Best Places to Buy Rental Property in North Dakota (2026)

There is no honest way to rank North Dakota cities by rental return without rent data, and this page does not have it. What it does have is transaction evidence: the median price homes actually closed at inside each city's limits, and how many closings happened. That answers the two questions that come before any cash flow analysis, what it costs to get in and whether you can get back out.

What this page measures, and what it does not

Every city below cleared at least 100 closings in its reporting window, which filters out markets too thin to read. They are ranked cheapest first by median closed price, from $300,000 to $359,999. You will not find rent estimates, rent-to-price ratios, cap rates, cash-on-cash projections or gross yield rankings here. Resideline does not have verified rent data for these cities, so publishing those numbers would be invention rather than analysis. Entry price and transaction volume are what the data supports. Every figure describes closings inside the city limits, not the wider postal area that shares the city's name. The two can differ a lot: a postal area usually reaches into surrounding townships, which pulls the median toward whatever those townships are worth. North Dakota's statewide median closed price is $329,000 across 3,791 tracked closings.

The rankings

1. Grand Forks, $300,000, 326 closings

At $300,000 the entry price is about 91 percent of the North Dakota median. Resideline tracked 326 closings there over the last last six months, roughly 54 a month. Full detail is on the Grand Forks market page.

2. Mandan, $314,400, 202 closings

At $314,400 the entry price is about 96 percent of the North Dakota median. Resideline tracked 202 closings there over the last last six months, roughly 34 a month. Full detail is on the Mandan market page.

3. Fargo, $315,000, 865 closings

At $315,000 the entry price is about 96 percent of the North Dakota median. Resideline tracked 865 closings there over the last last six months, roughly 144 a month. Full detail is on the Fargo market page.

4. Bismarck, $324,900, 545 closings

At $324,900 the entry price is about 99 percent of the North Dakota median. Resideline tracked 545 closings there over the last last six months, roughly 91 a month. Full detail is on the Bismarck market page.

5. West Fargo, $359,999, 381 closings

At $359,999 the entry price is about 109 percent of the North Dakota median. Resideline tracked 381 closings there over the last last six months, roughly 64 a month. About 91 percent of those closings are houses, so the figure describes that segment rather than every property type. Full detail is on the West Fargo market page.

How to use this list

Treat it as a shortlist, not an answer. A citywide median cannot price a specific address: property type, size, condition and location move a number far more than the city line does. Run any address on this list through Resideline for the comparable set behind its value.

Figures last updated August 23, 2026 from closings Resideline tracked.