in larger Montana eviction laws metros. Average rent burden sits at 31.6%, a level that signals some financial pressure on renters but nothing that would drive systemic eviction surges.

The cities inside Musselshell County

Roundup is both the largest city in the county and its highest-risk market, scoring 1.9/10 with a population of 2,003. That score still sits firmly in the Low tier, but landlords buying in Roundup eviction risk should account for the full range of Montana eviction laws statutes since it concentrates the vast majority of county rental activity. The gap between Roundup's 1.9 and the rest of the county is the clearest illustration of how hyper-local risk can be: investors who underwrite a single county-wide average may miscalibrate for Roundup specifically.

Below Roundup, Kilby Butte Colony and Flat Willow Colony each score 1.6/10, while Klein, Camp Three, and the city of Musselshell all come in at 1.5/10. The lowest-risk market in the county is Melstone at 1.4/10, a small community of 80 residents where the rental universe is minimal. Risk is genuinely not uniform across these seven communities, even within an overall Low-risk county.

State-level laws that apply here

Every Musselshell County tenancy operates under Montana eviction laws's Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, MCA § 70-24. For non-payment of rent or a lease violation, Montana eviction laws law requires only a 3-day notice to pay or quit. A no-cause termination at end of term requires 30 days. Understanding the Montana eviction laws eviction process matters here because timelines vary considerably: uncontested cases resolve in roughly 21 to 45 days, while a contested proceeding can run 45 to 120 days. Montana eviction costs add up quickly, with court filing fees of $90 to $170, sheriff lockout fees of $40 to $125, and attorney fees ranging from $500 to $2,500 depending on case complexity.

Montana eviction laws has no statewide rent control, no just-cause eviction requirement, and state law preempts local jurisdictions from enacting their own rent caps. Landlords must provide 24 hours notice before entering a unit. Taken together, these rules make Montana eviction laws one of the more landlord-permissive states in the region, which is a meaningful structural advantage for owners operating in Musselshell County.

With a poverty rate of 15.1% and renters making up only about one in five residents, Musselshell County's risk profile is driven more by its small scale than by acute financial distress; the city-by-city breakdown above captures where within the county that exposure is most concentrated.