Buffalo, Minnesota.
Typical home $380,997 (+1.5% in a year), asking rent $1,663 . Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,002 (+100%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $5,643 +2%
- $375,353$380,997 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $45,542 +14%
- $335,454$380,997 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.
- Buffalo$2,000
- 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 Buffalo, MN rose 1.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Buffalo, Wright County, Minnesota
Buffalo is a city of 16,168 people in Wright County. Half its households earn more than $88,820 a year and half less, against $107,209 across Wright County; 9% of its people live below the poverty line. 74% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 26% are rented. Unemployment in Wright County was 4.5% in August 2026, and the county had 1.0% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Buffalo is a small city in Wright County, Minnesota, where most homes are lived in by their owners and the typical home costs less than it would closer to the Twin Cities metro's core. Household incomes are somewhat below the county's, and the population is a little older than the age at which most people are just starting families. Winters are long and cold, with plenty of snow, and summers are warm, so the seasons shape how people spend their time.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, the building trades and shops also employing a good share of people. Among the largest workplaces in Buffalo are Buffalo-Hanover-Montrose Schools, Buffalo Hospital and Target. Some residents work from home, and the typical commute is a moderate one.
Things to do. Buffalo Lake sits in or beside town, and several other lakes, including Beebe Lake and Green Mountain Lake, are a short drive away, along with the Crow River. For a longer outing, Lake Maria State Park is a protected area a longer drive away, and Lake Minnetonka is a larger lake also a longer drive off.
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- 6,329households
- 32%of adults have a degree
- 9%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
- 13%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Wright County had 49,245 jobs in 2025, 1.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 21° and lows near 3°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 61°. About 40 inches of snow and 32 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Buffalo 2NE weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Buffalo
- Buffalo-Hanover-Montrose SchoolsSchool district639FTE
- Buffalo HospitalGeneral hospital294FTE
- AME Community ServicesAdult foster care242
- TargetDiscount department stores231
- CassiaNursing homes202
- WhirltronicsAttachments, powered lawn and garden equipment, manufacturing110
- Coborn's Buffalo103
- ADARA Home HealthHome health care agencies101
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 23 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,358 people in all. 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Hailrelatively high in parts of BuffaloRelatively moderate
- Tornadoesrelatively high in parts of BuffaloRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherrelatively high in parts of BuffaloRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Buffalo’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 Wright County and the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI metro.
Buffalo home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Buffalo$380,997
- 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 4 Buffalo listings, and the typical home goes pending in 22 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.
- Buffalo27.06%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Buffalo22
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Buffalo92
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Buffalo34
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Buffalo$338,995
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Buffalo99.22%
Zip codes with a Buffalo address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Buffalo — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.