Underwood, North Dakota.
Typical home $160,356 (-2.5% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$376 (+81%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $4,049 -2%
- $164,405$160,356 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $22,035 +16%
- $138,321$160,356 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.
- Underwood$842
- North Dakota$1,526
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 23 years.
Typical home values in Underwood, ND fell 2.5% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Underwood, McLean County, North Dakota
Underwood is a city of 784 people in McLean County. 82% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 18% are rented. Unemployment in McLean County was 2.0% in August 2026, and the county had 3.7% more 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Underwood is a small city on the North Dakota plains, where nearly everyone knows one another and most homes are lived in by their owners, a good deal more than is typical across the country. Typical home values here are well below what many Americans pay, and the winters are long and cold, with a lot of snow, while summers turn pleasantly warm. Fewer adults here hold a four-year degree than is usual nationally.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in farming, forestry and mining, and in transport, warehouses and utilities, with government jobs close behind. Across McLean County, the largest workplaces include Rainbow Energy Center, Garrison 51 Schools and Washburn 4 Schools. The county's job count grew last year, and unemployment there is low. The typical commute is moderate, and few people work from home.
Things to do. Audubon National Wildlife Refuge is a protected area a short drive away, a place for watching birds and wildlife. Farther afield, Lake Sakakawea is a large reservoir, a longer drive away. Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site is an archaeological site, also a longer drive away, and a way to learn about the earlier peoples of the river country.
Report a mistake
- 336households
- 21%of adults have a degree
- 10%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. McLean County had 3,531 jobs in 2025, 3.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 19° and lows near 1°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 57°. About 39 inches of snow and 18 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Underwood weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in McLean County
- Rainbow Energy CenterElectric power generation, fossil fuel220
- Garrison 51 SchoolsSchool district65FTE
- Washburn 4 SchoolsSchool district60FTE
- Benedictine Living Community - GarrisonSkilled nursing facilities56
- Harvestone Low Carbon PartnersEthyl alcohol, nonpotable, manufacturing53
- Wilton 1 SchoolsSchool district51FTE
- Underwood 8 SchoolsSchool district50FTE
- White Shield 85 SchoolsSchool district49FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 581 people in all across the county; Underwood has one of its own. 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- Strong windVery high
- HailVery high
- Ice stormsVery high
- TornadoesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Underwood’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 McLean County.
Underwood home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Underwood$160,356
- 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.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Underwood8
Zip codes with a Underwood address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Underwood — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.