Average rent in Minnesota:
improving absorption still needs a property-level test.

Minneapolis and Saint Paul postal groups within their counties

The county table pools more places than a city-name search. Separate the source’s Minneapolis-labeled ZIPs from other named places in Hennepin, and Saint Paul-labeled ZIPs from other named places in Ramsey. This changes the comparison before you make any adjustment for utilities or fees.

Use the Minneapolis rent lookup or Saint Paul rent lookup for those postal groups. The gap between these samples does not measure what the same home would cost across a boundary; property mix and sparse ZIP coverage also differ.

Twin Cities, Rochester and Duluth county-set ZIP medians

The Metropolitan Council’s seven-county planning region contains Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott and Washington. Those counties contribute 110 of 149 newest-month ZIPs (73.8%). This is not the larger Minneapolis–Saint Paul interstate metro area, and the table does not turn the rest of Minnesota into one uniform market.

September 2026 · equal ZIP weights · first four rows are a selected preview, not a ranking. Scroll sideways for all columns.

Saint Louis County includes places beyond Duluth; Wisconsin is excluded. The Saint Cloud comparison pools three whole counties, including places well beyond the city. Clay County is only the Minnesota side of the Fargo–Moorhead area; North Dakota is excluded. These selected county sets are neither official metro definitions nor a complete regional partition.

Each pooled median is calculated from individual ZIP indices, never by averaging county medians. The postal-label and regional tables rows use only the newest common month. 0 included observations fall outside that month; 0 newest-month observations have unspecified counties.

Find a Minnesota postal-city group

City links retain the source’s postal-name task. The city-page gate requires at least three eligible ZIPs; a smaller place can still have an observation in the ZIP table. Counts show coverage, not popularity or the number of homes for rent. Filter for Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Bloomington, Duluth, Rochester or Saint Cloud.

Search the actual ZIP and check its date

A five-digit ZIP is a more precise lookup key than a regional label, though it still does not identify a comparable home. Filter by ZIP or postal city and county; clear the filters to return to all eligible Minnesota observations.

For bedroom-specific federal gross-rent references, use the HUD rent lookup. HUD figures include utility assumptions and are not a bedroom split of ZORI, a local payment standard or an approved rent for this property.

A lower base rent can still produce a higher budget

Minnesota’s published fee-disclosure statute, section 504B.120, requires rent and nonoptional fees to be presented as the “Total Monthly Payment” on the first lease page, with nonoptional fees disclosed in advertising. It also requires disclosure of whether utilities are included. The Attorney General’s lease handbook explains utility responsibility and refundable security deposits. Check those written terms before treating two prices as comparable.

The disclosed rent-and-fee payment is one step in your budget. A utility billed separately or a service you choose can still change your cash requirement. The worksheet does not decide whether a charge is legally optional, permitted or properly disclosed.

Holding the other example inputs fixed, Home A’s fixed-fee total reaches the same monthly budget as B at $100. Below that it is cheaper each month; above that it is more expensive. One-time nonrefundable costs can still change which lease costs less over the chosen term.

For a household purchase decision, continue to the rent-versus-buy calculator using complete recurring costs. An owner evaluating rent income can use the rental-property cash-flow calculator; the ZIP index still needs matched unit evidence. Neither tool treats this disclosure worksheet as a legal rent limit.

Read-only freshness audit, October 20, 2026: the shared database’s 149 eligible state ZIPs matched the upstream September 2026 observation month. No upstream ZIP was missing from storage and no matched stored observation lagged the source. Storage also held 30 older June–August observations outside the current sample; 30 stored ZIPs were absent from the downloaded file. These are dated audit counts, not a promise of future coverage. The lookup’s displayed dates and counts follow the shared validated refresh. Quarterly apartment research elsewhere on this page uses its own named sources, periods and cohorts.

Source months, retained ZIPs and what remains unknown

Current eligible observations cover these months:

• September 2026: 149 ZIPs.

0 included observations have unknown dates. Tables follow the shared monthly publication. Older retained rows remain separate from current estimates; ZIP comparison tables use the newest common month. Automated observation updates do not change the editorial review date.

ZIPs differ in population and rental stock. Source postal names and county assignments do not establish municipal boundaries, unit comparability, inventory, tenant demand or allowable lease increases. Positive extreme values are retained. Coverage gaps are not estimates of zero. All-size ZIP indices cannot supply compatible bedroom rents, square-foot prices or historical growth here.

Data: Zillow research downloads and ZORI methodology. Geography and lease-disclosure sources appear beside their claims. The city/county graphic uses shared data; the quote bridge and worksheet use hypothetical assumptions. The published statutory page is the 2025 edition, checked October 19, 2026; the worksheet does not verify an individual lease’s legal treatment.

Content and usability reviewed October 20, 2026: Minnesota market theses, primary-source research, investor income stress, body photography and retained city/ZIP lookup. About RentalCalcs · Report a data issue.