Balaton, Minnesota.
Typical home $108,977 (+19.6% in a year). Marshall, MN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$285 (+99%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $17,852 +20%
- $91,125$108,977 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $18,872 +21%
- $90,105$108,977 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.
- Balaton$572
- Minnesota$1,831
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 18 years.
Typical home values in Balaton, MN rose 19.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Balaton, Lyon County, Minnesota
Balaton is a city of 595 people in Lyon County. Half its households earn more than $54,688 a year and half less, against $75,303 across Lyon County; 18% of its people live below the poverty line. 75% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 25% are rented. Unemployment in Lyon County was 4.7% in August 2026, and the county had 2.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then construction.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 24 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Balaton is a small city in Lyon County, in the open farm country of southwest Minnesota. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and home values are modest. Household incomes run well below the county's, and more people live below the poverty line than is typical. Few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with the coldest weather in January, and a good deal of snow falls each year. Summers are warm, and the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, and in the building trades, with others in shops and in banks, insurance and property. Across Lyon County, the largest workplaces include Southwest Minnesota State University, Avera Marshall Regional Medical CTR and the Marshall Public School District. Unemployment in the county has risen over the past year, and there are fewer jobs than a year earlier. The typical commute is a fairly long one, and a modest number of people work from home.
Things to do. Lake Yankton lies in or beside town, which makes it the easiest place to get out on the water. A short drive away are Camden State Park, a protected area, and Rock Lake, a lake. For a longer outing, Pipestone National Monument is an archaeological site a longer drive away.
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- 259households
- 15%of adults have a degree
- 18%below the poverty line
- 28 mintypical commute
- 11%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Lyon County had 13,452 jobs in 2025, 2.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 23° and lows near 5°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 62°. About 49 inches of snow and 29 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Tracy weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Lyon County
- Southwest Minnesota State UniversityUniversity or college432
- Avera Marshall Regional Medical CTRCritical access hospital417FTE
- Marshall Public School DistrictSchool district392FTE
- Region 6 and 8-SW/WC Service Coop SchoolsSchool district384FTE
- Schwan's Shared ServicesOb297
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters294
- Hy-VeeSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores278
- Archer Daniels Midland Company265
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 67 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 6,646 people in all across the county; Balaton has none of its own. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Balaton’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 Lyon County and the Marshall, MN metro.
Balaton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Balaton$108,977
- 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.
- Balaton6
Zip codes with a Balaton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Balaton — 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.