Princeton, Minnesota.
Typical home $373,791 (+2.7% in a year). Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,045 (+114%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $9,907 +3%
- $363,884$373,791 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $59,849 +19%
- $313,943$373,791 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.
- Princeton$1,962
- Minnesota$1,831
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 20 years.
Typical home values in Princeton, MN rose 2.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Princeton, Mille Lacs County, Minnesota
Princeton is a city of 4,819 people in Mille Lacs County. Half its households earn more than $62,219 a year and half less, against $72,729 across Mille Lacs County; 8% of its people live below the poverty line. 62% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 38% are rented. Unemployment in Mille Lacs County was 5.8% in August 2026, and the county had 1.3% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Princeton is a small city in Mille Lacs County, Minnesota, with a population that sits on the younger side compared with many towns read about on this page. Household incomes here run below the county's, and a modest share of residents live below the poverty line. Most homes are lived in by their owners, though not by as wide a margin as in some places, and typical home values are fairly high. Winters are cold, with January highs and lows well below freezing, and summers are warm in July. Snowfall is heavy through the season, and the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by manufacturing, shops and professional and business services. The biggest workplaces in Princeton include the Princeton Public School District, Walmart and Fairview Northland REG, a general hospital. Relatively few adults hold a four-year degree, and few work from home, so most people travel to a job, with a commute somewhat longer than a quick trip across town. Unemployment across Mille Lacs County is higher than it was a year ago, while the number of jobs in the county has grown a little.
Things to do. Fog Lake lies in or beside town, an easy place for a walk by the water. A short drive away are Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area of open land and wildlife, and Rice Lake, a lake that is also close by. Babcock Memorial Park, a park, is a longer drive away, as are several rivers, including the Rum River.
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- 2,039households
- 14%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Mille Lacs County had 9,490 jobs in 2025, 1.3% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 22° and lows near 4°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 59°. About 49 inches of snow and 31 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Santiago East weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Princeton
- Princeton Public School DistrictSchool district401FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters341
- Fairview Northland REGGeneral hospital286FTE
- United States Distilled ProductsBeverages, liquors, manufacturing262
- Elim WellspringAssisted-living facilities with on-site nursing facilities216
- Erdman AutomationGlass making machinery manufacturing209
- Plastic Products Co., Inc. - PrincetonAwnings, rigid plastics or fiberglass, manufacturing127
- Fairview Health Services120
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 14 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,205 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Princeton’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 Mille Lacs County and the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI metro.
Princeton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Princeton$373,791
- Minnesota$348,778
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Princeton listings, and the typical home goes pending in 32 days — 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.
- Princeton26.66%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Princeton61
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Princeton15
Zip codes with a Princeton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Princeton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Princeton
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55371 | Princeton | 18,103 | — | $371,757 |
| 56353 | Milaca | 9,546 | — | $323,057 |