Fosston, Minnesota.
Typical home $227,563 (+6.5% in a year). Grand Forks, ND-MN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$643 (+117%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $13,868 +6%
- $213,695$227,563 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $57,075 +33%
- $170,488$227,563 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.
- Fosston$1,194
- Minnesota$1,831
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Fosston, MN rose 6.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Fosston, Polk County, Minnesota
Fosston is a city of 1,434 people in Polk County. Half its households earn more than $52,500 a year and half less, against $73,107 across Polk County; 26% of its people live below the poverty line. 55% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 45% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Fosston is a small city in Polk County, Minnesota, where most homes are lived in by their owners, though renting is more common than across much of the country. Household incomes in town run well below the county's, and a good share of residents live below the poverty line. Winters are long and cold, with January the coldest month and lows well below zero, while July brings warm days, and the year's precipitation is a mix of rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by manufacturing, shops, and professional and business services. Some of the largest workplaces in Fosston are First Care Medical Services, Fosston Public School District and Valley Markets. Few people work from home, and unemployment across Polk County has edged up compared with a year earlier, as the county has lost a small share of its jobs.
Things to do. Turtle Lake is a lake a short drive away, and Beaulieu Lake is another, so a day by the water doesn't take much planning. For a longer outing, Rydell National Wildlife Refuge is a protected area a longer drive away, and Union Lake is a lake a longer drive away as well.
Report a mistake
- 604households
- 21%of adults have a degree
- 26%below the poverty line
- 6%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 -5°; warmest in July, with highs near 78° and lows near 55°. About 27 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Fosston East weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Fosston
- First Care Medical ServicesCritical access hospital105FTE
- Essentia HealthNursing homes100
- Fosston Public School DistrictSchool district96FTE
- Valley MarketsSupermarkets85
- Minnesota Dehydrated VegetablesVegetables dehydrating70
- Cornerstone Residence of FosstonAssisted-living facilities without on-site nursing care facilities39
- Bethany Board and LodgeSeniors multi-service24
- Fosston - J. RETTENMAIER USADry milk products and mixture manufacturing20
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 9 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 744 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) 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 wavesVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Fosston’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 Polk County and the Grand Forks, ND-MN metro.
Fosston home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Fosston$227,563
- 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.
- Fosston9
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Fosston address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Fosston — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.