Madelia, Minnesota.
Typical home $186,745 (+2.7% in a year). Mankato, MN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$628 (+178%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $4,947 +3%
- $181,798$186,745 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $51,975 +39%
- $134,769$186,745 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.
- Madelia$980
- Minnesota$1,831
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Madelia, MN rose 2.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Madelia, Watonwan County, Minnesota
Madelia is a city of 2,396 people in Watonwan County. Half its households earn more than $76,548 a year and half less, against $71,699 across Watonwan County; 14% of its people live below the poverty line. 79% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 21% are rented. Unemployment in Watonwan County was 4.5% in August 2026, and the county had 0.4% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in manufacturing, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Madelia is a small city in Watonwan County, home to a fairly young population compared with many small towns. Most homes here are lived in by their owners, and household incomes run a little above the county's. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers turn warm in July and the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents work mainly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in the building trades, and in shops. Across Watonwan County, some of the largest workplaces are Smithfield Foods, a processed meats manufacturer, Madelia Health, a critical access hospital, and the Madelia Public School District. Jobs across the county have slipped slightly over the past year, and unemployment there has edged up a little.
Things to do. Several lakes lie a short drive away, including Strom Lake, Armstrong Lake and Lieberg Lake, which suit anyone who likes time by the water. Flandrau State Park, a protected area, is a longer drive away, as is the Watonwan River for those who prefer a river to a lake.
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- 808households
- 17%of adults have a degree
- 14%below the poverty line
- 7%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Watonwan County had 4,490 jobs in 2025, 0.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 24° and lows near 5°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 62°. About 50 inches of snow and 33 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the St. James Wwtp weather station, 10 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Watonwan County
- Smithfield FoodsProcessed meats manufacturing611
- St. James Public School DistrictSchool district157FTE
- Madelia HealthCritical access hospital136FTE
- Madelia Public School DistrictSchool district90FTE
- The Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society - St. JamesSkilled nursing facilities84
- Mayo Clinic Health SYS - St. JamesCritical access hospital81FTE
- Watonwan County Courthouse & Resource CenterExecutive and legislative office combinations76
- City of St. JamesGeneral public administration75
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 15 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,466 people in all across the county; Madelia has two 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- Strong windVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Madelia’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 Watonwan County and the Mankato, MN metro.
Madelia home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Madelia$186,745
- 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.
- Madelia12
Zip codes with a Madelia address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Madelia — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.