Ely, Minnesota.
Typical home $283,324 (+5.8% in a year). Duluth, MN-WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$851 (+134%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $15,419 +6%
- $267,905$283,324 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $67,978 +32%
- $215,346$283,324 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.
- Ely$1,487
- Minnesota$1,831
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Ely, MN rose 5.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Ely, St. Louis County, Minnesota
Ely is a city of 3,268 people in St. Louis County. Half its households earn more than $43,901 a year and half less, against $70,069 across St. Louis County; 14% of its people live below the poverty line. 63% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 37% are rented. Unemployment in St. Louis County was 5.4% in August 2026, and the county had 0.4% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Ely is a small city in northern St. Louis County, Minnesota, with winters that are among the coldest in the country. January is the coldest month, with highs well below freezing and lows below zero, while July is the warmest, with pleasantly mild days. Incomes here run well below the county's, and more people live below the poverty line than in many places. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and a good share of adults hold a four-year degree.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by restaurants, hotels and entertainment, other services, and manufacturing. Among the largest workplaces in Ely are Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital, the ELY Public School District and the Forest Service. Unemployment across St. Louis County is higher than a year ago, and the county has slightly fewer jobs than it did the year before. Commutes are short, and few people work from home.
Things to do. Water and woods are close at hand. The Shagawa River and the Burntside River are a short drive away, as is Bear Island State Forest, a protected area. A longer drive brings you to Lake Vermilion and to Superior National Forest, the best known of the nearby places.
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- 1,780households
- 32%of adults have a degree
- 14%below the poverty line
- 14 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. St. Louis County had 95,078 jobs in 2025, 0.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 16° and lows near -4°; warmest in July, with highs near 77° and lows near 56°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Ely weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Ely
- ISDK-12 education108
- Ely-bloomenson Community HospitalCritical access hospital105FTE
- Grand Ely LodgeAuto courts, lodging87
- ELY Public School DistrictSchool district85FTE
- Forest ServiceFederal government · Department of Agriculture67
- Boundary Waters Care CenterSkilled nursing facilities55
- Oxford CapitolAssisted-living facilities with on-site nursing facilities38
- Essentia HealthFamily physicians' offices28
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 7 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 460 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- LightningRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Ely’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 St. Louis County and the Duluth, MN-WI metro.
Ely home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Ely$283,324
- Minnesota$348,778
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Ely 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.
- Ely24.59%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Ely100
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Ely16
Zip codes with a Ely address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Ely — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Ely
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55731 | Ely | 5,361 | — | $282,700 |
| 55782 | Soudan | 420 | — | $131,765 |