Big Lake, Minnesota.
Typical home $375,302 (+2.4% in a year), asking rent $1,547 . Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$979 (+99%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $8,620 +2%
- $366,682$375,302 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $44,463 +13%
- $330,839$375,302 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.
- Big Lake$1,970
- Minnesota$1,831
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 27 years.
Typical home values in Big Lake, MN rose 2.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Big Lake, Sherburne County, Minnesota
Big Lake is a city of 11,686 people in Sherburne County. Half its households earn more than $120,549 a year and half less, against $105,466 across Sherburne County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 87% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 13% are rented. Unemployment in Sherburne County was 4.8% in August 2026, and the county had 1.8% more 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Big Lake is a small city where residents are younger than in most of the country, and nearly all homes are lived in by their owners rather than rented. Household incomes are higher than across Sherburne County, and fewer people live below the poverty line than in many places. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July brings warm summer days and the year has a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with many others in manufacturing, shops and the building trades. The largest workplaces in town include the Big Lake Public School District, Precera Medical and Cargill. Commutes are on the long side, which suggests many people travel out of town for work, and a small share work from home.
Things to do. The St. Francis River runs in or beside town, a natural spot for time near the water. A short drive away are Babcock Memorial Park and Tibbits Brook, a river. For a longer outing, Lake Maria State Park is a protected area a longer drive away.
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- 4,036households
- 27%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 33 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Sherburne County had 28,584 jobs in 2025, 1.8% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 22° and lows near 4°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 61°. About 36 inches of snow and 33 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Elk River weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Big Lake
- Big Lake Public School DistrictSchool district400FTE
- Liberty ElementaryK-12 education215
- Precera MedicalInstruments, mechanical microsurgical, manufacturing188
- CargillEggs, processed, manufacturing174
- Independence ElementaryK-12 education163
- Coborn's Big Lake129
- High SchoolK-12 education111
- HSS Howmet Big LakeDeveloping and producing prototypes for aircraft parts and auxiliary equipment84
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 17 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,479 people in all. 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 windRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Lightningrelatively high in parts of Big LakeRelatively moderate
- Tornadoesrelatively high in parts of Big LakeRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Big Lake’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. 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 Sherburne County and the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI metro.
Big Lake home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Big Lake$375,302
- 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.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Big Lake listings, and the typical home goes pending in 23 days — the market is roughly in balance.
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
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Big Lake28.95%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Big Lake23
- United States24
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Big Lake69
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Big Lake26
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Big Lake$378,643
- United States$371,553
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Big Lake100.26%
Zip codes with a Big Lake address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Big Lake — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.