Sterling, North Dakota.
Typical home $231,155 (+19.1% in a year). Bismarck, ND metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$522 (+75%) since Feb 2022.
- 1 year
- Up $37,061 +19%
- $194,093$231,155 since Sep 2025
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.
- Sterling$1,213
- North Dakota$1,526
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Sterling, ND rose 19.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Sterling, Burleigh County, North Dakota
Sterling is a township of 160 people in Burleigh County. Unemployment in Burleigh County was 1.9% in August 2026, and the county had 0.6% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Burleigh County work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Sterling is a very small township in Burleigh County, North Dakota, home to a small community where neighbors are likely to know one another. Homes here are valued well below what the county's higher incomes might suggest, which tends to make the area a quiet and affordable corner of the Bismarck region. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and highs staying below freezing, while July brings warm summer days.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in professional and business services, and in government. Across Burleigh County, the largest workplaces include Sanford Bismarck, Bismarck 1 Schools and Doosan Bobcat Bismarck. Unemployment across the county is low and a little lower than a year earlier, and the number of jobs has edged up slightly.
Things to do. For time outdoors, the Heart River is a river a longer drive away, and Fort Abraham Lincoln is a protected area, also a longer drive away. Those interested in the region's history can visit Fort Rice, an old fort, or the Menoken Indian Village Site, an archaeological site, each a longer drive away. The Dakota Zoo, also a longer drive away, makes an easy outing with visitors.
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What people in Burleigh County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Burleigh County had 58,393 jobs in 2025, 0.6% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 23° and lows near 2°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° and lows near 59°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Moffit Southeast weather station, 13 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Burleigh County
- Sanford BismarckGeneral hospital2,815FTE
- Bismarck 1 SchoolsSchool district1,945FTE
- Doosan Bobcat BismarckManufacturing1,190
- St Alexius Medical CenterGeneral hospital844FTE
- Bismarck State CollegeUniversity or college636
- University of MaryUniversity or college546
- Missouri Slope Lutheran Care Center - WashingtonNursing homes432
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters403
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 93 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 13,580 people in all across the county; Sterling has none of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and colleges from IPEDS (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
- Winter weatherVery high
- Ice stormsVery high
- HailRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Burleigh County, 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 Burleigh County and the Bismarck, ND metro.
Sterling home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Sterling$231,155
- North Dakota$290,657
- 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 Sterling address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Sterling — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zillow publishes no zip-level series with this city on the address.