Montana building permits issued
Monthly permits for new privately-owned residential construction in the Montana jurisdictions PermitBase covers — housing units authorized, buildings, and construction valuation. This is Census survey data on new-home construction, not total permit volume (commercial permits and remodels are not counted).
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey (BPS) · data through 2026-05
State summary
State building-activity summary
- Latest month (2026-05)
- 320 units
- Year to date
- 1,339 units
- Coverage
- 43 jurisdictions
$86.5M valuation latest month · $339M valuation year to date · 10 of 43 jurisdictions reported the latest month. Sum of covered PermitBase jurisdictions only (not a full-state total). County-level jurisdictions overlapping covered cities are excluded to avoid double counting. Non-reporting jurisdictions are omitted from sums, never zero-filled.
Permits by jurisdiction
Housing units authorized for new residential construction. Ranked by trailing-12-month units; jurisdictions that did not report to the Census Bureau show “no data reported” — never assumed to be zero.
| # | Jurisdiction | Latest month units | Trailing 12 mo units | YTD units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unincorporated Yellowstone Countycounty-wide totals | 67 | 1,086 | 417 |
| 2 | Missoula County (Unincorporated)county-wide totals | 172 | 926 | 328 |
| 3 | Missoula | 160 | 594(11 mo) | 261 |
| 4 | Kalispell | 90 | 564 | 194 |
| 5 | Helena | 8 | 491 | 358 |
| 6 | Billings | 29 | 453(11 mo) | 192 |
| 7 | Whitefish | 10 | 288(10 mo) | 135 |
| 8 | Great Falls | 7 | 149 | 38 |
| 9 | Butte-Silver Bowcounty-wide totals | 6 | 105 | 43 |
| 10 | Belgrade | no data reported | 68(8 mo) | 61 |
| 11 | Red Lodge | 5 | 31 | 14 |
| 12 | Ronan | 0 | 26 | 9 |
| 13 | Columbia Falls | no data reported | 12(7 mo) | 2 |
| 14 | Manhattan | 5 | 12 | 8 |
| 15 | Hamilton | no data reported | 8(7 mo) | 12 |
| 16 | Polson | no data reported | 2(1 mo) | 12 |
| 17 | Pondera County (Unincorporated)county-wide totals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 18 | Richland County (Unincorporated Areas and Towns, excluding Sidney)county-wide totals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 19 | Toole County (Unincorporated)county-wide totals | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| — | Anaconda-Deer Lodge | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | Bozeman | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | Choteau | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | Colstrip | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | Conrad | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | Cut Bank | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | Darby | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | City of Deer Lodge | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | East Helena | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | Forsyth | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | Glasgow | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | Hardin | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | Havre | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | Laurel | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | Lewistown | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | Libby | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | Livingston | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | Miles City | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | Shelby | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | Sidney | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | Stevensville | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | Townsend | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | Troy | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
| — | West Yellowstone | no data reported | no data reported | no data reported |
County-wide rows join the Census county file and include every permit office in that county (incorporated cities included); their published estimates may include Census imputation for non-reporting offices. Every figure on this page traces to a specific Census BPS source file — see the PermitBase activity dataset manifest.
Get this as a monthly email
The Mountain West Building Activity Report: one email a month when fresh Census data lands — top-growth cities, state totals, and notable multifamily projects. New privately-owned residential construction only.
We only use your email to send permit updates. No spam, unsubscribe anytime. Privacy.