Deer River, Minnesota.
Typical home $250,331 (-0.9% in a year). Grand Rapids, MN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$480 (+57%) since Feb 2022.
- 1 year
- Down $2,183 -1%
- $252,515$250,331 since Sep 2025
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.
- Deer River$1,314
- Minnesota$1,831
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Deer River, MN fell 0.9% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Deer River, Itasca County, Minnesota
Deer River is a city of 909 people in Itasca County. Half its households earn more than $38,824 a year and half less, against $68,603 across Itasca County. 68% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 32% are rented. Unemployment in Itasca County was 6.3% in August 2026, and the county had 1.0% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Deer River is a small city in Itasca County, Minnesota, where most homes are lived in by their owners. Household incomes run well below the county's, and few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are long and cold, with January the coldest month and plenty of snow, while summers are pleasantly warm.
Work. Most residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by restaurants, hotels and entertainment, shops, and manufacturing. Among the largest workplaces in Deer River are the Deer River Public School District, Deer River Healthcare Center and the Forest Service. Very few people work from home, and across the county jobs have slipped slightly and unemployment has edged up over the past year.
Things to do. Schoolcraft State Park and Chase Lake are a short drive away, the park for time among the trees and the lake for a quiet day on the water. Farther out, a longer drive reaches Chippewa National Forest, a large protected area, and Leech Lake, one of the bigger lakes in the region. The river that gives the town its name is close by, too.
Report a mistake
- 344households
- 12%of adults have a degree
- 2%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Itasca County had 16,444 jobs in 2025, 1.0% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 18° and lows near -3°; warmest in July, with highs near 78° and lows near 56°. About 28 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Pokegama Dam weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Deer River
- Deer River Public School DistrictSchool district154FTE
- Deer River Healthcare CenterCritical access hospital127FTE
- King Elementary SchoolK-12 education74
- Forest ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture36
- Essentia Health HomesteadNursing homes33
- Essentia HealthFamily physicians' offices27
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 395 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026); 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
- Cold wavesVery high
- Strong windRelatively high
- LightningRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Deer River’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 Itasca County and the Grand Rapids, MN metro.
Deer River home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Deer River$250,331
- 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 7 Deer River listings — the market is cooling.
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.
- Deer River14.34%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Deer River30
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Deer River7
Zip codes with a Deer River address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Deer River — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.