Missoula, MT

Missoula city’s median household income was $65,329 in the Census Bureau’s QuickFacts profile, while Missoula County’s median household income was $71,246 and 17.9% of county residents were age 65+ (Census QuickFacts^[1], Census QuickFacts County^[2]). The City of Missoula’s FY27 tax presentation says homes near the county median value were projected at about $1,469.67 in city taxes in 2026 on a $507,000 median market value, with tiered rates that rise above $1.5 million (City of Missoula FY27 Tax Info^[3]). Montana has no general sales tax, and the state Department of Revenue handles property assessment rather than a city-specific income-tax regime (MT DOR^[4]).

The two principal hospitals in Missoula are St. Patrick Hospital at 500 W Broadway and Community Medical Center at 2827 Fort Missoula Road; St. Patrick is a CMS-rated 5-star hospital and Community Medical Center is a 151-bed acute-care facility (CMS Care Compare^[5], St. Patrick Hospital profile^[6], Community Medical Center profile^[7]). For a retiree, that means solid local inpatient access, but the market is still relatively small for deep specialist density, so advanced subspecialty care often means using the broader regional referral network through Care Compare-listed providers (Medicare Care Compare^[5]). OLLI at MSU also gives the area a stronger lifelong-learning and social-integration layer than many similarly sized Rocky Mountain cities (OLLI at MSU^[8]).

NOAA-based climate charts for Missoula International Airport show annual precipitation of 14.11 inches, with average summer highs around the upper 80s in July and average winter lows near the high teens in January (Climate Charts NOAA normals^[9]). The same NOAA-normal page shows monthly maximum temperatures ranging from 87.2°F in July to 30.9°F in December and minimums from 17.5°F in December to 51.8°F in July, which is a classic continental pattern rather than a mild four-season climate (Climate Charts NOAA normals^[9]). Weather.gov’s Missoula climate page also confirms the city uses long-term normals from the National Weather Service, reinforcing that the comfortable outdoor window is strongest from late spring through early fall (Weather.gov Missoula climate^[10]).

The FBI Crime Data Explorer is the proper source for violent and property crime, but the retrieved material here did not include a confirmed Missoula city page or a county-level table with the needed numeric trends, and FBI participation after 2021 can be incomplete (USA.gov crime statistics^[11]). Because of that, I cannot responsibly state a city crime rate or a 3-year trend for Missoula from the available sources. If a future check confirms that city reporting is missing, the correct fallback is the Montana or Missoula County FBI figure rather than a third-party crime score site (USA.gov crime statistics^[11]).

The Missoula, MT metro area’s FHFA House Price Index was 534.38 in Q4 2025, which signals continued long-run home-price appreciation at the metro level rather than a city-only measure (FHFA/FRED^[12]). Recent local and portal market snapshots put the median sale price around $545K–$559K, with homes taking about 57–58 days on market in the city/metro area and about 82 days in a mid-year local report (Redfin^[13]) (Willitflow^[14]) (Montana Right Now^[15]). The Missoula Organization of Realtors’ 2025 Five Valleys Housing Report says single-family homes had a median price of $584,000 countywide, and the report/discussion materials do not highlight a robust 55+ or active-adult subdivision presence, suggesting retirees shopping for that niche may need to broaden their search beyond age-restricted communities (Montana Free Press^[16]) (Missoula REALTORS^[17]).

Missoula International Airport is the city’s commercial airport and is identified in the NOAA climate station metadata for Missoula International Airport, which confirms the airport/location context (Climate Charts NOAA station metadata^[9]). The retrieved sources did not include an FAA route list or a current airport-direct-flights schedule, so I cannot verify specific nonstop Midwest or East Coast flights from the material on hand. For a retiree, that usually means relying on hub connections rather than expecting a dense nonstop network from a city of this size (Climate Charts NOAA station metadata^[9]).

The retrieved sources did not include a verified golf-course directory or USGA/Golf Digest page for Missoula, so I cannot responsibly quote the number of public courses within 30 minutes or typical greens fees from the available material. What is well supported is the broader recreation setting: Missoula is a mountain-west city with strong outdoor appeal, and OLLI at MSU indicates an active community base for non-golf social and intellectual recreation (OLLI at MSU^[8]). For golf-specific retiree planning, this market should be treated as recreation-rich but not as a classic private-club concentration market based on the evidence retrieved here.

The Census Bureau’s QuickFacts page puts Missoula city’s population at 77,757 as of July 1, 2023, and Missoula County’s population at 122,546 as of July 1, 2024 (Census QuickFacts city^[1], Census QuickFacts county^[2]). The city’s median age was 34.7 in the retrieved demographic sources, which is much younger than the typical retirement destination, while the county’s 65+ share was 17.9% (Census QuickFacts county^[2], Missoula demographics^[18]). That combination usually means a lively downtown and university-driven amenity base, but also a community that skews more active and renter/student-influenced than many retiree-only markets (Census QuickFacts city^[1]).

FEMA’s National Risk Index is county-level, and the retrieved FEMA page confirms that it is published for counties and Census tracts; the Missoula County risk figure itself was not directly retrieved from FEMA in this run, so I cannot quote a verified county score from the primary source (FEMA National Risk Index^[19]). NOAA climate normals and Missoula climate reports show a dry inland climate that supports wildfire smoke episodes in warm season, but the exact EPA annual good-air-days figure was not retrieved here (Weather.gov Missoula climate^[10], NCEI climate normals^[20]). In practice, a retiree should assume wildfire exposure is a real issue in the county and verify both wildfire and flood insurance implications before purchase (FEMA National Risk Index^[19]).