Velva, North Dakota.
Typical home $228,279 (+5.2% in a year). Minot, ND metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$378 (+46%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $11,255 +5%
- $217,023$228,279 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $7,006 -3%
- $235,285$228,279 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.
- Velva$1,198
- North Dakota$1,526
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Velva, ND rose 5.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Velva, McHenry County, North Dakota
Velva is a city of 1,086 people in McHenry County. Half its households earn more than $83,060 a year and half less, against $80,733 across McHenry County; 8% of its people live below the poverty line. 78% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 22% are rented. Unemployment in McHenry County was 2.9% in August 2026, and the county had 1.0% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Velva is a small city in McHenry County, North Dakota, where most homes are lived in by their owners and incomes run a little above the county's. The population is young for a small town, and relatively few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are long and cold, with January highs well below freezing and lows below zero, plus a good deal of snow each year, while July is warm.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, transport and warehouses, and other services also employing many. Across McHenry County, some of the largest workplaces are Souris Valley Care Center, Archer Daniels Midland Company and the Velva school district. Few people work from home, and the typical commute is a moderate one.
Things to do. For time outdoors, Wintering River National Wildlife Refuge and Cottonwood Lake National Wildlife Refuge are protected areas, and Rice Lake is a lake, all a longer drive away. Scandinavian Heritage Park is a museum, also a longer drive away.
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- 411households
- 20%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 1%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. McHenry County had 1,311 jobs in 2025, 1.0% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 20° and lows near -3°; warmest in July, with highs near 80° and lows near 54°. About 41 inches of snow and 19 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Velva weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in McHenry County
- Souris Valley Care CenterGroup homes for the disabled with nursing care78
- Archer Daniels Midland Company75
- Velva 1 SchoolsSchool district68FTE
- TGU 60 SchoolsSchool district61FTE
- Anamoose 14 SchoolsSchool district20FTE
- Drake 57 SchoolsSchool district20FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 153 people in all across the county; Velva has two 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
- Ice stormsVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- WildfireRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Velva’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 McHenry County and the Minot, ND metro.
Velva home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Velva$228,279
- 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 Velva address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Velva — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.