Henry Roy Real Estate, Ascend Realty, Rapid City South Dakota
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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13 of 25 communities

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

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.

  • Typical price
    $340k to $400kMedian sold $367,000. Black Hills MLS, single family, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 235 closed sales.
    To Ellsworth AFB
    9 min, 2.3 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
    To downtown Rapid City
    19 min, 10.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
    Utility pattern
    City water and sewer inside the limits
    School district
    Douglas School District 51-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
  • Typical price
    $375k to $575kMedian sold $425,000. Black Hills MLS, single family, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 127 closed sales.
    To Ellsworth AFB
    36 min from the Prairie Haven side, closer to 51 from the plats highest up the foothillsDriving time and distance, off peak.
    To downtown Rapid City
    About 26 minutes from the Prairie Haven side, longer from the upper platsDriving time and distance, off peak.
    Utility pattern
    Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
    School district
    Meade School District 46-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
  • 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.
  • Typical price
    About $350,000 average sold, 274 sales over 12 monthsAverage sold $349,971. Black Hills MLS, single family, 12 months through August 2026, as of August 2026. 274 closed sales.
    To Ellsworth AFB
    22 min, 10.4 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
    To downtown Rapid City
    11 min, 5.2 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
    Utility pattern
    Utility service varies by address. Rapid Valley Sanitary District serves portions of the area, while properties outside district service may use private wells and septic systems.
    School district
    Mostly Rapid City Area School District 51-4, with portions in Douglas 51-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
  • Typical price
    Builder inventory sets the level here, and the MLS publishes no Summerset median on its own.
    To Ellsworth AFB
    30 min, 19.2 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
    To downtown Rapid City
    15 min, 10.0 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
    Utility pattern
    Sewer collection is provided by the City of Summerset. Water service varies by address and can include Black Hawk Water User District or Diamond D Water in Sun Valley.
    School district
    Meade 46-1 and Rapid City Area Schools 51-4, split within the cityAssignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.

Northern Hills and I-90

The Sturgis to Belle Fourche side of the Hills, with its own hospitals, schools and employers, so a job in Spearfish or Sturgis does not have to mean a Rapid City commute.

  • Typical price
    $275k to $375kMedian sold $300,000. Mount Rushmore Area MLS, all residential, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 113 closed sales.
    To Ellsworth AFB
    About an hourDriving time and distance, off peak.
    To downtown Rapid City
    About 55 to 60 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
    Utility pattern
    Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
    School district
    Belle Fourche School District 9-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
  • Typical price
    No figure published. Newell is Mount Rushmore Area MLS territory and the current feed covers only the Black Hills MLS, so any count from that feed is a floor rather than this town's price level.
    To Ellsworth AFB
    About 60 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
    To downtown Rapid City
    About 54 miles, roughly 70 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
    Utility pattern
    Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
    School district
    Newell School District 09-2Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
  • Typical price
    $400k to $600kMedian sold $475,000. Mount Rushmore Area MLS, all residential, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 199 closed sales.
    To Ellsworth AFB
    68 min, 57.0 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
    To downtown Rapid City
    53 min, 47.8 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
    Utility pattern
    City water and sewer are typical inside city-served areas. Acreage outside the city can use wells, septic systems or other service arrangements, so utilities should be confirmed by address.
    School district
    Spearfish School District 40-2Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
  • Typical price
    $300k to $450kMedian sold $365,000. Mount Rushmore Area MLS, all residential, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 97 closed sales.
    To Ellsworth AFB
    48 min, 38.2 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
    To downtown Rapid City
    33 min, 28.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
    Utility pattern
    Not recorded townwide in this guide. Verify water and sewer service for the address.
    School district
    Meade School District 46-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.

Central and Southern Hills

In the timber and on the far southern edge, where lots get larger, well and septic get common, and the drive to a full service hospital becomes part of the decision.

  • Typical price
    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.
    To Ellsworth AFB
    About 110 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
    To downtown Rapid City
    About 100 miles northeastDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
    Utility pattern
    City water and sewer inside the limits
    School district
    Edgemont School District 23-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
  • Typical price
    About $650,000 average sold, 28 sales over 24 monthsAverage sold $648,229. Black Hills MLS, single family, 24 months through August 2026, as of August 2026. 28 closed sales.
    To Ellsworth AFB
    About 35 minutes, north through Rapid City to I-90Driving time and distance, off peak.
    To downtown Rapid City
    26 min, 18.6 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
    Utility pattern
    Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
    School district
    Custer School District 16-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
  • Typical price
    About $618,000 average sold, but only 9 sales over 24 monthsAverage sold $618,449. Black Hills MLS, single family, 24 months through August 2026, as of August 2026. 9 closed sales, small sample.
    To Ellsworth AFB
    About 40 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
    To downtown Rapid City
    About 25 minutes northeastDriving time and distance, off peak.
    Utility pattern
    Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
    School district
    Hill City School District 51-2Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.

Prairie and Badlands

East of the Hills on the open prairie, where lots run larger, water is often a private well, services are thinner and the wind and the drive are the tradeoffs.

  • Typical price
    About $320,000 average sold, 20 sales over 24 monthsAverage sold $319,585. Black Hills MLS, single family, 24 months through August 2026, as of August 2026. 20 closed sales.
    To Ellsworth AFB
    About 11 miles, exit 78 to the main gate at exit 67ADistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
    To downtown Rapid City
    About 18 miles west on I-90Distance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
    Utility pattern
    Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
    School district
    New Underwood School District 51-3Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
What changes

Between Box Elder, Edgemont, Whitewood

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 corridorEdgemontCentral and Southern HillsWhitewoodNorthern Hills and I-90
County
Box ElderPennington CountyEdgemontFall River CountyWhitewoodLawrence County
Jurisdiction
Box ElderCity of Box ElderEdgemontIncorporated city of Edgemont, with Fall River County outside the limits.WhitewoodNot recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.
Corridor
Box ElderI-90EdgemontUS 18 and SD 471WhitewoodI-90 and US-85
To downtown Rapid City
Box Elder19 min, 10.9 miEdgemontAbout 100 miles northeastWhitewoodAbout 35 minutes
To Ellsworth AFB
Box Elder9 min, 2.3 miEdgemontAbout 110 milesWhitewoodAbout 40 minutes
Side by side

Box Elder, Edgemont, Whitewood

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.

Where it sits

Regiondiffers

Box Elder
Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor
Edgemont
Central and Southern Hills
Whitewood
Northern Hills and I-90

Countydiffers

Box Elder
Pennington County
Edgemont
Fall River County
Whitewood
Lawrence County

Jurisdictiondiffers

City versus county decides who provides service and who inspects the work.
Box Elder
City of Box Elder
Edgemont
Incorporated city of Edgemont, with Fall River County outside the limits.
Whitewood
Not recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.

Corridordiffers

Box Elder
I-90
Edgemont
US 18 and SD 471
Whitewood
I-90 and US-85

To downtown Rapid Citydiffers

Box Elder
19 min, 10.9 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.
Whitewood
About 35 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.

To Ellsworth AFBdiffers

Box Elder
9 min, 2.3 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.
Whitewood
About 40 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.

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.
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.
Whitewood
I-90 and US-85 are state maintained. The town streets and the roads out past them clear on their own schedule.

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.
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.
Whitewood
No town median is published for Whitewood, and it sits in Lawrence County, which the Mount Rushmore Area MLS covers rather than the Black Hills feed behind the figures here. Prices sit under Sturgis, Spearfish and Deadwood, each about ten minutes out.

Housing agediffers

Box Elder
Heavily new construction since the B-21 announcement
Edgemont
An 1890 railroad town, so mostly older stock, with about a quarter of units vacant at the 2020 count.
Whitewood
Older and modest through town, so systems matter more than finishes.

New constructiondiffers

Box Elder
Active, with subdivisions still building
Edgemont
None underway
Whitewood
Limited, mostly infill and small projects

Acreagediffers

Box Elder
Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot size.
Edgemont
Acreage parcels are common here
Whitewood
Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot size.

Typical lotdiffers

Box Elder
Small city lots, about 0.15 to 0.18 acres in the newer plats
Edgemont
Town lots inside the limits, ranch scale outside them.
Whitewood
Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot dimensions.

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.
Edgemont
Few plats here carry recorded covenants
Whitewood
Not recorded townwide in this guide. Read the recorded documents for the plat.

Utilities and rules

Utility patterndiffers

Box Elder
City water and sewer inside the limits
Edgemont
City water and sewer inside the limits
Whitewood
Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it

Waterdiffers

Box Elder
City of Box Elder municipal
Edgemont
City of Edgemont municipal water. Rural parcels are on private wells.
Whitewood
Municipal water inside the limits, a private well or a district system outside them.Read off the townwide utility pattern in the guide. The service address controls, so confirm the provider before you write an offer.

Sewerdiffers

Box Elder
City of Box Elder municipal
Edgemont
City sewer inside the limits, with private septic on rural parcels.
Whitewood
City sewer inside the limits, private septic outside them.Read off the townwide utility pattern in the guide. The service address controls, so confirm the provider before you write an offer.

Short term rentalsdiffers

Box Elder
A verify first town for rental plans, with one specific misconception the guide clears up.
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.
Whitewood
No short term rental provisions in the city code, and Rally season renting is common here under state rules.

Schools

School districtdiffers

Box Elder
Douglas School District 51-1Assignment 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.
Whitewood
Meade School District 46-1, despite being in Lawrence CountyAssignment 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.
Edgemont
Small-town grocery and convenience in Edgemont, with Hot Springs about 35 miles east for more.
Whitewood
No full-service grocery store is in Whitewood. Most larger grocery trips go to Sturgis or Spearfish.

Healthcarediffers

Box Elder
Monument Health Box Elder Clinic provides primary and urgent care in town. Hospital-level care is in Rapid City.
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.
Whitewood
Monument Health Sturgis HospitalNo hospital in Whitewood. Sturgis is the nearer of the two, with Spearfish next.

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.
Edgemont
The hundred-year-old city park, the campground, the Elk Mountains and open country in every direction.
Whitewood
Sturgis and Bear Butte State Park about eight miles east, Deadwood 10 to 12 miles southwest, Spearfish and Spearfish Canyon 10 to 12 miles northwest.

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.
Edgemont
No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.
Whitewood
23 mapped outlines, 0 with a full guideReference outlines from county and city GIS, not surveys. The recorded plat controls.

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.
Edgemont
A working BNSF crew-change town founded in 1890, at the far southern edge of the Hills below the Elk Mountains.
Whitewood
A quiet main street with Sturgis, Spearfish and Deadwood each about ten minutes out and the interstate right there.

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.
Edgemont
More town per dollar than anywhere else in the region, with its own school district and city utilities.
Whitewood
Small town prices with three larger towns about ten minutes out in three directions, in Meade 46-1 despite sitting in Lawrence County.

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.
Edgemont
A hundred miles from Rapid City, 35 from a hospital, with two unresolved questions hanging over the local economy.
Whitewood
Anything past the basics is a drive to Sturgis, Spearfish or Deadwood, and there are no published MLS figures for the town on its own.
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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ComparingBox Elder, Edgemont, Whitewood

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