Moorhead, Minnesota.
Typical home $291,109 (+2.4% in a year), asking rent $1,093 (+2.9%). Fargo, ND-MN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$706 (+86%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $6,688 +2%
- $284,421$291,109 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $44,144 +18%
- $246,965$291,109 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.
- Moorhead$1,528
- Minnesota$1,831
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 21 years.
Typical home values in Moorhead, MN rose 2.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Moorhead, MN rose 2.9% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Owning the typical home in Moorhead runs $1,022/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $1,064 in Oct 2023.
That is $2,115 a month against $1,093 rent: a $1,528 mortgage payment, plus $275 property tax and $312 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Moorhead
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$2,115
- Renting$1,093
- Mortgage only$1,528
Property tax · $275/mo 1.13% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Clay County, MN
Insurance & upkeep · $312/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Moorhead, Clay County, Minnesota
Moorhead is a city of 44,505 people in Clay County. Half its households earn more than $72,761 a year and half less, against $81,172 across Clay County; 16% of its people live below the poverty line. 58% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 42% are rented. Unemployment in Moorhead was 4.1% in August 2026, and Clay County had 0.7% 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. Moorhead is a city in Clay County, Minnesota, and a young one in feel: residents are younger than in most of the country, which fits a place with a university presence. Incomes run below the county's, and more people live below the poverty line than many would expect, while more homes are rented than in many towns of its size. Winters are cold, with January days staying well below freezing and plenty of snow, and summers turn warm in July.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, professional and business services, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Among the largest workplaces in Moorhead are Moorhead Area Public Schools, the City of Moorhead and Eventide Moorhead. A good share of adults hold a four-year degree, and the typical commute is short. Across Clay County, there were slightly fewer jobs last year than the year before.
Things to do. In or beside town, the Rourke Art Museum is one of the places to see art close to home, and the Fargo Theatre is a historic movie house just across the river. A short drive away, the Red River Zoo and the Fargodome, a large stadium, offer family outings and big events. Those who like to be out of doors can head a short way to the Wild Rice River.
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- 18,508households
- 42%of adults have a degree
- 16%below the poverty line
- 18 mintypical commute
- 13%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Clay County had 19,568 jobs in 2025, 0.7% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 17° and lows near 0°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 61°. About 53 inches of snow and 26 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Moorhead weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Moorhead
- Moorhead Area Public SchoolsSchool district997FTE
- City of MoorheadExecutive offices, federal, state, and local412
- Eventide MoorheadService-nursing home385
- American Crystal Sugar Company MoorheadRaw beet sugar manufacturing365
- Clay County - Family Service CenterGeneral public administration227
- PactivAll other converted paper product manufacturing163
- Menards"home centers"153
- D&M IndustriesDoors and door frames merchant wholesalers130
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 39 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,541 people in all. School districts come 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 wavesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Moorhead’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 Clay County and the Fargo, ND-MN metro.
Moorhead home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Moorhead$291,109
- 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 3 Moorhead listings, and the typical home goes pending in 31 days — the market is cooling.
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.
- Moorhead30.38%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Moorhead31
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Moorhead221
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Moorhead63
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Moorhead$280,922
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Moorhead99.29%
Zip codes with a Moorhead address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Moorhead — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.