Watkins, Minnesota.
Typical home $315,055 (+5.1% in a year). St. Cloud, MN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$891 (+117%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $15,410 +5%
- $299,645$315,055 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $53,296 +20%
- $261,759$315,055 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.
- Watkins$1,654
- Minnesota$1,831
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 19 years.
Typical home values in Watkins, MN rose 5.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Watkins, Meeker County, Minnesota
Watkins is a city of 991 people in Meeker County. 67% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 33% are rented. Unemployment in Meeker County was 4.9% in August 2026, and the county had 2.5% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Watkins is a small city in Meeker County, Minnesota, where most homes are lived in by their owners and the typical home is worth more than many would expect for a town this size. Residents are somewhat older than in much of the country, and few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, and summers are mild to warm, with July the warmest.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, the building trades and shops also employing a good share. Across Meeker County, some of the largest workplaces are Bobcat, Meeker County Memorial Hospital and the Litchfield Public School District. Unemployment across the county is a little higher than a year ago, and the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before. Commutes are fairly long, and few people work from home.
Things to do. Clear Lake and Birch Lakes State Forest are both a short drive away, for time by the water or among the trees. Lake Maria State Park, a protected area, is a longer drive away. The biggest ball of twine, a well-known tourist attraction, is also a longer drive away.
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- 319households
- 8%of adults have a degree
- 11%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Meeker County had 7,838 jobs in 2025, 2.5% fewer 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 79° and lows near 60°. About 31 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Kimball 3N weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Meeker County
- BobcatConstruction-type tractors and attachments manufacturing293
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters244
- Cretex Medical - Component and Device TechnologiesMachine shops237
- Litchfield Public School DistrictSchool district217FTE
- Monroe Towmaster LLC (5300)Flatbed trailers, commercial, manufacturing209
- Meeker County Memorial HospitalCritical access hospital187FTE
- Premier Health Care ManagementSkilled nursing facilities170
- Custom Products Of LitchfieldSkids, metal, manufacturing127
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 45 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,875 people in all across the county; Watkins has two of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (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
- Strong windVery high
- HailRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Watkins’ census tracts, 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 Meeker County and the St. Cloud, MN metro.
Watkins home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Watkins$315,055
- 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.
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.
- Watkins8
Zip codes with a Watkins address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Watkins — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.