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Add your voice to the conversation!
Add your voice to the conversation!
Be part of the effort to shape where and how Fargo grows in the coming years. Learn about the effort and provide feedback on questions related to growth and development.
This open house is an online version of open houses held in person on June 20 and 21.
In this open house, you will learn about data that has been gathered and analyzed to date.
A survey at the bottom of this page will provide you with an opportunity to answer questions, provide feedback, and let us know what you think. The survey is closed. Thank you to all who participated.
Fargo and the FM Area have been adding households and housing units at a much faster pace than national and state averages
Fargo and its metropolitan area (Cass and Clay counties) have grown rapidly since 2000, especially when compared to the rest of the U.S., North Dakota, and Minnesota. The City of Fargo alone grew by over 16,000 households between 2000 and 2021.
At the same time, Fargo added just over 20,000 new housing units to accommodate household growth. By growing its housing supply by nearly 50% since 2000, Fargo achieved a growth rate that was 2.5x the national average.
Rapid household growth has been driven, to a large degree, by rapid job growth that has helped to narrow local income gaps
Fargo’s rapid household growth has occurred alongside rates of job growth that far exceed the national average. Between 2002 and 2020, the number of jobs based in the city (full-time and part-time) grew by over 25,000.
As in the rest of North Dakota, job growth in Fargo and its metro area were part of an economic expansion that elevated household incomes to levels that more closely reflect national levels. Median household incomes in the city and metro area grew at a faster pace than they did nationally, helping to narrow the gap between regional and national incomes and boosting the spending power of the region’s households.
Fargo’s growth has primarily taken form as new suburban development in the south and southwest, with some notable areas of urban reinvestment
A look at the pattern of new residential and commercial development for different periods since 2000 (see map below) clearly shows that the majority of new construction has occurred in the southern and southwestern sections of Fargo.
These patterns mirror Fargo’s annexation efforts since 2000, which added a total of 7,716 acres to the city’s land area and 5,995 of those acres are situated in the Fargo’s southern and southwestern sections.
On average, Fargo has added approximately two million square feet of new building footprint area (the area of a building’s ground floor) annually since 2000.
The map to the right illustrates the location of new residential development (dark dots) and existing residential reinvestment (pink dots) that include major remodels or home upgrades valued at greater than $100,000.
Similar to the Fargo Buildout map of all new residential and commercial development, new residential development is heavily concentrated in the southern and southwestern sections of Fargo.
By contrast, the pink dots showing major reinvestments in existing homes are much more evenly distributed throughout the city. It is noteworthy that almost a quarter of this investment (23%) occurred in Fargo’s core neighborhoods.
A more comprehensive analysis of Fargo’s housing market shows similar patterns. Levels of housing demand (as indicated by home prices, land values, owner-occupancy levels, and other factors) are strongest on the city’s southern and northern edges. These strong areas are where private investment in housing occurs most readily, or where the private market displays a greater willingness to spend on housing.
Some areas in the core neighborhoods also show relatively strong levels of demand, including parts of Hawthorne, Horace Mann, and Clara Barton. Much of the city’s core, however, has below average levels of demand and many blocks that struggle with disinvestment to some degree.
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