Buying in Cascade County, Montana

Cascade County at a glance

Cascade County is one of 56 counties and county-equivalents in Montana. Its county seat is Great Falls. County government publishes its offices and parcel tools online. Official county website. With a 2024 Census Bureau population estimate of 84,523, it is the fifth most populous county in Montana. In the FBI's 2024 reported-crime file, agencies here reported 2,696 offenses — 31.9 per 1,000 residents; the breakdown is below.

Records to check before you buy in Cascade County

• Property record card — the Cascade County assessor / appraisal office. Pull the parcel's assessed-value history, exemption status, and last sale. This is the file your future tax bill is calculated from, and it shows whether the current owner is enjoying exemptions you will not inherit. County government sits in Great Falls; the official county website is the reliable route to the parcel search and the office directory.
• Deeds & liens — the Cascade County recorder / land-records office. Read the deed chain, open liens, easements, and plat maps — the file a listing never mentions.
• Official flood determination. Check the exact parcel on FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer — not the listing site's licensed model. Zone boundaries cut through streets; the house next door can be in a different zone. Cascade County is the primary county for 15 ZIP codes in the Census Bureau's ZIP-to-county crosswalk — and zone lines ignore every one of them.
• The county's reported-crime record. In the FBI's 2024 file, agencies in Cascade County reported 2,696 offenses — 31.9 per 1,000 residents; the largest single category was larceny-theft (1,820). The crime section below sets that beside the Montana county median.
• Registry check. Run the address through Montana Sexual or Violent Offender Registry (SVOR) (Montana Department of Justice, Division of Criminal Investigation) and note the counts within a mile — then check again the week you close.
• Permits & code history — the Cascade building department. Open permits, expired permits, and code cases tell you whether the renovation in the photos was ever inspected. County permitting is run out of Great Falls.
• School assignment — the district office, not the listing. Only the district's own boundary lookup confirms which school an address is actually zoned for.

County list, land area and population: U.S. Census Bureau (population: 2024 PEP estimate). County seat and official website: Wikidata (CC0), checked 2026-11-04. Flood determinations: FEMA. Registry: Montana.

Reported crime in Cascade County — FBI 2024

Agencies in Cascade County reported 2,696 offenses to the FBI in 2024 — 455 violent and 2,241 property offenses. That works out to a reported-crime rate of 31.9 per 1,000 residents (violent 538.3, property 2651.3 per 100,000).

Inside Montana, the median county in the same file recorded a violent-crime rate of 285 per 100,000 and a property-crime rate of 558 per 100,000 (medians computed from the FBI 2024 county file across 56 counties).

The largest reported categories were larceny-theft (1,820), aggravated assault (370) and burglary (271).

Coverage: 3 of 3 law-enforcement agencies assigned to this county reported at least one month of 2024 offense data to the FBI; 3 reported all 12 months. Counts are reported offenses only (FBI Return A / Arson master files), assigned whole to each agency's primary county; they are not adjusted for non-reporting agencies.

These are offenses reported to law enforcement — not convictions, and not a verdict on any street or address. A CurbFacts report pairs this county record with the ZIP-level picture for the specific address you are buying.

Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, UCR Return A + Arson master files, data year 2024 (pulled 2026-11-04).

The Montana rules that apply in Cascade County

Traps researched for Montana buyers: Homestead rates require enrollment and 7-month occupancy from 2026; Water, wastewater and water-rights facts are core Montana disclosure items.

Read the full Montana guide — disclosure standard, tax math, registry and flood

More Montana counties

All Montana counties · Montana buyer guide