River Falls, Wisconsin.
Typical home $415,404 (+3.6% in a year), asking rent $1,771 (+4.5%). Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,118 (+105%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $14,303 +4%
- $401,101$415,404 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $68,942 +20%
- $346,462$415,404 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.
- River Falls$2,180
- Wisconsin$1,770
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 19 years.
Typical home values in River Falls, WI rose 3.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in River Falls, WI rose 4.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in River Falls runs $1,326/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $1,351 in May 2024.
That is $3,097 a month against $1,771 rent: a $2,180 mortgage payment, plus $472 property tax and $445 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — River Falls
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$3,097
- Renting$1,771
- Mortgage only$2,180
Property tax · $472/mo 1.36% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Pierce County, WI
Insurance & upkeep · $445/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 River Falls, Pierce County, Wisconsin
River Falls is a city of 16,182 people in Pierce County. Half its households earn more than $83,627 a year and half less, against $92,109 across Pierce County; 15% of its people live below the poverty line. 55% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 45% are rented. Unemployment in Pierce County was 3.4% in August 2026, and the county had 1.4% fewer 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. River Falls is a small city in Pierce County, Wisconsin, and a young one in character: the people who live here are noticeably younger than in most American towns, and a large share of adults hold a four-year degree. Fewer homes are lived in by their owners than across much of the country, so renting is common, and household incomes sit below the county's. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm in July.
Work. Schools, hospitals and social care employ more of the town's residents than anything else, followed by manufacturing, shops, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment. The University of Wisconsin-River Falls, the River Falls School District and River Falls Area Hospital are among the largest workplaces in town. Most people have a commute that is fairly short, and some work from home.
Things to do. The South Fork of the Kinnickinnic River runs in or beside town, and Kinnickinnic State Park and Afton State Park, both protected areas, are a short drive away. Afton Alps, a ski area, is also a short drive away, which suits the snowy winters. For a longer outing, Lake Pepin and the Saint Croix River are a longer drive away.
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- 5,754households
- 45%of adults have a degree
- 15%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 12%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Pierce County had 10,368 jobs in 2025, 1.4% fewer 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 82° and lows near 58°. About 34 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the River Falls weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in River Falls
- University of Wisconsin-River FallsUniversity or college777
- River Falls School DistrictSchool district419FTE
- River Falls Area HospitalCritical access hospital126FTE
- SpartanNashSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores113
- Kinnic Health and ReahbNursing homes96
- Fairview Health Services77
- Compass Group73
- MHC Group722511 full-service restaurants65
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 15 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,003 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), school districts 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 moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Pierce County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very 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 Pierce County and the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI metro.
River Falls home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- River Falls$415,404
- Wisconsin$337,196
- 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 4 River Falls listings — 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.
- River Falls25.21%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- River Falls74
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- River Falls20
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- River Falls$397,049
- United States$371,407
Zip codes with a River Falls address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls River Falls — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.