Ostrander, Minnesota.
Typical home $283,774 (+5.6% in a year). Rochester, MN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$840 (+129%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $15,024 +6%
- $268,750$283,774 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $71,356 +34%
- $212,418$283,774 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.
- Ostrander$1,489
- 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 Ostrander, MN rose 5.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Ostrander, Fillmore County, Minnesota
Ostrander is a city of 231 people in Fillmore County. Half its households earn more than $74,063 a year and half less, against $77,512 across Fillmore County; 14% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in Fillmore County was 3.9% in August 2026, and the county had 1.0% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Fillmore County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Ostrander is a very small city in Fillmore County, in the hills of southeastern Minnesota. Household incomes run somewhat below the county's, and a share of residents live below the poverty line. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July brings the warmest days, and the year is fairly wet overall.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops and the building trades also employing many people. Across Fillmore County, some of the largest workplaces are Semcac, Chosen Valley Care Center and Strongwell. Unemployment across the county is a little higher than it was a year ago, and the county has fewer jobs than the year before.
Things to do. Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park, a protected area, is a short drive away, as is Lake Louise State Park, another protected area. Farther afield, a longer drive takes you to the Spam Museum, one of the better-known stops in the region.
Report a mistake
- 14%below the poverty line
What people in Fillmore County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Fillmore County had 6,170 jobs in 2025, 1.0% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 21° and lows near 5°; warmest in July, with highs near 79° and lows near 59°. About 51 inches of snow and 37 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Grand Meadow weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Fillmore County
- SemcacSocial service advocacy organizations264
- Chosen Valley Care CenterSkilled nursing facilities183
- Good Shepherd Lutheran HomeNursing homes138
- StrongwellSeptic tanks, plastics or fiberglass, manufacturing129
- ISDSchool districts, elementary or secondary111
- EZ FabricatingPlate work, fabricated metal, manufacturing106
- Spring Valley Living106
- Fillmore Central SchoolsSchool district104FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 23 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,913 people in all across the county; Ostrander has one of its own. 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
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Ostrander’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 Fillmore County and the Rochester, MN metro.
Ostrander home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Ostrander$283,774
- 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 Ostrander address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Ostrander — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.