Appleton, Minnesota.
Typical home $90,641 (+5.7% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$270 (+131%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $4,850 +6%
- $85,790$90,641 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $20,139 +29%
- $70,502$90,641 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.
- Appleton$476
- Minnesota$1,831
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Appleton, MN rose 5.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Appleton, Swift County, Minnesota
Appleton is a city of 1,392 people in Swift County. Half its households earn more than $43,958 a year and half less, against $60,412 across Swift County; 28% of its people live below the poverty line. 68% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 32% are rented. Unemployment in Swift County was 8.0% in August 2026, and the county had 2.9% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Appleton is a small city in Swift County, in western Minnesota farm country. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and typical home values are modest. Incomes in town run well below the county's, and a good share of residents live below the poverty line. Few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and a lot of snow, and summers are warm, with July the warmest.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, farming and retail also employing many. Across Swift County, the largest workplaces include CNH Industrial America, a farm machinery maker, Appleton Municipal Hospital, and the Benson Public School District. Unemployment across the county is higher than a year earlier, and the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before. Few people work from home.
Things to do. Pomme de Terre River and Lac qui Parle, a reservoir, are both a short drive away, as is Hart Lake. For some local history, the Arv Hus Museum is also a short drive from town. A longer drive brings Lac qui Parle State Park and the Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge, both protected areas.
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- 596households
- 15%of adults have a degree
- 28%below the poverty line
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Swift County had 3,627 jobs in 2025, 2.9% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 24° and lows near 4°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 61°. About 51 inches of snow and 27 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Milan 1NW weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Swift County
- CNH Industrial AmericaFarm machinery & equipment mfg.365
- Benson Public School DistrictSchool district139FTE
- Kerkhoven-murdock-sunburg SchoolsSchool district121FTE
- CentroMotor vehicle moldings and extrusions, plastics, manufacturing84
- Appleton Municipal HospitalCritical access hospital82FTE
- KMS ElementaryK-12 education82
- Centracare BensonCritical access hospital70FTE
- KMS SecondaryK-12 education64
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 20 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,574 people in all across the county; Appleton has two of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Appleton’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 Swift County.
Appleton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Appleton$90,641
- Minnesota$348,778
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
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.
- Appleton12
Zip codes with a Appleton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Appleton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.