Westbrook, Minnesota.
Typical home $158,150 (+3.2% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$496 (+148%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $4,883 +3%
- $153,268$158,150 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $39,146 +33%
- $119,004$158,150 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.
- Westbrook$830
- Minnesota$1,831
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Westbrook, MN rose 3.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Westbrook, Cottonwood County, Minnesota
Westbrook is a city of 758 people in Cottonwood County. Half its households earn more than $35,119 a year and half less, against $72,941 across Cottonwood County; 26% of its people live below the poverty line. 62% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 38% are rented. Unemployment in Cottonwood County was 5.5% in August 2026, and the county had 0.5% 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Westbrook is a very small city in Cottonwood County, southwestern Minnesota, where daily life is lived at a small-town scale. Incomes run well below the county's, and more people live below the poverty line than you might expect, though most homes are still lived in by their owners. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and the typical trip to work is short, with only a handful working from home. Winters are cold and snowy, with January highs well below freezing, and summers turn warm in July, with a fair amount of rain and melted snow through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, and others work in farming, shops and the building trades. The largest workplaces in Westbrook are the Westbrook-Walnut Grove Schools, the Good Samaritan Society nursing facility and Sanford Medical Center Westbrook. Unemployment in the county is a little higher than it was a year ago, and the county has lost a few jobs over the past year.
Things to do. Several lakes lie a short drive away, including Double Lake and Hurricane Lake, which suit a quiet afternoon by the water. Lime Creek, a small river, is also close by. For a longer outing, Lake Shetek State Park is a protected area a longer drive away.
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- 390households
- 22%of adults have a degree
- 26%below the poverty line
- 15 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Cottonwood County had 4,821 jobs in 2025, 0.5% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 23° and lows near 5°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 61°. About 46 inches of snow and 29 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Lamberton Southwest Rsch & Outreach C weather station, 15 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Westbrook
- Westbrook-walnut Grove SchoolsSchool district110FTE
- Good Samaritan Society -WestbrookSkilled nursing facilities51
- Sanford Medical Center WestbrookCritical access hospital40FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 186 people in all. 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- Strong windVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- HailRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Westbrook’s 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 Cottonwood County.
Westbrook home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Westbrook$158,150
- Minnesota$348,778
- 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.
- Westbrook14
Zip codes with a Westbrook address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Westbrook — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.