Prior Lake, MN FAQ
Short answers to common questions about Prior Lake, MN, with the numbers and where they come from.
What is Prior Lake known for?
The lake. Prior Lake is about 1,340 acres, the largest lake in Scott County, and the city counts 15 lakes inside its limits. Beyond the water, it’s known for Lakefront Music Fest, two nights of concerts each July that the fest says draw more than 32,000 people; Mystic Lake Casino, owned by the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community; and 49 city parks. It still feels like a small town. The guide to living in Prior Lake has the full picture.
Is Prior Lake a good place to live?
Yes, if you want a lake town with strong schools and a lot of parkland, and you can live with a 31 to 36 minute drive to downtown Minneapolis. District students test well above the state average, the city has 49 parks, and in the city’s 2022 resident survey about 9 in 10 people rated their quality of life favorably. The tradeoffs: homes cost more than in Savage or Shakopee, the school district’s budget is tight after voters turned down its operating levy in 2024, and bus service is limited. The guide goes through each one.
How far is Prior Lake from Minneapolis?
About 24 miles southwest of downtown Minneapolis, 31 to 36 minutes by car without traffic and more at rush hour. Eden Prairie is about 21 to 23 minutes away. MVTA Route 490 runs weekday express buses from downtown Prior Lake to downtown Minneapolis, about 50 minutes to 12th and Hennepin. Details are in the commute guide.
What school district is Prior Lake in?
Most of Prior Lake is in Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools (ISD 719), which started the 2026-27 school year with 8,357 students. Part of north Prior Lake is in Shakopee Public Schools (ISD 720), and The Territory and Legends Club, which have Prior Lake mailing addresses but sit in Credit River, are in the Lakeville district. New K-5 boundaries took effect for 2026-27, so check any address in the district’s 2026-27 school finder. More on the schools page.
What county is Prior Lake in?
Scott County, Minnesota. The county seat is Shakopee, just north of Prior Lake.
Is Prior Lake expensive?
Compared with Savage, Shakopee and Burnsville, yes; Lakeville is about the same. The median sale price over the last six months was $535K in Prior Lake, $423K in Savage, $425K in Shakopee, $390K in Burnsville and $538K in Lakeville. Over the last 12 months, single-family homes here sold at a median of $620K, townhomes $366K and condos $200K. For the same home value, Prior Lake’s 2026 property tax rates come in below Savage’s and Shakopee’s. Current numbers are on the housing market page.
How much money do you need to make to afford a house in Prior Lake?
It depends on your down payment, interest rate and other debts, so a lender’s pre-approval is the real answer. For scale: over the last 12 months the median sale price was $525K for all homes, $366K for townhomes and $200K for condos, and the median household income in Prior Lake is about $134,000 (Census ACS 2020 to 2024). On recent sales, the median property tax ran about 0.9% of the price a year. The Scott County CDA’s land trust sells homes below market price to income-qualified first-time buyers, and the CDA runs free homebuyer classes.
The full Prior Lake market lives on priorlake.realestate, my housing site, updated twice a day from the MLS.
- The Prior Lake marketprices, inventory and trends
- What it costs to ownproperty taxes, HOA fees and more
- Lakefront priceshomes on the water only
- Every home for salewith price context on each one
Is Prior Lake safe?
Yes, by national standards. In 2024, Prior Lake’s combined violent and property crime rate was about 43% below the national rate, and its violent crime rate was 117 per 100,000 residents, against 359 nationally (FBI). Nearby, Savage (78), Lakeville (79) and Shakopee (114) were lower and Burnsville (207) was higher. The numbers are small: Prior Lake had 33 violent crimes in 2024 and 37 in 2025. In the city’s 2022 resident survey, 84% rated the overall feeling of safety favorably. More on the safety page.
How many lakes are in Prior Lake?
The city counts 15 lakes inside its limits. The biggest is Prior Lake itself, two basins joined by a navigable channel: Lower Prior Lake (956 acres) and Upper Prior Lake (386 acres), about 1,340 acres and 21 miles of shoreline together. Spring Lake, about 590 acres, is second; it drains into Upper Prior through a culvert, so you can’t boat between them. More on the Life on the Lake page.
Can you swim in Prior Lake?
Yes. The city has two public beaches on the lake. Sand Point Beach Park, on the north shore of Lower Prior, is open May to Labor Day, and parking is $7 a day by card or $60 for the season. Watzl’s Beach is inside Lakefront Park, a quarter-mile walk from the park lots or reachable by boat. The city tests both for E. coli every week from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Cleary Lake Regional Park has a swimming beach too.
Is there public transportation in Prior Lake?
Yes, through MVTA, though service is limited. Route 490 runs weekday express buses from downtown Prior Lake and the Eagle Creek and Southbridge Crossings park and rides to downtown Minneapolis and the U of M: five morning trips Monday to Thursday and four on Friday. Route 447 runs every two hours, seven days a week, through downtown Prior Lake to the Savage park and ride, Burnsville Center and Apple Valley. Route 495 runs hourly from Mystic Lake to Mall of America and MSP Terminal 1. MVTA Connect offers on-demand rides in parts of Prior Lake and Shakopee from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day. Fares run $2 to $3.25, and park and ride parking is free. Full breakdown in the commute guide.
Does Prior Lake have a downtown?
Yes, a small one along Main Avenue, not a shopping destination like downtown Stillwater or Excelsior. It has Boathouse Brothers Brewing, Perron’s Sul Lago, PLate on Main, YT’s Garage Sports Bar and VFW Post 6208, which has live bands a few weekend nights a month. The farmers market sets up downtown on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon, May to early October, and Prior Lake Days brings a Friday Sip and Stroll and a Saturday family day downtown in August.
Is Prior Lake growing?
Yes, slowly. The Metropolitan Council estimates 29,780 residents in 2025 and forecasts about 31,500 by 2040 and 34,400 by 2050. Most of the growth came after 1960, when Prior Lake had 848 people. New homes are still going up: 19 new-construction homes sold in the last 12 months. School enrollment is a different story: for 2026-27 the district closed WestWood as a neighborhood school and redrew its K-5 boundaries to balance enrollment.
What is Prior Lake’s history?
The Dakota name for the lake means Lake of the Blue Banks. The lake and town took the name of Charles H. Prior, a superintendent with the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad, which came through in 1871. Prior Lake incorporated as a village in 1891 and stayed a farm town and lake resort area of a few hundred people until the 1960s. The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, federally recognized in 1969, opened Mystic Lake Casino in 1992. More on the history page.
Are there apartments in Prior Lake?
Yes, though renting is less common here: 86% of households own their home (Census ACS 2020 to 2024). There are apartment buildings, townhome rentals and senior housing, including Grainwood Senior Apartments (55+).
How far is Prior Lake from the airport?
MSP Airport is about 25 to 30 minutes by car without traffic. MVTA Route 495, the 4FUN bus, runs hourly from Mystic Lake to MSP Terminal 1 for $2; the whole trip takes about 80 to 86 minutes.
What are the best neighborhoods in Prior Lake?
It depends on your budget and what you want nearby. Single-family homes in The Wilds, a golf course neighborhood, sold for $550K to $1.18M in the last 12 months (17 sales, median $840K). Jeffers Pond single-family homes sold for $496K to $730K (13 sales, median $650K), Knob Hill homes for $475K to $650K (8 sales, median $534K) and Sand Pointe homes, near Sand Point Beach, for $378K to $430K (6 sales, median $393K). Homes with lake frontage sold at a median of $1.10M (55 sales). The neighborhoods page covers each area.
How does Prior Lake compare to Savage, Shakopee, Lakeville and Burnsville?
I’ve written a side-by-side page for each:
- Prior Lake vs Savage: next door to the northeast. Part of Savage shares the Prior Lake-Savage school district.
- Prior Lake vs Shakopee: the county seat, just north, mostly in Shakopee Public Schools.
- Prior Lake vs Lakeville: a bigger Dakota County city with about the same median price.
- Prior Lake vs Burnsville: a larger, built-out city on I-35W.
Based on information from the Regional Multiple Listing Service of Minnesota, Inc. for the period September 28, 2025 through September 28, 2026: home sales in Prior Lake, Savage, Shakopee, Lakeville and Burnsville. Data believed to be accurate but should be independently verified.
Photo: Sunset on Prior Lake by Tiger Girl, CC BY 2.0.