The Billings metro area ranks 14th among the top housing markets for growth and stability in the US, according to an analysis by SmartAsset.

When home prices increase too rapidly over a short period of time, a boom can quickly turn into a bust. That said, housing markets with stable, incremental growth are generally preferable for homeowners looking for a decent return on their investment. 

While it’s too early to tell how the coronavirus pandemic will affect local housing markets, stated the report, some have better weathered past financial storms.

By analyzing historical data, SmartAsset’s sixth annual study set out to find the housing markets that have experienced the most stable growth throughout the past 25 years (1995-2019). “We specifically considered data on home price growth and volatility in 357 metro areas nationwide.”

While Montana ranked 14th, Bismarck, ND ranked seventh in the nation. The Bismarck, metro area was very stable over the past 25 years, with a 0% chance of a 5% housing price drop in the first 10 years after the purchase of a home. Bismarck also came in 48th-highest out of 357 in our study for home price growth from 1995 through 2019, at 194.01%.

Midland, Texas is the number one U.S. metro area for growth and stability in the housing market. The odds of a 5% loss in home price in the 10 years after it was purchased (during the 25-year period from 1995 through 2019) was 0%, and the overall home price growth in that 25-year period was about 287.82%, the fourth-highest rate for this metric across all 357 areas we studied.

Numerous cities in Texas ranked high in the analysis. All of the top 50 were in the western US.