On July 21, 2026, a small crowd gathered on a stretch of land between Main Avenue and 7th Street East in Horace, known locally as You Betcha Drive, to watch a shovel go into the dirt. The occasion was the groundbreaking for Sparks Developments, a project the Sparks family had been planning for roughly five years. Lee Sparks, whose parents originally bought and began developing the land, told The Forum the road ahead would take another five to seven years. "We're hoping for the best, and we're feeling good," he said.
That groundbreaking is a more useful data point for anyone comparing Horace to Fargo right now than any single line on a listing sheet. Buyers cross-shopping the metro tend to assume Horace is still the deal, the newer, cheaper alternative to an established Fargo address. The closing data from the first half of 2026 says otherwise, and the reason has almost nothing to do with square footage.
The Number That Doesn't Match the Story
Resideline's tracking of North Dakota closings through the first half of 2026 put Horace's median sale price at $358,950. Fargo's median for the same window was $315,000. West Fargo came in at $355,000, close to Horace but still behind it. Horace, the newest and smallest of the three, was the most expensive place to close on a home.
| City | Median Closing Price (H1 2026) |
|---|---|
| Fargo | $315,000 |
| West Fargo | $355,000 |
| Horace | $358,950 |
Redfin's separate tracking shows the same direction of travel: a median sale price of $347,042 in Horace as of May 2026, up 8.8% year over year. Two different data sources, same conclusion. Horace isn't pricing itself as the entry-level suburb anymore. It's pricing at a premium to the metro's largest, most established city.
That's the number that should stop a buyer mid-scroll. A newer, smaller city out-pricing Fargo isn't how this usually works. Something other than lot size or build year is setting the market here.
Growth Isn't the Reason, It's the Symptom
The easy explanation is population growth, and Horace has plenty of it. It's the fastest-growing city in North Dakota, expanding at roughly 10.57% a year, well ahead of the next city on the list. The population has more than doubled since the 2020 census, when it stood at 3,085, and now sits close to 8,000.
But growth alone doesn't explain a price premium over Fargo. Fast population growth usually means more subdivisions, more inventory, and prices that stay in check because supply keeps pace with demand. Horace has had exactly that kind of building boom for years. If growth were the whole story, prices should be moderate, not elevated.
The city's own staffing tells the more interesting part of the story. Horace's population has climbed from around 1,000 to 8,000 in the roughly 23 years since city hall moved to its current location, while city staff grew from four people to twenty. Horace's government has spent years playing catch-up to its own growth. What's happening now is different: for the first time, the city and private developers are building ahead of the growth curve instead of behind it.
What's Actually Being Built South of Main Street
Sparks Developments is the clearest example. The project sits on land the Sparks family has held for years, and it's designed as a multi-use district: Horace's new City Hall, an indoor hockey arena built with the West Fargo Hockey Association, a public plaza, Sparks Park, walking trails, and space the developer expects will draw restaurants and possibly a hotel. Housing in the district is aimed at entry- to mid-level renters and buyers, not luxury product.
The timeline is specific enough to plan around. The hockey arena, an $18 million project with $10 million already funded through years of association fundraising, is expected to reach occupancy by fall 2027. The city hall has moved through predesign into schematic design with JLG Architects, and construction, handled by PCL Construction, is expected to take 12 to 18 months once it starts, putting completion somewhere between late 2028 and spring 2029. The city hall site itself, five acres dedicated to Horace at no cost, sits directly across the street from the planned arena and next to a three-acre public plaza.
Jace Hellman, Horace's community development director, has already sketched out what comes next once families start showing up for hockey practice. "We'll probably expect to see additional restaurants and retailers after it's built," he said. Attorney Jack Dwyer, who has represented development interests in Horace, described the broader area in similar terms: "This will be just an extension of our city center to the south."
That's the mechanism. The premium buyers are paying in Horace right now isn't for what exists today. It's for a five-to-seven-year bet on a specific, dated pipeline of civic and recreational infrastructure that doesn't exist anywhere else in the metro's smaller cities.
Lakeview Is Making the Same Bet a Mile Away
Sparks Developments isn't the only project betting on Horace's future center of gravity. Lakeview, a 115-acre subdivision near Horace High School and Middle School, was engineered with 88 residential lots alongside multiple commercial and mixed-use parcels and a 20-acre site for a church. The development brought in Kilbourne Group, the firm behind much of downtown Fargo's historic redevelopment, to help shape its commercial identity. Kilbourne's vice president of development, Keith Leier, said the goal was to "establish a Main Street feel" for the project. The attorney representing the development, Jack Dwyer, put it in plainer terms: the idea was to give Horace "a downtown feel" it had never really had.
Two separate developers, in two different parts of Horace, are placing the same wager: that Horace's next phase of value won't come from more rooftops, it will come from the city finally having a center. That matters for how a buyer should read the price data. The premium isn't spread evenly across Horace. It's concentrated in and around these two nodes, and it will likely stay that way until one or both projects are substantially built out.
What This Means If You're Comparing Horace to Fargo Right Now
None of this means a home near Sparks Developments or Lakeview is guaranteed to outperform a comparable home in Fargo. Nobody can promise that, and any agent who does is guessing. What the research does support is a more useful frame for the decision: buying in Horace today is a bet on a specific, dated build-out, not a discount on square footage.
If the timeline matters to you, the milestones worth watching are:
- Fall 2027, expected occupancy for the West Fargo Hockey Association's new arena
- Late 2026 or early 2027, expected completion of city hall's design phase, with construction targeted for spring
- Late 2028 to spring 2029, likely completion window for the new Horace City Hall
A buyer who wants proximity to what Horace is becoming should expect to wait through that window before the payoff shows up in daily life, not just in appreciation. A buyer who wants space and a lower price today has other pockets of Horace, and other cities in the metro, where that trade still works the way it always has.
A Few Direct Questions
Does buying near Sparks Developments or Lakeview guarantee a stronger resale later? No one can guarantee future value. What's documented is a specific, funded, dated construction pipeline that doesn't exist in most of the metro's smaller cities right now.
Is any part of Horace still less expensive than Fargo? Yes. The city-wide median reflects a mix of established, newer, and premium new-construction sales. Older sections of Horace and homes farther from the two development nodes can still price below Fargo comparables.
How long is this bet expected to take? Based on the timelines developers and city officials have released, the earliest major pieces, the hockey arena, land near fall 2027. The city hall could take until spring 2029. This is a multi-year horizon, not a next-quarter one.
Comparing Horace to Fargo or West Fargo on price alone will always give you an incomplete answer. The number that matters more is the calendar. If you're trying to figure out which part of Horace, or which city in the metro, actually fits your timeline and your budget, Up North Realty Group can walk through the comparison street by street, not just city by city.
