McGrath, Minnesota.
Typical home $205,415 (+3.0% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$575 (+114%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $6,026 +3%
- $199,388$205,415 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $28,935 +16%
- $176,480$205,415 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.
- McGrath$1,078
- Minnesota$1,831
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 23 years.
Typical home values in McGrath, MN rose 3.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in McGrath, Aitkin County, Minnesota
McGrath is a city of 41 people in Aitkin County. Unemployment in Aitkin County was 6.2% in August 2026, and the county had 1.7% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Aitkin County work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Haiku 5.5 wrote this on 22 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. McGrath is a small city in Aitkin County in north-central Minnesota. Winters here are long and bitterly cold, with heavy snow, while summers are warm and green, and rain falls through much of the year. The town sits in lake and forest country, and the seasons shape much of daily life.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, or in shops and the building trades. Others find jobs in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, which draw visitors to the nearby lakes.
Things to do. Mille Lacs Lake, one of the best known lakes in the state, is a longer drive away. Cedar Lake is a short drive away, and Father Hennepin State Park, a protected area, is a longer drive.
Report a mistake
- 4%of adults have a degree
What people in Aitkin County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Aitkin County had 4,402 jobs in 2025, 1.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 19° and lows near 0°; warmest in July, with highs near 78° and lows near 58°. About 43 inches of snow and 29 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Isle 12N weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Aitkin County
- Riverwood Healthcare CenterCritical access hospital311FTE
- Aitkin Public School DistrictSchool district174FTE
- Independent School DistrictElementary and secondary schools136
- Coborn's130
- McGregor Savanna PalletsPallet manufacturer, sawmill117
- Mcgregor Public School DistrictSchool district95FTE
- Rippleside Elementary SchoolAcademies, elementary or secondary94
- Floe International332999 all other miscellaneous fabricated metal product manufacturing86
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 16 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,462 people in all across the county; McGrath has none of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) 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
- Cold wavesVery high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in McGrath’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 Aitkin County.
McGrath home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- McGrath$205,415
- 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.
Zip codes with a McGrath address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls McGrath — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.