Living in Winona, MN

Winona County

Winona is a Winona County seat sitting in genuine Mississippi River bluff country, built substantially on a river sandbar beneath Sugar Loaf -- a roughly 85-foot rock pinnacle and the city's most recognizable landmark. Winona is a real, genuine DUAL college town: Winona State University (~6,165 students) and the separate Saint Mary's University of Minnesota both maintain campuses in the city, driving a genuinely young city-level median age (31.3) well below both the national norm and the surrounding, older Winona County (36.4). Fastenal Company, the largest industrial supply company in North America, is headquartered in Winona with approximately 1,800 local employees -- a real, specific Fortune 500 corporate anchor distinct from the college-town identity. Home values run genuinely below both Inver Grove Heights and Owatonna in this Minnesota batch ($222,477-$256,640 depending on source), with a median effective property tax rate (1.00%, Ownwell) landing right at the national median. Winona's city-level median household income ($56,337) and poverty rate (23.1%) both run notably worse than the surrounding county (median income $70,744, poverty rate 14.8%) -- a real, disclosed gap this record attributes substantially to the college-town student-income statistical effect rather than treating as a clean economic-hardship signal. Winona carries a real, genuine, and historically documented Mississippi River flood risk distinct from every other market in this batch -- a record 20.77-foot crest in April 1965 -- managed today by a roughly 10-mile levee system. Crime data runs genuinely mixed: notably below-average violent crime alongside modestly above-average property crime, plus a real, disclosed 23% year-over-year rise in the 2024 overall rate. Winona's genuinely young, dual-university-driven population is why this record uses best-areas rather than retiring as its ninth topic.

Explore Winona in depth

• Moving to Winona: Pros, Cons & What to Know
• Cost of Living in Winona
• Housing in Winona
• Taxes & Insurance in Winona
• Climate in Winona
• Schools & Families in Winona
• Healthcare & Safety in Winona
• Pros and Cons of Living in Winona
• Best Areas to Live in Winona

Housing

Taxes

The tradeoffs

Who this fits

Best for: Best fits young professionals, recent graduates, and those drawn to a genuine dual-university college-town atmosphere who want affordable housing within a scenic Mississippi River bluff-country setting, and who confirm current flood-zone status directly for any target property.

Maybe not for you if: Probably not the right fit for movers seeking zero flood-risk exposure or a single, unambiguous income/poverty picture -- Winona's own city-level economic figures run genuinely worse than its surrounding county, substantially (though not entirely) a function of its real, large student population.