Shafer, Minnesota.
Typical home $352,270 (+2.7% in a year). Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$859 (+87%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $9,368 +3%
- $342,902$352,270 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $25,704 +8%
- $326,566$352,270 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.
- Shafer$1,849
- Minnesota$1,831
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 46 years.
Typical home values in Shafer, MN rose 2.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Shafer, Chisago County, Minnesota
Shafer is a city of 1,142 people in Chisago County. Half its households earn more than $99,489 a year and half less, against $99,400 across Chisago County; 8% of its people live below the poverty line. 84% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 16% are rented. Unemployment in Chisago County was 4.9% in August 2026, and the county had 1.1% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Shafer is a small city in Chisago County, home to a young population by the standards of many American towns. Nearly everyone who lives here owns their home, and household incomes are about level with the county's. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers turn warm in July and the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops and the building trades also employing many. Across Chisago County, some of the largest workplaces are the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation in Center City, the Chisago Lakes School District and M Health Fairview Lakes Medical Center. Commutes tend to be long, and fewer people work from home than not.
Things to do. Franconia Sculpture Park, a museum of outdoor art, sits in or beside town, as does Bloom Lake. A short drive away are the Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway, a protected stretch of river, and Wild River State Park. Wild Mountain, a ski area, is also a short drive away, which suits the snowy winters.
Report a mistake
- 431households
- 21%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 40 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Chisago County had 16,270 jobs in 2025, 1.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 23° and lows near 3°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 61°. About 43 inches of snow and 30 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the St. Croix Falls weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Chisago County
- Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation - Center CityAlcoholism rehabilitation facilities, residential929
- Chisago Lakes School DistrictSchool district458FTE
- M Health Fairview Lakes Medical CentGeneral hospital446FTE
- Rosenbauer Minnesota336211 motor vehicle body manufacturing402
- North Branch Area Public SchoolsSchool district314FTE
- Lakes Gas CoLiquefied petroleum gas dealers, direct selling307
- AndersenWindows and window frames, vinyl, manufacturing224
- Rosenbauer Group336211 motor vehicle body manufacturing184
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 52 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 6,050 people in all across the county; Shafer has none of its own. 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
- HailRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Shafer’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 Chisago County and the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI metro.
Shafer home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Shafer$352,270
- 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.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Shafer6
Zip codes with a Shafer address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Shafer — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.