Relocation

Compare Black Hills Communities

25 towns and unincorporated communities. Pick two to four and the full table appears underneath. Commutes are driving times to the Ellsworth main gate and downtown Rapid City. Median sold prices, where we have them, come from the MLS over the trailing twelve months with the source, window and sale count printed under each figure. Typical price bands are practical search ranges, not medians, and are labelled separately.

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1 of 25 communities

Under $400k Close to Ellsworth Close to Rapid City Short commute New construction available Acreage available City water and sewer Smaller market More rural Established housing Newer housing Clear filters Clear everything

Price filters only consider communities with a published trailing twelve month median, so towns without one do not appear in a price filter.

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The five facts that decide a shortlist

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Selected, 4 of 4

Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor

Everything within about twenty five minutes of downtown Rapid City or the Ellsworth main gate, where most of the newer inventory, the shortest commutes and the jurisdiction questions about city versus county service are.

Rapid City
Typical price
$300k to $450kMedian sold $349,950. Black Hills MLS, single family, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 706 closed sales.
To Ellsworth AFB
24 min, 13.8 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
To downtown Rapid City
5 min, 1.5 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Utility pattern
City water and sewer inside the limits
School district
Rapid City Area Schools 51-4Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
4 is the most that fits. Drop one first.Guide

What changes

Between Box Elder, Colonial Pine Hills, Sturgis, Edgemont

The rows below are the ones where these do not read the same. Ordered as the table runs, not by importance.

Region: Box ElderRapid City and the Ellsworth corridorColonial Pine HillsRapid City and the Ellsworth corridorSturgisNorthern Hills and I-90EdgemontCentral and Southern Hills
County: Box ElderPennington CountyColonial Pine HillsPennington CountySturgisMeade CountyEdgemontFall River County
Jurisdiction: Box ElderCity of Box ElderColonial Pine HillsUnincorporated. There is no city government. Pennington County zones the lots, issues the permits and patrols the roads.SturgisNot recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.EdgemontIncorporated city of Edgemont, with Fall River County outside the limits.
Corridor: Box ElderI-90Colonial Pine HillsUS 16 and Sheridan Lake RoadSturgisI-90EdgemontUS 18 and SD 471
To downtown Rapid City: Box Elder19 min, 10.9 miColonial Pine HillsRoughly 6 miles northeastSturgis33 min, 28.9 miEdgemontAbout 100 miles northeast
To Ellsworth AFB: Box Elder9 min, 2.3 miColonial Pine HillsAbout 25 to 30 minutes, through or around Rapid CitySturgis48 min, 38.2 miEdgemontAbout 110 miles

Side by side

Box Elder, Colonial Pine Hills, Sturgis, Edgemont

Rows marked as differing are the ones where these do not read alike. Rows without the mark sit on a quiet background because they say the same thing in every column.

The selected Black Hills communities compared on location, housing, utilities, schools, daily errands, mapped subdivisions and the trade each one asks for
Attribute	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorBox Elder	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorColonial Pine Hills	Northern Hills and I-90Sturgis	Central and Southern HillsEdgemont
Where it sits
Regiondiffers	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor	Northern Hills and I-90	Central and Southern Hills
Countydiffers	Pennington County	Pennington County	Meade County	Fall River County
JurisdictiondiffersCity versus county decides who provides service and who inspects the work.	City of Box Elder	Unincorporated. There is no city government. Pennington County zones the lots, issues the permits and patrols the roads.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.	Incorporated city of Edgemont, with Fall River County outside the limits.
Corridordiffers	I-90	US 16 and Sheridan Lake Road	I-90	US 18 and SD 471
To downtown Rapid Citydiffers	19 min, 10.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	Roughly 6 miles northeastDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.	33 min, 28.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 100 miles northeastDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
To Ellsworth AFBdiffers	9 min, 2.3 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 25 to 30 minutes, through or around Rapid CityDriving time and distance, off peak.	48 min, 38.2 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 110 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
Winter drivingdiffers	I-90 is state maintained and the city clears the newer plats. Box Elder publishes no plow priority map, so ask a neighbor how the street clears after a real storm.	You are 900 feet above Rapid City on grades, and some subdivision roads are privately plowed. Snow tires are not a luxury item up here.	I-90 is state maintained and the city clears its own streets. The county roads out past the edges clear later.	Cold semi-arid country with a recorded low of 40 below. US 18 is the lifeline and it is a long way to anywhere in a storm.
Housing and lots
Typical pricediffers	$340k to $400kMedian sold $367,000. Black Hills MLS, single family, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 235 closed sales.	About $683,000 average sold in the Sheridan Lake Road MLS area, 71 sales over 12 monthsAverage sold $682,615. Black Hills MLS, single family, 12 months through August 2026, as of August 2026. 71 closed sales.	$300k to $450kMedian sold $365,000. Mount Rushmore Area MLS, all residential, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 97 closed sales.	About $155,000 average sold, 13 sales over 24 monthsAverage sold $155,285. Black Hills MLS, single family, 24 months through August 2026, as of August 2026. 13 closed sales.
Housing agediffers	Heavily new construction since the B-21 announcement	Platted over several decades, so 1970s cabins and current builds sit on the same road.	Older near the core, newer on the edges	An 1890 railroad town, so mostly older stock, with about a quarter of units vacant at the 2020 count.
New constructiondiffers	Active, with subdivisions still building	Limited, mostly infill and small projects	Limited, mostly infill and small projects	None underway
Acreagediffers	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot size.	Acreage parcels are common here	Acreage becomes more common outside the city core, including areas east of Sturgis and along the surrounding canyon and prairie corridors.	Acreage parcels are common here
Typical lotdiffers	Small city lots, about 0.15 to 0.18 acres in the newer plats	Large by Rapid City standards, from generous lots to several acres.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot dimensions.	Town lots inside the limits, ranch scale outside them.
Covenants and HOAdiffersCovenants are recorded per plat. The title commitment lists what binds the parcel.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. Read the recorded documents for the plat.	Recorded covenants on some plats, none on others	Not recorded townwide in this guide. Read the recorded documents for the plat.	Few plats here carry recorded covenants
Utilities and rules
Utility patterndiffers	City water and sewer inside the limits	Mostly private well and septic	Not recorded townwide in this guide. Verify water and sewer service for the address.	City water and sewer inside the limits
Waterdiffers	City of Box Elder municipal	Depends entirely on the parcel. The Colonial Pine Hills Sanitary District serves roughly 430 connections. Several separate water associations serve other pockets, and the rest of the area is on private wells.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. Verify the provider for the address.	City of Edgemont municipal water. Rural parcels are on private wells.
Sewerdiffers	City of Box Elder municipal	Private on-site septic throughout, permitted by Pennington County. There is no municipal sewer and no lagoon serving the area.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. Verify the service for the address.	City sewer inside the limits, with private septic on rural parcels.
Short term rentalsdiffers	A verify first town for rental plans, with one specific misconception the guide clears up.	This is unincorporated county, so there is no municipal short-term rental ordinance. County zoning and subdivision covenants are what govern, and the covenants out here are often stricter than the county.	No short term rental licensing ordinance. What the city does regulate is residential camping during the Rally.	Edgemont is not a tourism town. Short-term rental demand here is work crews, hunting season and Rally traffic passing through, not visitors staying to see something.
Schools
School districtdiffers	Douglas School District 51-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.	Rapid City Area School District 51-4Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.	Meade School District 46-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.	Edgemont School District 23-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
Daily errands
Groceriesdiffers	Lynn's Dakotamart is a full-service grocery store in town.	Everything is in Rapid City, roughly fifteen minutes down US 16.	Lynn's Dakotamart is a full-service grocery store in town.	Small-town grocery and convenience in Edgemont, with Hot Springs about 35 miles east for more.
Healthcarediffers	Monument Health Box Elder Clinic provides primary and urgent care in town. Hospital-level care is in Rapid City.	No clinic up here. Monument Health Rapid City Hospital and the Rapid City clinics are the answer.	Monument Health Sturgis Hospital and clinic are in town.	No hospital in town. Fall River Health Services in Hot Springs is a 25 bed critical access hospital with a 24 hour emergency department.
Recreationdiffers	The Liberty Center, the city park and ballfield network, and the South Dakota Air and Space Museum are the in-town recreation. The Badlands are a day trip, not your neighborhood park.	Sheridan Lake, Pactola, the Mickelson Trail and the whole central Hills network start where the subdivisions end.	Bear Butte State Park, Fort Meade Recreation Area and the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum, with the northern hills toward Spearfish and Deadwood close.	The hundred-year-old city park, the campground, the Elk Mountains and open country in every direction.
Mapped subdivisions
Outlines on filediffers	16 mapped outlines, 3 with a full guideReference outlines from county and city GIS, not surveys. The recorded plat controls.	No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.	9 mapped outlines, 8 with a full guideReference outlines from county and city GIS, not surveys. The recorded plat controls.	No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.
The trade
Housing and patterndiffers	A young city building its first downtown at Liberty Plaza on 110 acres, with roughly 800 residential units planned.	Ponderosa pine subdivisions platted over decades, no two alike, on county rules six miles from the city.	A full Main Street town with its own grocery, hospital and high school, and Bear Butte on the horizon.	A working BNSF crew-change town founded in 1890, at the far southern edge of the Hills below the Elk Mountains.
What you gaindiffers	The Ellsworth main gate is in town, 9 minutes from most addresses, on city water and sewer, with the region's newest housing pipeline.	Hills elevation, trees and lot size with a Rapid City commute and Rapid City schools.	A town that stands on its own, grocery, hospital and high school inside it, at a price per square foot below Rapid City.	More town per dollar than anywhere else in the region, with its own school district and city utilities.
What you give updiffers	Comparable sales run thin inside brand new subdivisions and builder incentives move the effective price without moving the list price. I-90 fills at shift change, and the flight line is close enough that you hear it.	Well or association water, septic on every parcel, private roads in places, and wildfire exposure that affects insurance.	Half an hour of interstate each way to Rapid City, and for the first two weeks of August the Rally is your town.	A hundred miles from Rapid City, 35 from a hospital, with two unresolved questions hanging over the local economy.

Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorBox Elder
Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorColonial Pine Hills
Northern Hills and I-90Sturgis
Central and Southern HillsEdgemont

Where it sits

Regiondiffers

Box Elder: Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor
Colonial Pine Hills: Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor
Sturgis: Northern Hills and I-90
Edgemont: Central and Southern Hills

Countydiffers

Box Elder: Pennington County
Colonial Pine Hills: Pennington County
Sturgis: Meade County
Edgemont: Fall River County

Jurisdictiondiffers

City versus county decides who provides service and who inspects the work.

Box Elder: City of Box Elder
Colonial Pine Hills: Unincorporated. There is no city government. Pennington County zones the lots, issues the permits and patrols the roads.
Sturgis: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.
Edgemont: Incorporated city of Edgemont, with Fall River County outside the limits.

Corridordiffers

Box Elder: I-90
Colonial Pine Hills: US 16 and Sheridan Lake Road
Sturgis: I-90
Edgemont: US 18 and SD 471

To downtown Rapid Citydiffers

Box Elder: 19 min, 10.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Colonial Pine Hills: Roughly 6 miles northeastDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
Sturgis: 33 min, 28.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Edgemont: About 100 miles northeastDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.

To Ellsworth AFBdiffers

Box Elder: 9 min, 2.3 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Colonial Pine Hills: About 25 to 30 minutes, through or around Rapid CityDriving time and distance, off peak.
Sturgis: 48 min, 38.2 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Edgemont: About 110 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.

Winter drivingdiffers

Box Elder: I-90 is state maintained and the city clears the newer plats. Box Elder publishes no plow priority map, so ask a neighbor how the street clears after a real storm.
Colonial Pine Hills: You are 900 feet above Rapid City on grades, and some subdivision roads are privately plowed. Snow tires are not a luxury item up here.
Sturgis: I-90 is state maintained and the city clears its own streets. The county roads out past the edges clear later.
Edgemont: Cold semi-arid country with a recorded low of 40 below. US 18 is the lifeline and it is a long way to anywhere in a storm.

Housing and lots

Typical pricediffers

Box Elder: $340k to $400kMedian sold $367,000. Black Hills MLS, single family, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 235 closed sales.
Colonial Pine Hills: About $683,000 average sold in the Sheridan Lake Road MLS area, 71 sales over 12 monthsAverage sold $682,615. Black Hills MLS, single family, 12 months through August 2026, as of August 2026. 71 closed sales.
Sturgis: $300k to $450kMedian sold $365,000. Mount Rushmore Area MLS, all residential, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 97 closed sales.
Edgemont: About $155,000 average sold, 13 sales over 24 monthsAverage sold $155,285. Black Hills MLS, single family, 24 months through August 2026, as of August 2026. 13 closed sales.

Housing agediffers

Box Elder: Heavily new construction since the B-21 announcement
Colonial Pine Hills: Platted over several decades, so 1970s cabins and current builds sit on the same road.
Sturgis: Older near the core, newer on the edges
Edgemont: An 1890 railroad town, so mostly older stock, with about a quarter of units vacant at the 2020 count.

New constructiondiffers

Box Elder: Active, with subdivisions still building
Colonial Pine Hills: Limited, mostly infill and small projects
Sturgis: Limited, mostly infill and small projects
Edgemont: None underway

Acreagediffers

Box Elder: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot size.
Colonial Pine Hills: Acreage parcels are common here
Sturgis: Acreage becomes more common outside the city core, including areas east of Sturgis and along the surrounding canyon and prairie corridors.
Edgemont: Acreage parcels are common here

Typical lotdiffers

Box Elder: Small city lots, about 0.15 to 0.18 acres in the newer plats
Colonial Pine Hills: Large by Rapid City standards, from generous lots to several acres.
Sturgis: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot dimensions.
Edgemont: Town lots inside the limits, ranch scale outside them.

Covenants and HOAdiffers

Covenants are recorded per plat. The title commitment lists what binds the parcel.

Box Elder: Not recorded townwide in this guide. Read the recorded documents for the plat.
Colonial Pine Hills: Recorded covenants on some plats, none on others
Sturgis: Not recorded townwide in this guide. Read the recorded documents for the plat.
Edgemont: Few plats here carry recorded covenants

Utilities and rules

Utility patterndiffers

Box Elder: City water and sewer inside the limits
Colonial Pine Hills: Mostly private well and septic
Sturgis: Not recorded townwide in this guide. Verify water and sewer service for the address.
Edgemont: City water and sewer inside the limits

Waterdiffers

Box Elder: City of Box Elder municipal
Colonial Pine Hills: Depends entirely on the parcel. The Colonial Pine Hills Sanitary District serves roughly 430 connections. Several separate water associations serve other pockets, and the rest of the area is on private wells.
Sturgis: Not recorded townwide in this guide. Verify the provider for the address.
Edgemont: City of Edgemont municipal water. Rural parcels are on private wells.

Sewerdiffers

Box Elder: City of Box Elder municipal
Colonial Pine Hills: Private on-site septic throughout, permitted by Pennington County. There is no municipal sewer and no lagoon serving the area.
Sturgis: Not recorded townwide in this guide. Verify the service for the address.
Edgemont: City sewer inside the limits, with private septic on rural parcels.

Short term rentalsdiffers

Box Elder: A verify first town for rental plans, with one specific misconception the guide clears up.
Colonial Pine Hills: This is unincorporated county, so there is no municipal short-term rental ordinance. County zoning and subdivision covenants are what govern, and the covenants out here are often stricter than the county.
Sturgis: No short term rental licensing ordinance. What the city does regulate is residential camping during the Rally.
Edgemont: Edgemont is not a tourism town. Short-term rental demand here is work crews, hunting season and Rally traffic passing through, not visitors staying to see something.

Schools

School districtdiffers

Box Elder: Douglas School District 51-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
Colonial Pine Hills: Rapid City Area School District 51-4Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
Sturgis: Meade School District 46-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
Edgemont: Edgemont School District 23-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.

Daily errands

Groceriesdiffers

Box Elder: Lynn's Dakotamart is a full-service grocery store in town.
Colonial Pine Hills: Everything is in Rapid City, roughly fifteen minutes down US 16.
Sturgis: Lynn's Dakotamart is a full-service grocery store in town.
Edgemont: Small-town grocery and convenience in Edgemont, with Hot Springs about 35 miles east for more.

Healthcarediffers

Box Elder: Monument Health Box Elder Clinic provides primary and urgent care in town. Hospital-level care is in Rapid City.
Colonial Pine Hills: No clinic up here. Monument Health Rapid City Hospital and the Rapid City clinics are the answer.
Sturgis: Monument Health Sturgis Hospital and clinic are in town.
Edgemont: No hospital in town. Fall River Health Services in Hot Springs is a 25 bed critical access hospital with a 24 hour emergency department.

Recreationdiffers

Box Elder: The Liberty Center, the city park and ballfield network, and the South Dakota Air and Space Museum are the in-town recreation. The Badlands are a day trip, not your neighborhood park.
Colonial Pine Hills: Sheridan Lake, Pactola, the Mickelson Trail and the whole central Hills network start where the subdivisions end.
Sturgis: Bear Butte State Park, Fort Meade Recreation Area and the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum, with the northern hills toward Spearfish and Deadwood close.
Edgemont: The hundred-year-old city park, the campground, the Elk Mountains and open country in every direction.

Mapped subdivisions

Outlines on filediffers

Box Elder: 16 mapped outlines, 3 with a full guideReference outlines from county and city GIS, not surveys. The recorded plat controls.
Colonial Pine Hills: No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.
Sturgis: 9 mapped outlines, 8 with a full guideReference outlines from county and city GIS, not surveys. The recorded plat controls.
Edgemont: No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.

The trade

Housing and patterndiffers

Box Elder: A young city building its first downtown at Liberty Plaza on 110 acres, with roughly 800 residential units planned.
Colonial Pine Hills: Ponderosa pine subdivisions platted over decades, no two alike, on county rules six miles from the city.
Sturgis: A full Main Street town with its own grocery, hospital and high school, and Bear Butte on the horizon.
Edgemont: A working BNSF crew-change town founded in 1890, at the far southern edge of the Hills below the Elk Mountains.

What you gaindiffers

Box Elder: The Ellsworth main gate is in town, 9 minutes from most addresses, on city water and sewer, with the region's newest housing pipeline.
Colonial Pine Hills: Hills elevation, trees and lot size with a Rapid City commute and Rapid City schools.
Sturgis: A town that stands on its own, grocery, hospital and high school inside it, at a price per square foot below Rapid City.
Edgemont: More town per dollar than anywhere else in the region, with its own school district and city utilities.

What you give updiffers

Box Elder: Comparable sales run thin inside brand new subdivisions and builder incentives move the effective price without moving the list price. I-90 fills at shift change, and the flight line is close enough that you hear it.
Colonial Pine Hills: Well or association water, septic on every parcel, private roads in places, and wildfire exposure that affects insurance.
Sturgis: Half an hour of interstate each way to Rapid City, and for the first two weeks of August the Rally is your town.
Edgemont: A hundred miles from Rapid City, 35 from a hospital, with two unresolved questions hanging over the local economy.

Where this comes from

Commute figures are driving times off peak, from the community guide each card links to. Median sold prices come from the MLS, and each figure carries its own source, window and closing count, because Sturgis, Spearfish and the northern hills report through a different MLS than Rapid City. Under five closings there is no median, and the price row says so. Five to nine closings carries a small sample note. School districts follow the official boundary for the address, and the district office is the only place to confirm an assignment. Short term rental lines are summaries. Read the guide and the current ordinance before you count on rental income.

The filters use these definitions: under $400k is the MLS sold figure for the town, a median where one is published and otherwise the average sold, comes in under $400,000; close to ellsworth is 25 minutes or less to the Ellsworth main gate; close to rapid city is 20 minutes or less to downtown Rapid City; short commute is 15 minutes or less to either downtown Rapid City or the Ellsworth gate; new construction available is the guide establishes active or limited new construction; acreage available is acreage is common or present in the guide; city water and sewer is city water and sewer across the community; smaller market is fewer than 100 closed single family sales in the trailing twelve months; more rural is acreage is common, or water and sewer are not municipal throughout; established housing is the guide classifies the housing stock as established, meaning largely pre 2000; newer housing is the guide classifies a meaningful share of the housing stock as 2000s or later.

Every row here is a townwide summary and a single parcel can read differently. Buyer due diligence should include verifying water and sewer service, school assignment, recorded covenants and HOA obligations, rental rules, legal access, insurance availability and which jurisdiction inspects and permits the work, for the exact address. Confirm with the city or county, the utility or district, the school district office, the title company and your insurer as applicable.

Last updated August 2026

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