Esko, Minnesota.
Typical home $397,176 (+3.5% in a year). Duluth, MN-WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,079 (+107%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $13,421 +3%
- $383,755$397,176 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $71,768 +22%
- $325,409$397,176 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.
- Esko$2,085
- Minnesota$1,831
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 17 years.
Typical home values in Esko, MN rose 3.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Esko, Carlton County, Minnesota
Esko, in Carlton County, had 2,082 people in the 2020 census. 87% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 13% are rented. Unemployment in Carlton County was 5.2% in August 2026, and the county had 1.2% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Carlton County work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Esko is a community in Carlton County where most homes are lived in by their owners, and the population skews older than much of the country. Few residents live below the poverty line, and the typical home is valued well above what many might expect for a small Minnesota town. Winters are long, cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July brings warm summer days and a fair amount of rain and melted snow across the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in manufacturing and in government. The commute is short for most people. Across Carlton County, the largest workplaces include Community Memorial Hospital, Cloquet Public School District and USG. Unemployment in the county is a little higher than it was a year ago, and the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. Jay Cooke State Park, a protected area along the river valley, is a short drive away. The Carlton County History and Heritage Center, a museum, is also a short drive, as is the Lake Superior Zoo. The Midway River runs in or beside town, so there is water close to home.
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- 746households
- 4%below the poverty line
- 16 mintypical commute
What people in Carlton County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Carlton County had 13,111 jobs in 2025, 1.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 18° and lows near 2°; warmest in July, with highs near 78° and lows near 54°. About 71 inches of snow and 33 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Cloquet weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Carlton County
- MSOP Moose LakeMental health facilities, residential415
- USGCeiling tile405
- Carlton CountyExecutive and legislative office combinations370
- Cloquet Public School DistrictSchool district370FTE
- Community Memorial HospitalCritical access hospital343FTE
- Upper Lakes Foods CLPrivate warehousing and storage, refrigerated272
- Inter-Faith Care CenterNursing homes140
- Essentia Health Moose LakeCritical access hospital134FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 45 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 4,577 people in all across the county; Esko has two 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
- Cold wavesVery high
- LightningRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Esko’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. 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 Carlton County and the Duluth, MN-WI metro.
Esko home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Esko$397,176
- 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.
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.
- Esko12
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Esko4
Zip codes with a Esko address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Esko — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.