Home prices in North Dakota and Fargo: median value, trend

What the median home value is

The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) asks owners how much they think their home would sell for if it were for sale. The median value in table B25077 is the middle answer among all owner-occupied homes in an area, from condos to large houses.

This is the owner’s own estimate. It is not a sale price, not an appraisal and not a list price. It covers every home that owners occupy, including homes bought decades ago, so it describes the existing stock rather than what buyers paid this year.

The latest one-year ACS estimates cover 2024. The Census Bureau plans to release the 2025 one-year estimates on October 29, 2026, so the figures below will change at that point.

How prices have moved: the FHFA index

The ACS gives a level. To see the trend, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) publishes a House Price Index built on repeat sales: it compares the prices of the same single-family homes each time they sell. FHFA’s flagship state and national indexes use seasonally adjusted, purchase-only data from mortgages bought or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The latest quarterly release, published August 25, 2026, covers the second quarter of 2026. FHFA publishes a purchase-only metro index only for the largest metro areas, and Fargo is not among them. For Fargo we use FHFA’s all-transactions index, which also counts appraisals from refinances and is not seasonally adjusted.

Source: FHFA House Price Index, quarterly files for the U.S. and states (purchase-only, seasonally adjusted) and for metropolitan areas (all-transactions). Changes calculated by Payotte from the published index values.

*The Fargo row uses a different series from the other two. Because both quarters compared are second quarters, the seasons cancel out, but do not compare the Fargo row to the others to the decimal.

North Dakota prices rose more than twice as fast as the national index over the past year. Over five years, the state gained 32.1%, close to the nation’s 33.4%, and the Fargo area gained slightly more.

A worked example

Take a Fargo-area home worth $290,000 in the second quarter of 2021. If it had followed the Fargo all-transactions index exactly, it would have been worth about $393,000 in the second quarter of 2026 (+35.6%). Over the last year alone, a $300,000 home would have gained about $12,700 (+4.2%). A single home can move very differently from the index: location, condition and renovations matter more than the average.

How to use these figures when buying

• Use the ACS median for budgets and comparisons between places. It is the only measure here that gives a dollar level for the state, the county and the city with the same method.
• Use the FHFA index for the direction of prices. It tells you whether prices in the area are rising or falling, not what a given home is worth.
• For a specific home, look at recent sales and the appraisal. Your lender orders an appraisal before it approves the loan; see our guide to home appraisal costs.

Closing costs come on top of the price. Our North Dakota closing costs guide explains who pays what, and our page on buying a home in Fargo applies these numbers to the city. First-time buyers can also check the North Dakota first-time buyer programs.

Method and dataset

ACS median value. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 1-Year Estimates, vintage 2024 (released in 2025), table B25077 “Median Value (Dollars)”, variable B25077_001E with margin of error B25077_001M. Universe: owner-occupied housing units. Geographies: United States (0100000US), North Dakota (0400000US38), Fargo, ND-MN metro area (310M700US22020), Cass County (0500000US38017), Fargo city (1600000US3825700). Values were read through the data.census.gov access API on October 13, 2026. The 2025 one-year estimates are scheduled for October 29, 2026.

FHFA index. FHFA House Price Index, quarterly files hpi_po_state.txt (North Dakota, purchase-only, seasonally adjusted), hpi_po_us_and_census.txt (USA, same basis) and hpi_at_metro (Fargo, ND-MN, CBSA 22020, all-transactions, not seasonally adjusted), release of August 25, 2026, data through the second quarter of 2026. Index values used: North Dakota 441.75 (Q2 2025), 350.41 (Q2 2021) and 462.97 (Q2 2026); United States 426.58, 326.58 and 435.69; Fargo 350.57, 269.42 and 365.43. Changes are the ratio of the Q2 2026 value to the earlier value, minus one. The U.S. one-year result (+2.1%) matches the figure in FHFA’s release. FHFA plans its next quarterly release, with third-quarter 2026 data, on November 24, 2026.