Thief River Falls, Minnesota.
Typical home $186,715 (-2.4% in a year), asking rent $1,228 .
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$295 (+43%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $4,654 -2%
- $191,369$186,715 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $10,205 -5%
- $196,920$186,715 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.
- Thief River Falls$980
- Minnesota$1,831
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Thief River Falls, MN fell 2.4% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Thief River Falls, Pennington County, Minnesota
Thief River Falls is a city of 8,749 people in Pennington County. Half its households earn more than $71,144 a year and half less, against $77,325 across Pennington County; 12% of its people live below the poverty line. 64% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 36% are rented. Unemployment in Pennington County was 5.3% in August 2026, and the county had 4.2% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in wholesale, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Thief River Falls is a small city in northwest Minnesota, with residents who are somewhat younger than in many towns of its size. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and household incomes run below the county's. Winters are long and cold, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm in July without turning extreme.
Work. Residents work mainly in wholesale, in schools, hospitals and social care, in manufacturing and in shops. The Thief River Falls School District and Northland Community and Technical College are among the largest workplaces in town, along with Northern Pride, a poultry processing plant. Unemployment across Pennington County has risen over the past year, and the county has fewer jobs than it did a year earlier. Getting to work takes little time, and a four-year degree is held by a minority of adults.
Things to do. The countryside around the town is wet and wild, and most of what is nearby is a longer drive away. Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge is the best known of the protected areas, and Old Mill State Park is another place to walk and watch wildlife. Thief Lake, also a longer drive away, offers open water for those who like to fish or paddle.
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- 4,198households
- 21%of adults have a degree
- 12%below the poverty line
- 10 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Pennington County had 9,386 jobs in 2025, 4.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 14° and lows near -3°; warmest in July, with highs near 80° and lows near 57°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Thief River Falls weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Thief River Falls
- Thief River Falls School DistrictSchool district262FTE
- Northland Community and Technical CollegeTwo-year college206
- Challeger Elem / PreschoolK-12 education131
- Northern PridePoultry slaughtering, dressing, and packing122
- District Wide - Mail OutK-12 education114
- Valley MarketsGrocery stores112
- Sanford Behavioral HealthPsychiatric hospital102FTE
- Lincoln High SchoolK-12 education78
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 17 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,139 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), colleges from IPEDS (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
- Winter weatherVery high
- Inland floodingVery high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Thief River Falls’ census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. 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 Pennington County.
Thief 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.
- Thief River Falls$186,715
- 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 Thief 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.
- Thief River Falls24.86%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Thief River Falls63
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Thief River Falls16
Zip codes with a Thief River Falls address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Thief River Falls — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.