All homes and bedroom counts
Markets / North Dakota / Grand Forks
RENTAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Grand Forks, ND
Grand Forks merits investigation by investors prioritizing rent momentum and household affordability, but buyers unable to tolerate water exposure or requiring strong employment and migration support should avoid it.
Median price$282k
Median rent$1,148
Gross yield4.9%
Job growth▲ 0.3%
Composite Market ScoreRank #84 of 571 scored US market areas
Direct rental answer
How much is rent in Grand Forks, ND?
Zillow's metro-wide Observed Rent Index is $1,148 per month for 2026-06-30. That is up 7.87% from a year earlier.
Occupied rental units paying rent
Two-bedroom standard
These figures are not averaged together. Zillow and Realtor describe asking-rent markets, ACS measures rent paid by surveyed households, and HUD publishes administrative bedroom standards.
Exact county schedules
HUD rent benchmarks inside Grand Forks
Every row keeps its own county FIPS schedule. No county is selected as a metro proxy and no synthetic metro FMR is calculated.
| County | Studio | 1 BR | 2 BR | 3 BR | 4 BR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Forks County, NDFIPS 38035 | $863 | $868 | $1,089 | $1,515 | $1,827 |
| Polk County, MNFIPS 27119 | $863 | $868 | $1,089 | $1,515 | $1,827 |
The read
Why this market scores where it does
Grand Forks merits investigation by investors prioritizing rent momentum and household affordability, but buyers unable to tolerate water exposure or requiring strong employment and migration support should avoid it. Median asking rent is $1,148 after 7.87% year-over-year growth, while the median home value is $282,435.
Affordability supports the case: rent equals 19.72% of median household income, and the price-to-income ratio is 4.04. Yet the 4.88% gross yield is a screening figure, not a net return; expenses, vacancy, financing, and property condition are not published.
The demand evidence is mixed. CES employment grew only 0.25%, tax filings show net migration of -299 households, and the per-thousand permitting measure is 3.03. Inland flood is the dominant hazard. A buyer should underwrite tenant depth, the local pipeline, flood exposure, and insurance at the property level before treating the rent signal as durable.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
Is rent growth outpacing home-value growth?
Yes. 7.87% minus 7.32% equals a calculated 0.55 percentage-point gap.
How much permitting is recorded?
The record reports 314 permits and a per-thousand rate of 3.03; unit mix and submarket locations are not published.
How much purchase activity is linked to non-occupants?
Non-occupants represent 10.14% of purchase mortgages. The record lists 1,035 total purchases.
Investor Quick Takeaways
Gross Yield: 4.9%
Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.
Rent Momentum: ▲ 7.87%
Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.
Investor Activity: 10.1%
Originated investment purchase share (CFPB HMDA).
Climate Exposure: FEMA NRI
Annualized loss ratio evaluated for flood & hurricane risk.
Put the evidence to work
Test the market, then test the deal
Keep Grand Forks as the starting point or move into a more specific property and rent check.
Run cash flowStarts with this market's measured price and rentSave to shortlistCompare this metro with up to four other placesCheck rent by ZIPMove from metro context to a local rent benchmarkFind a comparison marketRead a curated two-market decision analysisShare this analysisEmail the canonical link without adding page scriptsReport a data issueSend the figure, source and release period to review
Market pulse
The current market in eight signals
Fast-moving Redfin conditions sit beside the slower fundamentals so a buyer can separate today's negotiating climate from the long-run investment case.
Months of supplyn/aRedfin unavailable
Median days on marketn/aRedfin unavailable
Listings with price dropsn/aRedfin unavailable
Sale-to-list ration/aRedfin unavailable
Home value growth▲ 7.3%Zillow ZHVI · trailing 12 months
Rent growth▲ 7.87%Zillow ZORI · trailing 12 months
Gross rental yield4.9%Rent × 12 ÷ price
Payroll job growth▲ 0.3%CES · 12m to 2026-06
Release-to-release evidence
What actually changed
This comparison exists because at least one underlying source period advanced. Rebuilding the same data never creates a new observation.
Published score held steady65→65
0 ptsThe published component scores did not move in this release.
Weights were unchanged at metro-2026-07-v2-omb2023, so the movement comes from refreshed evidence and percentile ranks.
The named source periods advanced, but the measured values on this page held steady.
The one chart
Rents versus prices, indexed to 2019
Both series start at 100. The gap between the lines is the investment case, and which line is closing it tells you what kind of market this is.
Reindexed Price vs. Rent Growth
2019 = 100 · annual · 2019–2026
Since 2019, prices are up 33% and rents 38%. Rents running ahead of prices is what lifts yield. ✓ recomputed from series
Composite breakdown
What each component measures
Weights are published, not hidden, and the arithmetic is shown. Five components, each measured as a national percentile across all tracked metros.
Published arithmeticComponent × weight = points
65| Signal | Score | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job growth | 56 | 30% | 16.80 |
| Rent trend | 91 | 25% | 22.75 |
| Affordability | 83 | 15% | 12.45 |
| Supply pressure | 33 | 15% | 4.95 |
| Climate risk | 56 | 15% | 8.40 |
| Published score | 65 | ||
Grand Forks, ND scoreRank #84
65Job growth56/100
Job: CES employment grew 0.25% year over year -> employment provides only modest demand support.
Rent trend91/100
Rent: Median asking rent grew 7.87% year over year -> income potential merits closer underwriting, without establishing future growth.
Affordability83/100
Affordability: Rent is 19.72% of median income and home value is 4.04 times income -> household affordability supports the investment case.
Supply pressure33/100
Supply: 314 permits and a 3.03 per-thousand rate -> buyers need unit-type and submarket pipeline detail, which is not published.
Climate risk56/100
Climate: Inland flood is the dominant hazard and the loss ratio is 0.1314% -> property-level flood and insurance review is necessary.
The numbers
What this market costs and what it earns
Every derived ratio below recomputes from the same source record used by the article and score.
ZHVI Median Price
$282k
YoY ▲ 7.3%
ZORI Median Rent
$1,148
YoY ▲ 7.87%
Gross Rental Yield
4.9%
Rent × 12 ÷ price
$1,148 × 12 ÷ $282,435
Job Growth (YoY)
▲ 0.3%
CES payrolls
Job signal 56/100
Median Household Income
$70k
Census ACS 5-year
Rent Burden
19.7%
Annual rent ÷ household income
Price-to-Income
4.0x
Median value ÷ household income
HUD 2BR Fair Market Rent
$1,089
Market rent 105.4% of FMR
Historical affordability context
Compare aligned 2019 and 2024 asking-rent and nominal household-income endpoints across the direct-overlap metro set.
Independent rent evidence
One market, several legitimate rent benchmarks
These releases observe different homes and different moments. RentMarker keeps them separate: ZORI remains the scoring baseline, while the other sources test how sensitive the market story is to bedroom mix and measurement method.
Monthly benchmark4 of 4 reported values
Zero-based scale$1,148Primary RentMarker baseline
2026-06-30
All homes and bedroom counts
A smoothed metro rent index for observed rentals; it is the primary rent used by RentMarker scores and career ratios.
View source release ↗$868−$280 vs ZORI
FY2026 FMR
One-bedroom standard
An administrative gross-rent benchmark used by HUD programs; it is neither a listing median nor a prediction of one lease.
View source release ↗$1,089−$59 vs ZORI
FY2026 FMR
Two-bedroom standard
An administrative gross-rent benchmark used by HUD programs; it is neither a listing median nor a prediction of one lease.
View source release ↗$967−$181 vs ZORI
ACS 2024 5-year
Occupied rental units paying rent
A five-year survey estimate of contract rent plus applicable tenant-paid utilities; it is not a current asking-rent index.
View source release ↗Take the next step
Keep Grand Forks as context, then replace market-wide evidence with the candidate property's facts.
Direct local rental evidence
Recent leases and rental-market liquidity in Grand Forks, ND
These Apartment List observations match the exact metro CBSA code 24220. They are kept separate from Zillow asking rent, Census occupied-home rent and property-level comparables.
Direct recent-lease rent history
Monthly overall-rent index; missing observations are not filled from another geography.
Recent-lease rent$1,1762026-07 · +5.1% year over year
Rental vacancyn/an/a
Time on marketn/an/a
Regional price level
What feels expensive inside Grand Forks
BEA compares each category with the United States, which equals 100. This is a 2024 price-level comparison—not annual inflation.
BEA Regional Price Parities · 2024US = 100
Occupation wage lens
How asking rent sits against major local occupations
Annualized Zillow asking rent is divided by each BLS annual median wage. This is a screening ratio for one wage, not a household budget or affordability verdict.
Six largest published major groupsannual rent ÷ median wage
Office and Administrative Support Occupations$47,630 median wage
28.9%
Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations$32,220 median wage
42.8%
Transportation and Material Moving Occupations$45,860 median wage
30.0%
Sales and Related Occupations$36,230 median wage
38.0%
Educational Instruction and Library Occupations$60,670 median wage
22.7%
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations$79,070 median wage
17.4%
Supply pipeline
What is being built, and for whom
Permits are the 12-to-24 month early warning. The total matters less than the mix: apartments compete with a rental the day they open.
National supply context
Compare this authorization pipeline with asking-rent growth, jobs and for-sale liquidity across the evidence-complete metro set.
Building permits by structure type
units per year · latest year annualised
314 units authorised in 2026, 24% of them in 5+ unit buildings. A meaningful share is apartments, which discount first when they lease up. ✓ recomputed from series
Who is arriving, and who is buying
Demand, and the competition for it
Tax filings say how many households moved and what they earn; mortgage disclosures say how many local purchases went to someone who will not live there. Moves between counties inside this metro are netted out of both flow figures.
Net Household Move
−299
2,645 in vs 2,944 out (IRS SOI)
▼ 11.3% of arriving households
Mover Income Gap
−$6,894
Arriving $51,121 vs leaving $58,015
Average AGI per tax return (IRS SOI)
Investor Purchase Share
10.1%
105 of 1,035 originated purchase loans
CFPB HMDA 2024
Dominant Hazard
inland flooding
0.131% building value annual loss ratio
FEMA NRI · risk type: water
Compare yield and FEMA exposure →Households arrive mainly from: Cass County · Walsh County · Hennepin County · Pennington County · Traill County
✓ 2,645 in − 2,944 out = -299 netDirect market links
Where tax-return households moved from and to
These are the largest flows where both counties map to a RentMarker market area. They are a documented subset of the all-US IRS totals above.
Leading inbound markets
- Fargo, ND259 arriving
- Minneapolis, MN62 arriving
- Bemidji, MN47 arriving
Leading outbound markets
- Fargo, ND449 leaving
- Minneapolis, MN205 leaving
- Bismarck, ND48 leaving
The other side
What would make this a bad buy
Generated from the same figures with the instruction to argue against the score, and published unedited. A page that only agrees with itself is an advertisement.
Three ways the case breaks
- CES employment grew 0.25% year over year, offering limited evidence of an expanding employment base.
- Tax filings show 2,944 households moved out versus 2,645 moved in, a net loss of 299; outgoing movers also had higher average income.
- Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and the reported climate loss ratio is 0.1314% of building value per year.
Inside this metro area
Move from the market-area average to local evidence
Use the available county and city pages to add local price, rent, housing, migration and hazard context to the market-area view.
Statistical peers
Market areas that behave like Grand Forks
Nearest neighbours on price level, income, yield and job growth — not on geography. Every market page gets a different peer set, which is the point.
| Market area | Score | Price | Rent | Yield | Job Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Forks, ND (Target) | 65 | $282k | $1,148 | 4.9% | ▲ 0.3% |
| Cape Girardeau, MO | 56 | $235k | $965 | 4.9% | ▲ 0.2% |
| Lawrence, KS | 64 | $344k | $1,294 | 4.5% | ▲ 0.2% |
| Fond du Lac, WI | 83 | $297k | $1,173 | 4.7% | ▲ 0.6% |
| Lewiston, ME | 60 | $338k | $1,522 | 5.4% | ▲ 0.3% |
Provenance
Where every figure came from
“Checked nightly” means every source is re-pulled and re-verified each night. It does not mean every source moves nightly — the release column tells you how fresh each number can possibly be.
| Dataset Source | Method | Release Period | Pulled Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Census ACS 5-year — household income and gross rent | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-08-05 |
| Census ACS 5-year — historical household income | direct | ACS 2019 and 2024 5-year | 2026-08-05 |
| Census ACS 5-year — population | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-26 |
| Apartment List Rent Estimates — recent-lease rent index | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| Apartment List Time on Market — listing liquidity | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| Apartment List Vacancy Index — rental vacancy | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| BEA County Personal Income — income and population | direct | 2024 County Personal Income (released 2026-02-05); history 1969-2024 | 2026-08-03 |
| BEA Regional Price Parities — metropolitan price levels | direct | 2024 Regional Price Parities (released 2026-02-19); history 2008-2024 | 2026-08-03 |
| BLS CES — payroll employment | direct | CES SM current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS LAUS — resident employment | direct | LAUS current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS OEWS — occupation employment and wages | direct | May 2025 OEWS estimates (released 2026-05-15) | 2026-08-03 |
| BLS QCEW — county employment and wages | direct | annual county employment and wages 2021-2025; latest 2025 vs 2024 | 2026-08-02 |
| OMB/BLS delineation — metro geography | direct | OMB July 2023 delineation | 2026-07-30 |
| Census Building Permits Survey — permitted units | direct | BPS through 2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| Census ACS 5-year — city population, households and housing | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-29 |
| Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| Census ACS five-year — ZCTA housing and income | direct | ACS 2024 5-year ZCTA | 2026-08-08 |
| FEMA National Risk Index — hazard loss ratios | modelled | NRI counties (FEMA ArcGIS) | 2026-07-26 |
| FHFA House Price Index — annual county appreciation | direct | annual county HPI history 1975-2025; latest 2025 | 2026-08-02 |
| HMDA / CFPB — purchases by occupancy type | direct | HMDA 2024 purchase originations | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD CHAS — renter burden by HAMFI income band | direct | HUD CHAS 2018-2022 ACS 5-year (released 2025-12-23) | 2026-08-03 |
| HUD Fair Market Rents — Section 8 standard | direct | FY2026 FMR | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD USPS crosswalk and Small Area FMRs — ZIP rent fallback | direct | ZIP-CBSA 2025Q4 + SAFMR FY2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD-USPS ZIP-to-county residential-address crosswalk | direct | HUD-USPS 2026Q1 | 2026-08-09 |
| IRS SOI — county migration and mover income | direct | SOI migration 2022-2023 | 2026-07-26 |
| Freddie Mac PMMS — mortgage rates | direct | week of 2026-07-30 | 2026-08-06 |
| Census ACS 5-year — effective property tax | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-08-06 |
| Realtor.com Economic Research — county listing inventory | direct | county inventory 2026-06 | 2026-07-28 |
| Realtor.com Rental Report — top-50 asking rents | direct | top-50 rental asking rents 2026-05 | 2026-08-05 |
| Redfin Data Center — inventory, days on market, and price cuts | direct | metro tracker through 2026-05-01 | 2026-07-26 |
| Redfin Data Center — ZIP resale activity and supply | direct | ZIP rolling 3 months through 2026-06-30; updated 2026-07-03 | 2026-08-12 |
| USDA ERS — Rural-Urban Continuum Codes | direct | USDA ERS 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes | 2026-08-02 |
| Zillow ZHVI and ZORI — county values and rents | direct | county ZHVI/ZORI 2026-06 | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — metro home values | direct | Metro_zhvi_uc_sfrcondo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — city home values | direct | zillow_zhvi_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI — metro market rents | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZORI — city market rents | direct | zillow_zori_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI - metro market rents, not seasonally adjusted | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_month.csv | 2026-08-15 |
| Zillow ZORI — ZIP market rents | direct | ZORI ZIP 2026-06 | 2026-08-08 |