Can You Still Afford to Be Middle Class in Montana?

Have you ever found yourself doing mental math in the grocery store checkout line and feel like saying, “Am I even considered middle class?” Welcome to Montana, 2025, where the cost of eggs forces you to question not only your life choices but your tax bracket.

As the news lately, Newsweek reported that the annual income you would need to be considered middle class in Montana is $47,198 to $141,608. And that’s the OFFICIAL bracket, folks. So if you’re earning anywhere between “just scraping by” and “I can afford name-brand snacks,” congratulations, you’re middle class!

But here’s the thing. That might seem like a wide range, but life in Montana is not as affordable as many outsiders assume. Housing prices have ballooned, childcare is brutal, and don’t get me started on how much it costs to fix a truck these days. If you’re raising a family, paying down loans, and hoping to have a weekend at Flathead Lake, that $47K doesn’t stretch as far as it used to.

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And if you’re near the top of that $141K? Good for you. But you’re still not escaping the increasing cost of groceries, gas, or property taxes. What you do is stress out just as much as the poor guy, just in a nicer kitchen.

Montanans have always prided themselves on working hard and living within their means. But now, life as a middle-class person here is walking a financial tightrope, even if in reality you’re technically “comfortable” on paper.

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And some out-of-staters are coming in with plenty of dollars and snatching up homes they’re going to use once a year. It pushes housing prices and property taxes up while also raising the collective blood pressure of every Montanan whose dream of buying that first home has become something like a fantasy.

So sure, you could be classified as middle class income, but making it as middle class in Montana? That requires grit, budgeting wizardry, and a second job as a summer tour guide who can’t pronounce “HELL-IN-AH.”