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

Gross asking rental yields range from 4.0 percent in Williston to 5.7 percent in Mandan across the 8 North Dakota markets shown, a spread of 1.7 points. Compare purchase prices alongside property expenses and rental demand rather than treating the highest ratio as a recommendation. West Fargo follows at 5.6 percent, on a $355,000 median price and $1,670 in asking rent. Volume and yield part ways: Fargo closes about 146 homes a month, more than any other city here, and ranks seventh on yield at 4.1 percent.

The ranking

Gross yield here is an asking rental yield screen: twelve times the median asking rent over the median closed price, before taxes, insurance, vacancy, management or repairs. Sales use municipal boundaries. Rental listings use the associated city name and may cover a wider postal area. The ratio therefore compares related, but not perfectly matched, market samples, and a home bought at the median price does not necessarily earn the median rent. Confirmed-close medians appear where at least 30 confirmed lease closes were recorded in the window.

City by city

1. Mandan, 5.7 percent gross

Mandan's rental sample is 62 percent apartments and condos while its sales are mostly houses, so the $1,488 asking median understates what a house rents for there. At $314,400 to buy and $1,488 a month to rent, Mandan yields 5.7 percent gross on 198 tracked closings. The Mandan market page carries the monthly figures.

2. West Fargo, 5.6 percent gross

West Fargo ranks second on yield but only seventh on entry price: the $1,670 median asking rent is doing the work, not a cheap purchase. Homes in West Fargo closed at a median of $355,000 over the last six months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,670, a gross yield of 5.6 percent. Houses there closed at about $166 per square foot. The West Fargo market page carries the monthly figures.

3. Bismarck, 5.2 percent gross

Bismarck's rental sample is 64 percent apartments and condos while its sales are mostly houses, so the $1,395 asking median understates what a house rents for there: houses asked $2,000. The numbers: $319,900 median closed price across 577 closings, $1,395 median asking rent across 630 listings, 5.2 percent gross. See the Bismarck page for the property mix and the price band.

4. Minot, 5.0 percent gross

Homes in Minot closed at a median of $285,000 over the last six months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,185, a gross yield of 5.0 percent. The Minot market page carries the monthly figures.

5. Dickinson, 4.5 percent gross

Read Dickinson's $1,274 rent as an apartment figure: 70 percent of its listings are apartments or condos. Homes in Dickinson closed at a median of $339,000 over the last six months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,274, a gross yield of 4.5 percent. Full detail is on the Dickinson market page.

6. Grand Forks, 4.4 percent gross

A low entry price does not carry Grand Forks far: it is second cheapest on this list and sixth on yield, with rent of $1,130 against a $305,000 median price. At $305,000 to buy and $1,130 a month to rent, Grand Forks yields 4.4 percent gross on 326 tracked closings. Full detail is on the Grand Forks market page.

7. Fargo, 4.1 percent gross

A low entry price does not carry Fargo far: it is third cheapest on this list and seventh on yield, with rent of $1,080 against a $313,900 median price. At $313,900 to buy and $1,080 a month to rent, Fargo yields 4.1 percent gross on 875 tracked closings. The Fargo market page carries the monthly figures.

8. Williston, 4.0 percent gross

Read Williston's $1,200 rent as an apartment figure: 74 percent of its listings are apartments or condos. At $359,900 to buy and $1,200 a month to rent, Williston yields 4.0 percent gross on 182 tracked closings. Full detail is on the Williston market page.

How this ranking is built

• •Cities: every North Dakota city where Resideline tracked at least 100 closings inside the municipal boundary in its reporting window (six or twelve months) and at least 50 rental listings under the city's name since September 10, 2025: 8 cities qualify.
• •Prices: the median price homes closed at inside the city limits, from Resideline's tracked closings; the state comparison uses the statewide median of $329,000 across 3,834 closings.
• •Rents: the median advertised rent on rental listings Resideline tracked in the last twelve months, all property types, measured on the listings that carry the city's name (a postal footprint, wider than the city line in some places).
• •Confirmed-close medians: Observed rent blends two kinds of record: confirmed lease closes extracted from property records, and the final asking rent on listings that left Resideline tracking without a recorded close. Where a city has at least 30 confirmed closes in the window, their median is printed beside the asking figure; in the last twelve months about a quarter of Resideline's close episodes are confirmed closes. The asking and confirmed-close samples are separate, not paired, so a difference between their medians is not a measured gap on the same listings.
• •What is missing: taxes, insurance, vacancy, management and repairs, which turn a gross yield into a net one, and the unit mix, which differs between what sells and what rents.

Sources and related pages

• •Resideline tracked closings inside city limits (window per city, updated September 10, 2026) and rental listings since September 10, 2025; confirmed lease closes extracted from property records.
• •More North Dakota rankings: Cheapest cities to buy a house in North Dakota ranks the same kind of list with each city's price per square foot for houses, realized appreciation and days to contract beside the median, and Cap Rate by City ranks the North Dakota cities Resideline tracks by gross rental yield. The North Dakota housing market hub carries the statewide figures and the largest North Dakota markets by closings.
• •Asking rent vs observed rent compares live asking rents with final asking rents under that study's own definition; it says nothing about confirmed lease closes.

Prepared with Resideline's research pipeline and reviewed by Jeffrey Batista, Resideline's founder.