Browns Valley, Minnesota.
Typical home $123,863 (-3.8% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$165 (+34%) since Feb 2021.
- 1 year
- Down $4,848 -4%
- $128,711$123,863 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $22,042 -15%
- $145,905$123,863 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.
- Browns Valley$650
- Minnesota$1,831
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Browns Valley, MN fell 3.8% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Browns Valley, Traverse County, Minnesota
Browns Valley is a city of 558 people in Traverse County. Half its households earn more than $49,250 a year and half less, against $62,989 across Traverse County. Unemployment in Traverse County was 4.0% in August 2026, and the county had 5.1% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Traverse County work in schools and health care, then farming.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Browns Valley is a small city on the western edge of Minnesota, with a population that is among the smaller ones in the state. Household incomes here run below the county's, and homes are modestly priced. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and a good deal of snow falls over the year; summers are warm, with July the warmest month.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, and farming is also a major line of work, along with shops and manufacturing. Across Traverse County, the largest workplaces include Browns Valley Health Center, the Wheaton Area Public School District and Minnewaska Lutheran Home. Few adults here hold a four-year degree, jobs across the county were fewer last year than the year before, and getting to work takes only a short drive.
Things to do. Traverse Gap, a protected area, sits in or beside town, and the Little Minnesota River is a short drive away. For a longer outing, Big Stone Lake is a reservoir, and Big Stone Lake State Park is a protected area on its shores. Both are a longer drive away, and the Minnesota River is also a longer drive away.
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- 6%of adults have a degree
- 14 mintypical commute
What people in Traverse County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Traverse County had 1,015 jobs in 2025, 5.1% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 22° and lows near 0°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 59°. About 44 inches of snow and 25 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Browns Valley weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Traverse County
- Browns Valley Health CenterNursing homes86
- Wheaton Area Public School DistrictSchool district60FTE
- Minnewaska Lutheran HomeSkilled nursing facilities44
- Sanford Medical Center WheatonCritical access hospital37FTE
- DollymountDairy cattle farming32
- Kibble Equipment - WheatonAgricultural machinery and equipment merchant wholesalers26
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 265 people in all across the county; Browns Valley has one 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
- HailRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Browns Valley’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 Traverse County.
Browns Valley home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Browns Valley$123,863
- 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.
- Browns Valley5
Zip codes with a Browns Valley address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Browns Valley — 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.