Helena West Side, MT population, income and ZIP codes

Helena West Side CDP is a small town in Montana, with 1,584 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #69 of 497 ranked by population — larger than 86% of them. The median age here is 35.2 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger profile than the country as a whole. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Helena West Side CDP earn a median of $67,692 a year, 13.8% below the national figure of $78,538 and 7% above the $62,992 median for the 94 Montana cities we cover. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 4% of residents here, less than half the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Helena West Side CDP is valued at $411,800, 35.7% above the national figure and 64% above the $250,900 peer median, while median gross rent runs $781 a month, 44.5% below the national figure, or roughly $9,372 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 13.8% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 6.1×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is out of reach on local earnings alone and the ownership market leans on outside income, equity or dual high earners. 83% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, an owner-dominated market where rental listings are scarce and rent medians rest on a thin sample. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

Home values sit at 6.1× median household income, far past the 3.9× national mark, so ownership costs here are set by something other than local wages — second homes, retirees with equity, or commuters earning elsewhere.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.