1929 Westby Home on Half an Acre, Across from the School — $139,000

The lot is what you notice first. Nearly six-tenths of an acre in a small Montana town, right on Main Street. That is a lot of yard for a two-bedroom house, and in Westby that kind of space has room to breathe in ways it might not elsewhere.

The house itself is from 1929, so you go in expecting a certain set of things: narrower rooms, older bones, the particular feel of a building that has been lived in for close to a century. It runs 1,292 square feet across two bedrooms and one bath, which is a modest footprint but a workable one. The agent description calls it updated, which could mean almost anything. New floors, fresh paint, a replaced water heater, a renovated kitchen — the listing does not say, so you are working with thin information there. Worth asking specifically what was done and when.

What the listing does say is that it sits across from the school. In a town this size, that kind of location means foot traffic, some noise during the day, and the practical convenience of being close to where kids and activity are. Whether that reads as a plus or a minus depends entirely on what you want.

At $139,000 and roughly $107 per square foot, this is priced like a small-town Montana house with some age to it. The 1929 construction is the most interesting thing here, and it cuts both ways. These houses often have details worth preserving and problems worth investigating. Plumbing, electrical, and insulation all deserve a close look before you get attached to the price.

The lot is the clearest asset. That much land in a town of this size, with street presence on Main Street, gives you options most properties at this price point do not. What you do with it is your call.