Independence, Minnesota.
Typical home $810,853 (+3.9% in a year). Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$2,310 (+119%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $30,651 +4%
- $780,201$810,853 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $147,860 +22%
- $662,993$810,853 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.
- Independence$4,256
- 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 Independence, MN rose 3.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Independence, Hennepin County, Minnesota
Independence is a city of 3,755 people in Hennepin County. Half its households earn more than $186,597 a year and half less, against $97,653 across Hennepin County; 1% of its people live below the poverty line. 92% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 8% are rented. Unemployment in Hennepin County was 4.6% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Hennepin County work in schools and health care, then professional services.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 24 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Independence is a small city in Hennepin County where nearly everyone owns the home they live in, and where households earn far more than across the county as a whole. Very few residents live below the poverty line, and a large majority of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold and wintry, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm, with July the warmest.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, in manufacturing and in shops. Across Hennepin County, some of the largest workplaces are the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Hennepin County itself and Target. A good share of residents work from home, and for those who commute, the trip is a fairly typical one.
Things to do. Lake Minnetonka is a short drive away and is the nearest big stretch of water, and the Crow River, also a short drive off, is another place to be outdoors. For a day out, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the best known museum on the list, and Target Field, a stadium, are both a longer drive away.
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- 1,321households
- 67%of adults have a degree
- 1%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 36%work from home
What people in Hennepin County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Hennepin County had 919,062 jobs in 2025, 0.2% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 23° and lows near 4°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 62°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Delano weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Hennepin County
- University of Minnesota-Twin CitiesUniversity or college19,735
- Hennepin CountyGeneral government9,367
- TargetDiscount department stores8,437
- Delta Air Lines - MSPScheduled air transportation6,332
- Boston ScientificCatheters manufacturing5,837
- University of Minnesota Medical CTRGeneral hospital5,810FTE
- Hennepin County Medical CenterGeneral hospital5,644FTE
- Target Northern CampusDiscount department stores5,280
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2,069 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 394,099 people in all across the county; Independence has one of its own. Colleges come 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
- HailRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Independence’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 Hennepin County and the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI metro.
Independence home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Independence$810,853
- 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.
- Independence15
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Independence address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Independence — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.