Fergus Falls, Minnesota.
Typical home $204,651 (+3.5% in a year), asking rent $909 . Fergus Falls, MN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$570 (+113%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $6,894 +3%
- $197,757$204,651 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $39,455 +24%
- $165,197$204,651 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.
- Fergus Falls$1,074
- Minnesota$1,831
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Fergus Falls, MN rose 3.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Fergus Falls, Otter Tail County, Minnesota
Fergus Falls is a city of 14,119 people in Otter Tail County. Half its households earn more than $56,162 a year and half less, against $72,255 across Otter Tail County; 9% of its people live below the poverty line. 64% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 36% are rented. Unemployment in Otter Tail County was 4.8% in August 2026, and the county had 1.4% fewer 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Fergus Falls is a small city in Otter Tail County in western Minnesota, with a population that skews a little older than the national picture. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and incomes run below the county's overall. Winters are cold, with January days that stay well below freezing and nights near zero, while July is warm. Rain and melted snow add up to a moderate amount over the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, professional and business services, and manufacturing also employing a good number. Among the largest workplaces in Fergus Falls are Lake Region Healthcare, Otter Tail Power Company and Minnesota State Community and Technical College. Jobs across the county have slipped slightly over the past year, and unemployment is higher than it was a year earlier. Commutes are short, and few people work from home.
Things to do. A short drive away are Wall Lake and the Fergus Falls Wetland Management District, a protected area of wetlands and prairie. Farther out, a longer drive brings you to Maplewood State Park, a protected area, and to Pelican Lake, one of many lakes scattered through the surrounding countryside.
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- 6,465households
- 29%of adults have a degree
- 9%below the poverty line
- 13 mintypical commute
- 7%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Otter Tail County had 22,581 jobs in 2025, 1.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 18° and lows near 0°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 61°. About 27 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Fergus Falls weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Fergus Falls
- Lake Region HealthcareGeneral hospital608FTE
- Otter Tail Power CompanyElectric power generation, fossil fuel458
- Minnesota State Community and Technical CollegeTwo-year college406
- Fergus Falls Public School DistrictSchool district367FTE
- Pioneer CareHomes for the elderly with nursing care275
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters259
- Minnesota Veterans Home-Fergus FallsNursing homes179
- Vector WindowsWindows and window frames, vinyl, manufacturing160
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 30 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,286 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Inland floodingrelatively high in parts of Fergus FallsRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Fergus Falls’ 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 Otter Tail County and the Fergus Falls, MN metro.
Fergus Falls home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Fergus Falls$204,651
- 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.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Fergus Falls listings — the market is roughly in balance.
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
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Fergus Falls25.03%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Fergus Falls68
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Fergus Falls22
Zip codes with a Fergus Falls address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Fergus Falls — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.