Editor’s Note: This is not investment advice, and we are not financial advisers.
Suppose real estate is the most significant investment a majority of people make in their lifetime. In that case, it’s best to understand the places in North Dakota with best potential return on investment.
After working in real estate adjacent roles for over a decade, I had the hypothesis that the best place to buy for a return on investment would be up-and-coming cities. Smaller cities where crime might be high now, but people still move to.
To test my hypothesis, we are going to look at places in North Dakota that are growing faster than average, but where home prices are below average, and crime rates are higher than average.
In everyday terms, these might be “deals”. The best deal in North Dakota at the moment according to Saturday Night Science? That would be Valley City.
-0.2% population growth · -0.1% home price growth
Valley City is a city in Barnes County, North Dakota, United States. It is the county seat of Barnes County. The population was 6,585 during the 2010 census, making it the thirteenth largest city in North Dakota. Valley City was founded in 1874.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
0.4% population growth · 0.2% home price growth
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
1.9% population growth · -1.6% home price growth
Located in
Ramsey County, North Dakota
Devils Lake is a city in Ramsey County, North Dakota, United States. It is the county seat of Ramsey County. The population was 7,141 at the 2010 census. It is named after the nearby body of water, Devils Lake. The first house in Devils Lake was built in 1882. It was surveyed in 1883 and named Creelsburg and later Creel City, after the surveyor, Heber M. Creel. In 1884 it was renamed Devils Lake.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
0.2% population growth · 0.4% home price growth
Located in
Richland County, North Dakota
Wahpeton is a city in Richland County, in southeastern North Dakota, United States. It is located along the Bois de Sioux River at its confluence with the Otter Tail River, forming the Red River of the North. Wahpeton is the county seat of Richland County. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city’s 2015 population was 7,899.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
0.1% population growth · -0.6% home price growth
Located in
Stutsman County, North Dakota
Jamestown is a city in Stutsman County, North Dakota, United States. It is the county seat of Stutsman County. The population was 15,427 at the 2010 census, making it the ninth largest city in North Dakota. Jamestown was founded in 1872.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
0.9% population growth · 0.5% home price growth
Located in
Morton County, North Dakota
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
0.6% population growth · 0.7% home price growth
Located in
Stark County, North Dakota
Dickinson is a city in Stark County, North Dakota, United States. It is the county seat of Stark County. The population was 17,787 at the 2010 census. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated 2015 population is 23,765.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
0.3% population growth · 0.1% home price growth
Located in
Williams County, North Dakota
Williston is a city in and the county seat of Williams County, North Dakota, United States. The 2010 census gave its population as 14,716, and the Census Bureau gave the 2015 estimated population as 26,977, making Williston the sixth largest city in North Dakota. The North Dakota oil boom is largely responsible for the sharp increase in population.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
2.0% population growth · -1.4% home price growth
Located in
Cass County, North Dakota
West Fargo is a city in Cass County, North Dakota, United States. It is, as of the 2016 Census Estimates, the fifth largest city in the state of North Dakota with a population estimated at 34,858, and it is one of the state’s fastest growing cities. West Fargo was founded in 1926. The city is part of the Fargo-Moorhead, ND-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
-0.3% population growth · 0.5% home price growth
Located in
Ward County, North Dakota
Minot MY-not) is a city in and the county seat of Ward County, North Dakota, United States, in the state’s north-central region. It is most widely known for the Air Force base located approximately 15 miles north of the city. With a population of 40,888 at the 2010 census, Minot is the fourth largest city in the state and a trading center for a large portion of northern North Dakota, southwestern Manitoba, and southeastern Saskatchewan. Founded in 1886 during the construction of the Great Northern Railway, Minot is also known as “Magic City”, commemorating its remarkable growth in size over a short time.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is North Dakota’s statewide median.
North Dakota statewide median: $284,076
On the map
Where North Dakota’s best buys are
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How do you determine the best places to buy a home in North Dakota for 2026?
We were in real estate for almost five years and have worked on this site for over a decade. Suffice it to say we’ve put a lot of thought into finding an excellent place to buy a home.
So all that thinking has come to this moment where we get to spell out how we’d approach finding an up-and-coming place to live in North Dakota. Put differently, the analysis will try to find places in North Dakota with undervalued homes relative to pent-up demand using Saturday Night Science.
To do that, we looked at the most recent American Community Survey Census data for 2020-2024 and compared it to the previous vintage. Specifically, we used the following criteria:
- Y-o-Y Change In Population (People want to live here)
- Y-o-Y Change In Median Home Prices (People are willing to pay for it)
- Home Prices Relative To The State Average (It’s still kinda cheap)
We want places that are growing, have seen home prices increase in recent years, and are still “cheap” for North Dakota, with these caveats: home prices had to be within 20% of the state average, home prices increased in the last year, and the city had above 6,000 people.
So of the 392 cities and towns in North Dakota, only 13 places made it through our initial filters to even be considered.
We then ranked each place from 1 to 13 for the above criteria, with 1 being the best. We averaged the rankings to create a “best place to buy” index, with the place having the lowest index being the best.
Turns out that Valley City is the best potential gem in the not-so-rough in the Peace Garden State.
The full plate
Best Places To Buy A Home In North Dakota
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Population | Median Home Price | Population Change | Home Price Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Valley City | 6,541 | $195,115 | -0.2% | -0.1% |
| 2 | Watford City | 6,039 | $378,062 | 0.4% | 0.2% |
| 3 | Devils Lake | 7,308 | $236,273 | 1.9% | -1.6% |
| 4 | Wahpeton | 8,010 | $229,172 | 0.2% | 0.4% |
| 5 | Jamestown | 15,787 | $208,863 | 0.1% | -0.6% |
| 6 | Mandan | 24,522 | $341,688 | 0.9% | 0.5% |
| 7 | Dickinson | 25,357 | $319,458 | 0.6% | 0.7% |
| 8 | Williston | 28,056 | $365,979 | 0.3% | 0.1% |
| 9 | West Fargo | 40,094 | $348,751 | 2.0% | -1.4% |
| 10 | Minot | 47,791 | $272,695 | -0.3% | 0.5% |
| 11 | Grand Forks | 59,042 | $291,535 | 0.3% | 2.1% |
| 12 | Bismarck | 75,556 | $369,559 | 1.9% | 1.6% |
| 13 | Fargo | 131,627 | $314,973 | 2.0% | -0.5% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024 via Saturday Night Science. 13 North Dakota cities cleared the filters.
Summary
Summary: The Best Places To Purchase A House In North Dakota for 2026
There’s our analysis of the best places to buy a house in North Dakota. And, to be clear, we aren’t necessarily saying these places are the best places to live, just that it looks like they might be in a couple of years based on the data.
In fact, every place in the following table meets our criteria, so even though it may not look super long, remember we started off with all 392 places in the state.
The best cities to buy a house in North Dakota are Valley City, Watford City, Devils Lake, Wahpeton, Jamestown, Mandan, Dickinson, Williston, West Fargo, and Minot.
So if we could rent or buy in these cities, we’d definitely buy.
