Tower City, North Dakota.
Typical home $240,319 (+8.7% in a year). Fargo, ND-MN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$328 (+35%) since Feb 2022.
- 1 year
- Up $19,317 +9%
- $221,002$240,319 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.
- Tower City$1,261
- North Dakota$1,526
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in Tower City, ND rose 8.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Tower City, Barnes County, North Dakota
Tower City is a city of 268 people in Barnes County. Half its households earn more than $108,958 a year and half less, against $68,038 across Barnes County; 8% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in Barnes County was 2.1% in August 2026, and the county had 1.1% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then farming.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Tower City is a very small city in Barnes County, North Dakota, and it is one of the smaller places a person could choose to live in the state. Household incomes here run well above the county's, and a smaller share of people live below the poverty line than you might expect. Homes carry a typical value that is modest, and winters are cold: January brings highs well below freezing and lows below zero, while July is warm. Rain and melted snow add up to a fairly dry year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by farming, forestry and mining, then manufacturing and shops. Across Barnes County, some of the largest workplaces are Valley City State University, John Deere Seeding Group Valley City and Valley City 2 Schools. The typical commute is a fairly short drive, and few people work from home. Unemployment across the county is low and a touch lower than a year ago, though the county had slightly fewer jobs last year than the year before.
Things to do. The open country around Tower City suits people who like quiet outdoor places, though each one is a longer drive away. Fort Ransom State Park is a protected area for walking and enjoying the landscape. Hobart Lake National Wildlife Refuge and Stoney Slough National Wildlife Refuge are protected areas set aside for wildlife, and the Amphitheater and Fieldstone WPA Features at Valley City Pioneer Park is a garden to visit in the warmer months.
Report a mistake
- 133households
- 30%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Barnes County had 4,426 jobs in 2025, 1.1% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 18° and lows near -2°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 57°. About 21 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Valley City Nnw weather station, 16 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Barnes County
- Valley City State UniversityUniversity or college293
- Sisters of Mary of the PresentationHomes for the aged with nursing care252
- John Deere Seeding Group Valley CityFarm tractors and attachments manufacturing243
- Open Door CenterIntellectual and developmental disability facilities, residential197
- Valley City 2 SchoolsSchool district125FTE
- Grotberg ElectricElectric contracting82
- Archer Daniels Midland Company60
- Leevers Foods Valley City NorthFood stores55
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 14 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,165 people in all across the county; Tower City has one of its own. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and school districts 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 windVery high
- HailVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Tower City’s 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 Barnes County and the Fargo, ND-MN metro.
Tower City home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Tower City$240,319
- 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 Tower City address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Tower City — 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.