Dalton, Minnesota.
Typical home $338,022 (+7.4% in a year). Fergus Falls, MN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$993 (+127%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $23,154 +7%
- $314,869$338,022 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $75,722 +29%
- $262,300$338,022 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.
- Dalton$1,774
- 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 Dalton, MN rose 7.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Dalton, Otter Tail County, Minnesota
Dalton is a city of 215 people in Otter Tail County. Half its households earn more than $68,659 a year and half less, against $72,255 across Otter Tail County; 7% of its people live below the poverty line. 89% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 11% are rented. Unemployment in Otter Tail County was 4.8% in August 2026, and the county had 1.4% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Otter Tail County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Dalton is a very small city in Otter Tail County, Minnesota, where nearly everyone owns the home they live in. Household incomes run a little below the county's, and few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with January highs only a little above freezing and nights that drop to zero, while July turns warm; rain and melted snow fall at a moderate rate across the year.
Work. Residents mostly work in schools, hospitals and social care, in manufacturing, in shops and in the building trades. The typical commute is a short one, and a small group works from home. Across Otter Tail County, some of the largest workplaces are West Central Turkeys, Lake Region Healthcare and Lund/Crestliner in New York Mills, though jobs in the county have slipped lately and unemployment is higher than a year ago.
Things to do. Lakes are the main draw around Dalton. Tenmile Lake and Fourmile Lake are both a short drive away, and Lake Aaron is a longer drive. The Fergus Falls Wetland Management District, a protected area, is also a short drive away.
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- 6%of adults have a degree
- 7%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What people in Otter Tail County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Otter Tail County had 22,581 jobs in 2025, 1.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 18° and lows near 0°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 61°. About 27 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Fergus Falls weather station, 13 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Otter Tail County
- West Central TurkeysTurkeys, processing, fresh, frozen, canned, or cooked628
- Lake Region HealthcareGeneral hospital608FTE
- Lund/Crestliner - New York MillsAluminum fish boat manufacturing507
- Otter Tail Power CompanyElectric power generation, fossil fuel458
- Shearer's Foods - PHMPotato chips manufacturing443
- Minnesota State Community and Technical CollegeTwo-year college406
- Fergus Falls Public School DistrictSchool district367FTE
- KLN Family BrandsLicorice candy manufacturing365
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 80 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 8,584 people in all across the county; Dalton has none of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) 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
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Dalton’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 Otter Tail County and the Fergus Falls, MN metro.
Dalton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Dalton$338,022
- 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.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Dalton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Dalton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.