Sauk Rapids, Minnesota.
Typical home $304,372 (+1.7% in a year), asking rent $1,098 . St. Cloud, MN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$853 (+115%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $5,043 +2%
- $299,329$304,372 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $58,906 +24%
- $245,466$304,372 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.
- Sauk Rapids$1,598
- Minnesota$1,831
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Sauk Rapids, MN rose 1.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Sauk Rapids, Benton County, Minnesota
Sauk Rapids is a city of 13,862 people in Benton County. Half its households earn more than $71,841 a year and half less, against $74,410 across Benton County; 7% of its people live below the poverty line. 61% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 39% are rented. Unemployment in Benton County was 5.2% in August 2026, and the county had 1.7% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Sauk Rapids is a city in Benton County, Minnesota, with a younger population than many older towns in the state. Incomes run a little below the county's, and a modest share of residents live below the poverty line. Most homes are lived in by their owners, though rentals are part of the picture too. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm, with July the warmest.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, retail, and professional and business services also employing many people. Among the largest workplaces in Sauk Rapids are Sauk Rapids-Rice Public Schools, J-Berd Mechanical Contractors and Berd Electric. Commutes are fairly short, and some people work from home. Unemployment in the county is higher than a year ago, and the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. A short drive away, Munsinger Gardens and Clemens Gardens make a pleasant botanical garden to stroll through, and Donovan Lake is a nearby spot for time by the water. The Watab River is also a short drive from town. For a longer outing, the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge is a protected area a longer drive away.
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- 5,656households
- 29%of adults have a degree
- 7%below the poverty line
- 19 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Benton County had 17,097 jobs in 2025, 1.7% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 21° and lows near 3°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 59°. About 48 inches of snow and 28 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the St. Cloud Regional Airport weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Sauk Rapids
- Sauk Rapids-rice Public SchoolsSchool district588FTE
- J-Berd Mechanical ContractorsPlumbing and heating contractors524
- Berd ElectricElectrical contractors249
- Rice CompaniesAddition, alteration and renovation for-sale builders, commercial and institutional building160
- Branding Iron HoldingsBoxed beef made from purchased carcasses140
- Coborn's Sauk Rapids115
- Custom EyesEyes, glass and plastics, manufacturing105
- Hardware DistributorsHandtools merchant wholesalers94
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 23 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,885 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively 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 Sauk Rapids’ 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 Benton County and the St. Cloud, MN metro.
Sauk Rapids home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Sauk Rapids$304,372
- 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 4 Sauk Rapids listings, and the typical home goes pending in 19 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.
- Sauk Rapids28.49%
- 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.
- Sauk Rapids61
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Sauk Rapids25
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Sauk Rapids$298,252
- United States$371,553
Zip codes with a Sauk Rapids address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Sauk Rapids — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.