Alden, Minnesota.
Typical home $157,549 (+8.5% in a year). Albert Lea, MN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$491 (+146%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $12,378 +9%
- $145,171$157,549 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $41,103 +35%
- $116,446$157,549 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Alden$827
- Minnesota$1,831
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Alden, MN rose 8.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Alden, Freeborn County, Minnesota
Alden is a city of 583 people in Freeborn County. Half its households earn more than $73,250 a year and half less, against $71,023 across Freeborn County; 4% of its people live below the poverty line. 83% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 17% are rented. Unemployment in Freeborn County was 4.5% in August 2026, and the county had 2.0% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Alden is a very small city in Freeborn County, where nearly everyone owns the home they live in. Household incomes run a little above the county's, and few residents live below the poverty line. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree than you might expect, and most people make a moderate drive to work. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July brings warm summer days and a fair amount of rain across the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops and farming also employing many. Across Freeborn County, the largest workplaces include Cargill, Albert LEA Public School District and Walmart. Unemployment in the county is higher than a year ago, and there are fewer jobs there than the year before.
Things to do. Pickerel Lake is a short drive away and is the nearest spot for time by the water. Farther afield, Myre-Big Island State Park is a protected area for walking and being outdoors, and the Spam Museum is a longer drive away for a museum visit. The Bessesen Building, a theatre, is also a longer drive.
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- 273households
- 18%of adults have a degree
- 4%below the poverty line
- 20 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Freeborn County had 11,723 jobs in 2025, 2.0% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 24° and lows near 5°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 62°. About 40 inches of snow and 35 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Wells weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Freeborn County
- Albert LEAGeneral medical and surgical hospitals561
- Albert LEA Public School DistrictSchool district480FTE
- CargillProcessed meats manufacturing299
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters264
- St John's Lutheran CommunityNursing homes206
- Good Samaritan Society Albert LeaHomes for the elderly with nursing care194
- Hy-VeeSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores193
- City of Albert LeaGeneral public administration184
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 47 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 4,172 people in all across the county; Alden has one of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Strong windVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Alden’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Freeborn County and the Albert Lea, MN metro.
Alden home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Alden$157,549
- Minnesota$348,778
- United States$366,157
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Alden7
Zip codes with a Alden address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Alden — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.