Houston, Minnesota.
Typical home $351,204 (+6.2% in a year). La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,126 (+157%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $20,587 +6%
- $330,617$351,204 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $115,033 +49%
- $236,171$351,204 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.
- Houston$1,843
- Minnesota$1,831
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 9 years.
Typical home values in Houston, MN rose 6.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Houston, Houston County, Minnesota
Houston is a city of 997 people in Houston County. Half its households earn more than $55,759 a year and half less, against $79,825 across Houston County; 19% of its people live below the poverty line. 76% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 24% are rented. Unemployment in Houston County was 3.6% in August 2026, and the county had 1.9% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Houston is a small city in the bluff country of southeastern Minnesota. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and household incomes run well below the county's, while more residents live below the poverty line than is typical. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm but not hot.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, the building trades, and farming and forestry close behind. Across Houston County, the largest workplaces include the Houston Public School District, Wieser Brothers General Contractor and Crest Precast. The county has been adding jobs, and commutes tend to be fairly long.
Things to do. Beaver Creek Valley State Park is a protected area a short drive away, and Badger Creek and Money Creek both run in or beside town. A longer drive brings you to Great River Bluffs State Park, another protected area, and to the Root River.
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- 369households
- 23%of adults have a degree
- 19%below the poverty line
- 28 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Houston County had 5,129 jobs in 2025, 1.9% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 24° and lows near 8°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 62°. About 45 inches of snow and 38 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Caledonia weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Houston County
- Independent School DistrictElementary and secondary schools270
- Houston Public School DistrictSchool district215FTE
- Wieser Brothers General ContractorConstruction190
- ElementaryK-12 education169
- La Crescent-hokah School DistrictSchool district157FTE
- Caledonia Public School DistrictSchool district125FTE
- Crest PrecastConcrete products, precast, manufacturing60
- LaX Fabricating LTD - Spring GroveSteel manufacturing56
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 16 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,131 people in all across the county; Houston has two of its own. School districts come 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
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively 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 Houston’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 Houston County and the La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN metro.
Houston home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Houston$351,204
- Minnesota$348,778
- United States$366,157
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.
- Houston6
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Houston address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Houston — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.