Kettle River, Minnesota.
Typical home $230,599 (+5.9% in a year). Duluth, MN-WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$556 (+85%) since Feb 2022.
- 1 year
- Up $12,922 +6%
- $217,676$230,599 since Sep 2025
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.
- Kettle River$1,210
- Minnesota$1,831
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Kettle River, MN rose 5.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Kettle River, Carlton County, Minnesota
Kettle River is a city of 166 people in Carlton County. Half its households earn more than $65,000 a year and half less, against $80,573 across Carlton County; 13% of its people live below the poverty line. 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Kettle River is a very small city in Carlton County, Minnesota, where neighbors are likely to know one another. Household incomes run below the county's, and homes here are valued at a level that many buyers would find within reach. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and highs staying below freezing, while July brings warm days, and the year's rain and melted snow is moderate.
Work. People who live here work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, manufacturing and government also employing many. Very few work from home. Across Carlton County, some of the largest workplaces are MSOP Moose Lake, USG and Community Memorial Hospital. Unemployment in the county is a little higher than it was a year ago, and the number of jobs has slipped slightly.
Things to do. The Dead Moose River runs in or beside town. A short drive away are Moose Lake State Park, a protected area, and Hanging Horn Lake, along with the Split Rock River and the Portage River. Farther afield, a longer drive brings you to Banning State Park, another protected area, for time outdoors.
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- 68households
- 13%below the poverty line
- 2%work from home
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 20° and lows near 1°; warmest in July, with highs near 80° and lows near 57°. About 32 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Moose Lake Sse 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; Kettle River has none 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 moderate
- 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 Kettle River’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.
Kettle River home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Kettle River$230,599
- 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.
- Kettle River7
Zip codes with a Kettle River address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Kettle River — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.