Fertile, Minnesota.
Typical home $247,126 (+7.2% in a year). Grand Forks, ND-MN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$691 (+114%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $16,660 +7%
- $230,466$247,126 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $54,739 +28%
- $192,387$247,126 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.
- Fertile$1,297
- 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 Fertile, MN rose 7.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Fertile, Polk County, Minnesota
Fertile is a city of 804 people in Polk County. Half its households earn more than $67,125 a year and half less, against $73,107 across Polk County; 9% of its people live below the poverty line. 72% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 28% are rented. Unemployment in Polk County was 5.0% in August 2026, and the county had 0.3% fewer 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Fertile is a small city in Polk County, and most homes there are lived in by their owners. Household incomes run a little below the county's, and typical home values sit in the middle of what many small Minnesota towns see. Winters are properly cold, with January the coldest month and nights well below freezing, while July brings pleasantly warm days, and the year's rain and melted snow add up to a moderate amount.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, transport and warehousing, and shops also employing many people. Across Polk County, the largest workplaces include the Diocese of Crookston, New Flyer of America, which builds buses, and American Crystal Sugar Company's plant in East Grand Forks. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree than in many places, the typical commute is a moderate one, and a modest number of people work from home.
Things to do. Lake Arthur is the closest of the nearby places, a lake just a short drive away. For a longer outing, Rydell National Wildlife Refuge is a protected area a longer drive off, and the Sand Hill River is another place to get out on the water or along its banks, also a longer drive away.
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- 349households
- 20%of adults have a degree
- 9%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Polk County had 12,003 jobs in 2025, 0.3% 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 81° and lows near 57°. About 25 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Ada weather station, 19 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Polk County
- Diocese of CrookstonChurches537
- New Flyer of AmericaAssembly plants, heavy trucks, and buses on chassis of own manufacture419
- American Crystal Sugar Company East Grand ForksGranulated beet sugar manufacturing408
- Polk CountyCounty supervisors' and executives' offices386
- American Crystal Sugar Company CrookstonGranulated beet sugar manufacturing320
- East Grand Forks Public SchoolsSchool district298FTE
- University of Minnesota-CrookstonUniversity or college288
- Riverview Healthcare AssociationCritical access hospital280FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 53 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 5,576 people in all across the county; Fertile has two of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), colleges from IPEDS (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
- Winter weatherVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- HailRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- WildfireRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Fertile’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 Polk County and the Grand Forks, ND-MN metro.
Fertile home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Fertile$247,126
- 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.
- Fertile6
Zip codes with a Fertile address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Fertile — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.