Silver Bow County, Montana Eviction Risk: Very Low

Silver Bow County carries an average eviction-risk score of 2.3/10 (Very Low) across its 7 cities, placing it at rank 5 of 56 Montana counties. That ranking means only 4 counties statewide carry higher risk, putting Silver Bow in the higher-risk third of Montana despite the Low label. For landlords, that nuance matters: the county is not the most forgiving operating environment the state has to offer, and investors should weigh the local poverty rate and renter profile before committing capital here.

The score range within the county runs from 1.8 to 2.7, a relatively tight band that still points to meaningful variation block by block. Average rent sits at $863 per month against an average rent burden of 28.8%, with roughly 29.1% of households renting. Those figures sketch a market where a meaningful share of tenants are financially stretched, a condition that feeds collection risk even when statutory eviction timelines are short.

The cities inside Silver Bow County

The dominant municipality is Butte-Silver Bow (balance), home to 35,052 of the county's 36,246 residents and carrying the county's highest risk score of 2.3/10. Virtually all rental activity in the county flows through this consolidated city-county government, so a landlord's experience here is essentially the county's experience. Walkerville, a small separate city of 733 residents, scores a slightly lower 2.6/10, offering a marginal improvement in risk profile without leaving the immediate area.

The lowest-risk cities in the county, Wise River, Dewey, and Racetrack, each score 1.8/10, though their populations of 310, 26, and 6 respectively make them effectively non-markets for rental investment. Silver Star and Wise River each score 2/10 with similarly thin populations. The takeaway: risk is hyper-local, but the practical rental market in Silver Bow County is almost entirely contained in the Butte eviction risk-Silver Bow urban core.

State-level laws that apply here

Montana state law under MCA § 70-24 (Residential Landlord and Tenant Act) sets the procedural framework for every landlord in the county. For non-payment of rent or a lease violation, the required notice period is just 3 days. No-cause terminations at the end of a lease term require 30 days notice. Montana does not require just cause for eviction and state law preempts any local rent-control ordinance, meaning no city inside Silver Bow County can cap rent increases. Understanding the full Montana eviction process, including how those short notice windows translate into actual court timelines, is essential before serving any notice.

Once a notice is served and a case filed, an uncontested eviction takes 21 to 45 days to resolve; a contested case stretches to 45 to 120 days. Court filing fees range from $90 to $170, sheriff lockout fees from $40 to $125, and attorney fees from $500 to $2,500 depending on case complexity. Montana eviction costs can therefore reach the low four figures even on a straightforward case, which argues for thorough tenant screening and clear lease documentation from the start.

With a poverty rate averaging 16.1% across the county and fewer than a third of households renting, Silver Bow County presents a concentrated rental market, and the city-level scores in the grid above show exactly where within that market risk is highest and lowest.