States · Minnesota · Crow Wing County

Merrifield, Minnesota.

Typical home $455,227 (+4.6% in a year). Brainerd, MN metro.

What it costs per month · Merrifield $2,389/mo

to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,404 (+143%) since Jan 2020.

What the home itself did
1 year
Up $19,859 +5%
$435,368$455,227 since Sep 2025
5 years
Up $113,174 +33%
$342,053$455,227 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.

$500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000 $2,500 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 2026 Merrifield $2,389 Minnesota $1,831 United States $1,922
$500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000 $2,500 2002 2010 2018 2026
  • Merrifield$2,389
  • Minnesota$1,831
  • United States$1,922

At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.

Typical home values in Merrifield, MN rose 4.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.

Living in Merrifield, Crow Wing County, Minnesota

Merrifield, in Crow Wing County, had 140 people in the 2020 census. Unemployment in Crow Wing County was 4.9% in August 2026, and the county had 0.3% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Crow Wing County work in schools and health care, then shops.

People 140 in the 2020 census
Household income Too few homes in Merrifield for the Census survey to measure.
Unemployment 4.9% Crow Wing County, August 2026; 4.0% a year before
Homes Too few homes in Merrifield for the Census survey to measure.

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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Merrifield is a very small community in Crow Wing County, Minnesota, where everyone is likely to know one another. Homes here are valued well above what the county's incomes might suggest, so buying in is a real commitment. Winters are cold, with January highs staying well below freezing and lows around zero, while July turns pleasantly warm; the year brings a moderate amount of rain and melted snow.

Work. Residents mostly work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in shops, manufacturing, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Across Crow Wing County, some of the largest workplaces are St. Josephs Medical Center, the Brainerd Public School District and Cuyuna Regional Medical Center. Unemployment across the county is higher than a year ago, and the number of jobs has grown only slightly.

Things to do. Water is the draw here. Gull Lake, Pelican Lake and North Long Lake are all lakes a short drive away, and Mille Lacs Lake is a longer drive. Brainerd International Raceway, a race track, is also a short drive away.

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What people in Crow Wing County work in

  • Schools, hospitals and social care25%
  • Shops (retail)12%
  • Manufacturing10%
  • Restaurants, hotels and entertainment10%
  • Building trades10%
  • Professional and business services8%

Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Crow Wing County had 31,145 jobs in 2025, 0.3% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Weather through the year

Average daily high and low for each month: coldest in January, 21° and 0°; warmest in July, 82° and 58° 0° 20° 40° 60° 80° J 21° 0° F M A M J J 82° 58° A S O N D
Average daily high and low for each month: coldest in January, 21° and 0°; warmest in July, 82° and 58° 0° 20° 40° 60° 80° J 21° 0° F M A M J J 82° 58° A S O N D

Coldest in January, with highs near 21° and lows near 0°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 58°. About 25 inches of rain and melted snow a year.

Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Brainerd Crow Wing County Airport weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).

Largest workplaces in Crow Wing County

  1. St. Josephs Medical CenterGeneral hospital964FTE
  2. Brainerd Public School DistrictSchool district915FTE
  3. Cuyuna Regional Medical CenterCritical access hospital834FTE
  4. Crow Wing CountyExecutive offices, federal, state, and local579
  5. WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters467
  6. MNDOT District 3Transportation departments, nonoperating454
  7. Essentiah HealthFamily physicians' offices326
  8. Central Lakes College-BrainerdTwo-year college278

Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 90 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 10,399 people in all across the county; Merrifield has one of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and colleges from IPEDS (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

  1. Cold wavesRelatively high
  2. Strong windRelatively moderate
  3. LightningRelatively moderate
  4. Winter weatherRelatively moderate

FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Merrifield’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. 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 Crow Wing County and the Brainerd, MN metro.

Merrifield home values

Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.

$250,000 $300,000 $350,000 $400,000 $450,000 2018 2020 2022 2024 2026 Merrifield $455,227 Minnesota $348,778 United States $366,157
$250,000 $300,000 $350,000 $400,000 $450,000 2018 2022 2026
  • Merrifield$455,227
  • Minnesota$348,778
  • United States$366,157

Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Merrifield 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.

JFMAMJJASOND
2026
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
falling flat warming hot overheating runaway

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.

20% 22% 24% 26% 2026 Merrifield 24.22% United States 26.90%
20% 22% 24% 26% 2026
  • Merrifield24.22%
  • United States26.90%

Homes for sale

Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.

5 10 15 20 25 2023 2024 2025 2026 Merrifield 25
5 10 15 20 25 2023 2024 2025 2026
  • Merrifield25

New listings per month

Sellers arriving at the market.

4 6 8 10 2026 Merrifield 8
4 6 8 10 2026
  • Merrifield8

Zip codes with a Merrifield address

A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Merrifield — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.

Zip codes in Merrifield