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.

Narrow it

7 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

Find a community

Selected, 4 of 4

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.

Sturgis
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.
4 is the most that fits. Drop one first.Guide

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.

Edgemont
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.
4 is the most that fits. Drop one first.Guide
Hermosa
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.
4 is the most that fits. Drop one first.Guide
Hot Springs
Typical price
Median sold $315,150Black Hills MLS, single family, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 24 closed sales.
To Ellsworth AFB
About an hour and fifteen minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
To downtown Rapid City
About 60 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
Utility pattern
Not recorded townwide in this guide. Verify water and sewer service for the address.
School district
Hot Springs School District 23-2Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
4 is the most that fits. Drop one first.Guide
Keystone
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.
4 is the most that fits. Drop one first.Guide

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.

New Underwood
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.
4 is the most that fits. Drop one first.Guide
Wall
Typical price
About $270,000 average sold, 19 sales over 24 monthsAverage sold $270,435. Black Hills MLS, single family, 24 months through August 2026, as of August 2026. 19 closed sales.
To Ellsworth AFB
About 43 miles westDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
To downtown Rapid City
About 50 miles west on I-90Distance 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
Wall School District 51-5Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
Selected Guide

What changes

Between Box Elder, St. Onge, Wall, Buffalo Gap

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 corridorSt. OngeNorthern Hills and I-90WallPrairie and BadlandsBuffalo GapCentral and Southern Hills
County: Box ElderPennington CountySt. OngeLawrence CountyWallPennington CountyBuffalo GapCuster County
Jurisdiction: Box ElderCity of Box ElderSt. OngeUnincorporated. No town government. Lawrence County zones the parcels and the Sheriff patrols them.WallIncorporated town of Wall, with Pennington County outside the limits.Buffalo GapIncorporated town of Buffalo Gap, with Custer County outside the limits.
Corridor: Box ElderI-90St. OngeSD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at WhitewoodWallI-90 exits 109 and 110Buffalo GapSD 79
To downtown Rapid City: Box Elder19 min, 10.9 miSt. OngeAbout 44 miles, roughly 48 minutesWallAbout 50 miles west on I-90Buffalo GapAbout 45 miles, roughly 56 minutes
To Ellsworth AFB: Box Elder9 min, 2.3 miSt. OngeAbout 45 milesWallAbout 43 miles westBuffalo GapAbout 55 miles

Side by side

Box Elder, St. Onge, Wall, Buffalo Gap

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	Northern Hills and I-90St. Onge	Prairie and BadlandsWall	Central and Southern HillsBuffalo Gap
Where it sits
Regiondiffers	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor	Northern Hills and I-90	Prairie and Badlands	Central and Southern Hills
Countydiffers	Pennington County	Lawrence County	Pennington County	Custer County
JurisdictiondiffersCity versus county decides who provides service and who inspects the work.	City of Box Elder	Unincorporated. No town government. Lawrence County zones the parcels and the Sheriff patrols them.	Incorporated town of Wall, with Pennington County outside the limits.	Incorporated town of Buffalo Gap, with Custer County outside the limits.
Corridordiffers	I-90	SD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at Whitewood	I-90 exits 109 and 110	SD 79
To downtown Rapid Citydiffers	19 min, 10.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 44 miles, roughly 48 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 50 miles west on I-90Distance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.	About 45 miles, roughly 56 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
To Ellsworth AFBdiffers	9 min, 2.3 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 45 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.	About 43 miles westDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.	About 55 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.	Highway 34 is state maintained and connects three directions. County and private roads off it are a different conversation.	I-90 is the lifeline and it is state maintained, but this is open prairie and I-90 does close in a ground blizzard. Plan for that a few times a winter.	Highway 79 is state maintained and is the connection to Hot Springs and Rapid City. Off it, this is open prairie with blowing snow.
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.	No figure published. St. Onge is Mount Rushmore Area MLS territory and the current feed covers only the Black Hills MLS, so a zero here would be a gap in the data rather than a fact about the market.	About $270,000 average sold, 19 sales over 24 monthsAverage sold $270,435. Black Hills MLS, single family, 24 months through August 2026, as of August 2026. 19 closed sales.	One single family sale shows in the Black Hills MLS over 24 months, at $80,000. One closing is a sample of one rather than a price level, so read it that way.
Housing agediffers	Heavily new construction since the B-21 announcement	An 1891 townsite with genuinely old buildings, surrounded by ranch and acreage property of every era.	Older stock through town, with a municipal demolition incentive program in place for blighted property.	An 1885 to 1939 historic core with an aging housing stock and about a fifth of units vacant.
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 parcels are common here	Acreage parcels are common here
Typical lotdiffers	Small city lots, about 0.15 to 0.18 acres in the newer plats	Small townsite lots, with acreage and ranch ground around them.	Platted town lots, and then it jumps straight to ranch scale.	A handful of historic townsite lots, with grassland and ranch ground around 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.	Few plats here carry recorded covenants	Few plats here carry recorded covenants	Few plats here carry recorded covenants
Utilities and rules
Utility patterndiffers	City water and sewer inside the limits	Mostly private well and septic	City water and sewer inside the limits	Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
Waterdiffers	City of Box Elder municipal	The Saint Onge Sewer and Water Company serves about 78 connections around the townsite, with a clean compliance record. Parcels outside that system are on private wells. There is no rural water district covering this area.	Town of Wall municipal water inside the limits. Rural parcels are on private wells.	Town of Buffalo Gap municipal water from a single well, serving about 93 connections. Rural parcels are on private wells.
Sewerdiffers	City of Box Elder municipal	The water company's name implies sewer service, but I have not been able to verify from the public record which parcels it reaches. Assume private septic outside the townsite and confirm the rest before closing.	Town sewer inside the limits, with private septic on rural parcels.	Not documented in the public record. There is no municipal wastewater project or discharge permit on file that I could find. Confirm with the town finance officer before assuming either town sewer or septic.
Short term rentalsdiffers	A verify first town for rental plans, with one specific misconception the guide clears up.	Unincorporated Lawrence County, so no municipal ordinance applies. Note that unincorporated Lawrence County declined to require a vacation home rental permit, so there is no county permit to obtain either.	This is genuine seasonal tourism territory at a national park gate. Confirm any town requirement, and note that Wall Drug houses many of its own seasonal workers, which removes demand from the local rental market.	This is hunting and grassland country rather than a tourism corridor. Demand is seasonal and specific.
Schools
School districtdiffers	Douglas School District 51-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.	Spearfish 40-2 at the townsite, with Belle Fourche 09-1 to the north and Meade 46-1 to the east. Parcel specific.Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.	Wall School District 51-5Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.	Hot Springs School District 23-2, despite the town being in Custer CountyAssignment 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.	Nothing in town. Spearfish is eleven miles southeast and Belle Fourche thirteen northwest.	The Wall Food Center on South Boulevard West.	Nothing full service in town. Hot Springs, about 14 miles south, is where errands happen.
Healthcarediffers	Monument Health Box Elder Clinic provides primary and urgent care in town. Hospital-level care is in Rapid City.	Monument Health Spearfish Hospital, a 35 bed facility with a 24 hour emergency department, about 18 minutes away.	The Monument Health Wall Clinic on 7th Avenue is in town. The nearest hospital is Monument Health Rapid City, roughly 50 miles west.	Fall River Health Services in Hot Springs, a 25 bed critical access hospital with a 24 hour emergency department and a rural health clinic, about 18 minutes away.
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.	Creek bottoms, hay ground and hunting country, with Spearfish Canyon and the northern Hills half an hour away.	Badlands National Park about seven miles south, Buffalo Gap National Grassland all around, the National Grasslands Visitor Center on Main Street and the Wall rodeo arena.	Buffalo Gap National Grassland, hunting, rock collecting and OHV country, with the Cheyenne River nearby.
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.	No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.	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.	An 1891 French-Canadian railroad townsite that is now a cattle auction crossroads and an acreage corridor.	A complete small prairie town with its own school, clinic and grocery, at the northern gate to the Badlands.	A nearly intact turn-of-the-century western streetscape on the National Register, mostly quiet, at the gate to the grassland.
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.	The cheapest ground in the northern Hills that still puts you eleven miles from a hospital and sixteen from three towns.	Everything a town needs in one place, 50 miles from the city, at prairie prices.	Eighteen minutes from the hospital in Hot Springs, with 600,000 acres of grassland out the door and one MLS closing in two years to price from.
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.	A three-way school district split you have to verify per parcel, and no services of any kind in town.	Fifty miles to a hospital and to real shopping, and an economy that runs on a three month season.	No school, no store and no services in town, an aging water system with an open compliance item, and an undocumented sewer situation.

Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorBox Elder
Northern Hills and I-90St. Onge
Prairie and BadlandsWall
Central and Southern HillsBuffalo Gap

Where it sits

Regiondiffers

Box Elder: Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor
St. Onge: Northern Hills and I-90
Wall: Prairie and Badlands
Buffalo Gap: Central and Southern Hills

Countydiffers

Box Elder: Pennington County
St. Onge: Lawrence County
Wall: Pennington County
Buffalo Gap: Custer County

Jurisdictiondiffers

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

Box Elder: City of Box Elder
St. Onge: Unincorporated. No town government. Lawrence County zones the parcels and the Sheriff patrols them.
Wall: Incorporated town of Wall, with Pennington County outside the limits.
Buffalo Gap: Incorporated town of Buffalo Gap, with Custer County outside the limits.

Corridordiffers

Box Elder: I-90
St. Onge: SD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at Whitewood
Wall: I-90 exits 109 and 110
Buffalo Gap: SD 79

To downtown Rapid Citydiffers

Box Elder: 19 min, 10.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
St. Onge: About 44 miles, roughly 48 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
Wall: About 50 miles west on I-90Distance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
Buffalo Gap: About 45 miles, roughly 56 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.

To Ellsworth AFBdiffers

Box Elder: 9 min, 2.3 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
St. Onge: About 45 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
Wall: About 43 miles westDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
Buffalo Gap: About 55 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.
St. Onge: Highway 34 is state maintained and connects three directions. County and private roads off it are a different conversation.
Wall: I-90 is the lifeline and it is state maintained, but this is open prairie and I-90 does close in a ground blizzard. Plan for that a few times a winter.
Buffalo Gap: Highway 79 is state maintained and is the connection to Hot Springs and Rapid City. Off it, this is open prairie with blowing snow.

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.
St. Onge: No figure published. St. Onge is Mount Rushmore Area MLS territory and the current feed covers only the Black Hills MLS, so a zero here would be a gap in the data rather than a fact about the market.
Wall: About $270,000 average sold, 19 sales over 24 monthsAverage sold $270,435. Black Hills MLS, single family, 24 months through August 2026, as of August 2026. 19 closed sales.
Buffalo Gap: One single family sale shows in the Black Hills MLS over 24 months, at $80,000. One closing is a sample of one rather than a price level, so read it that way.

Housing agediffers

Box Elder: Heavily new construction since the B-21 announcement
St. Onge: An 1891 townsite with genuinely old buildings, surrounded by ranch and acreage property of every era.
Wall: Older stock through town, with a municipal demolition incentive program in place for blighted property.
Buffalo Gap: An 1885 to 1939 historic core with an aging housing stock and about a fifth of units vacant.

New constructiondiffers

Box Elder: Active, with subdivisions still building
St. Onge: Limited, mostly infill and small projects
Wall: Limited, mostly infill and small projects
Buffalo Gap: None underway

Acreagediffers

Box Elder: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot size.
St. Onge: Acreage parcels are common here
Wall: Acreage parcels are common here
Buffalo Gap: Acreage parcels are common here

Typical lotdiffers

Box Elder: Small city lots, about 0.15 to 0.18 acres in the newer plats
St. Onge: Small townsite lots, with acreage and ranch ground around them.
Wall: Platted town lots, and then it jumps straight to ranch scale.
Buffalo Gap: A handful of historic townsite lots, with grassland and ranch ground around 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.
St. Onge: Few plats here carry recorded covenants
Wall: Few plats here carry recorded covenants
Buffalo Gap: Few plats here carry recorded covenants

Utilities and rules

Utility patterndiffers

Box Elder: City water and sewer inside the limits
St. Onge: Mostly private well and septic
Wall: City water and sewer inside the limits
Buffalo Gap: Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it

Waterdiffers

Box Elder: City of Box Elder municipal
St. Onge: The Saint Onge Sewer and Water Company serves about 78 connections around the townsite, with a clean compliance record. Parcels outside that system are on private wells. There is no rural water district covering this area.
Wall: Town of Wall municipal water inside the limits. Rural parcels are on private wells.
Buffalo Gap: Town of Buffalo Gap municipal water from a single well, serving about 93 connections. Rural parcels are on private wells.

Sewerdiffers

Box Elder: City of Box Elder municipal
St. Onge: The water company's name implies sewer service, but I have not been able to verify from the public record which parcels it reaches. Assume private septic outside the townsite and confirm the rest before closing.
Wall: Town sewer inside the limits, with private septic on rural parcels.
Buffalo Gap: Not documented in the public record. There is no municipal wastewater project or discharge permit on file that I could find. Confirm with the town finance officer before assuming either town sewer or septic.

Short term rentalsdiffers

Box Elder: A verify first town for rental plans, with one specific misconception the guide clears up.
St. Onge: Unincorporated Lawrence County, so no municipal ordinance applies. Note that unincorporated Lawrence County declined to require a vacation home rental permit, so there is no county permit to obtain either.
Wall: This is genuine seasonal tourism territory at a national park gate. Confirm any town requirement, and note that Wall Drug houses many of its own seasonal workers, which removes demand from the local rental market.
Buffalo Gap: This is hunting and grassland country rather than a tourism corridor. Demand is seasonal and specific.

Schools

School districtdiffers

Box Elder: Douglas School District 51-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
St. Onge: Spearfish 40-2 at the townsite, with Belle Fourche 09-1 to the north and Meade 46-1 to the east. Parcel specific.Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
Wall: Wall School District 51-5Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
Buffalo Gap: Hot Springs School District 23-2, despite the town being in Custer 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.
St. Onge: Nothing in town. Spearfish is eleven miles southeast and Belle Fourche thirteen northwest.
Wall: The Wall Food Center on South Boulevard West.
Buffalo Gap: Nothing full service in town. Hot Springs, about 14 miles south, is where errands happen.

Healthcarediffers

Box Elder: Monument Health Box Elder Clinic provides primary and urgent care in town. Hospital-level care is in Rapid City.
St. Onge: Monument Health Spearfish Hospital, a 35 bed facility with a 24 hour emergency department, about 18 minutes away.
Wall: The Monument Health Wall Clinic on 7th Avenue is in town. The nearest hospital is Monument Health Rapid City, roughly 50 miles west.
Buffalo Gap: Fall River Health Services in Hot Springs, a 25 bed critical access hospital with a 24 hour emergency department and a rural health clinic, about 18 minutes away.

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.
St. Onge: Creek bottoms, hay ground and hunting country, with Spearfish Canyon and the northern Hills half an hour away.
Wall: Badlands National Park about seven miles south, Buffalo Gap National Grassland all around, the National Grasslands Visitor Center on Main Street and the Wall rodeo arena.
Buffalo Gap: Buffalo Gap National Grassland, hunting, rock collecting and OHV country, with the Cheyenne River nearby.

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.
St. Onge: No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.
Wall: No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.
Buffalo Gap: 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.
St. Onge: An 1891 French-Canadian railroad townsite that is now a cattle auction crossroads and an acreage corridor.
Wall: A complete small prairie town with its own school, clinic and grocery, at the northern gate to the Badlands.
Buffalo Gap: A nearly intact turn-of-the-century western streetscape on the National Register, mostly quiet, at the gate to the grassland.

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.
St. Onge: The cheapest ground in the northern Hills that still puts you eleven miles from a hospital and sixteen from three towns.
Wall: Everything a town needs in one place, 50 miles from the city, at prairie prices.
Buffalo Gap: Eighteen minutes from the hospital in Hot Springs, with 600,000 acres of grassland out the door and one MLS closing in two years to price from.

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.
St. Onge: A three-way school district split you have to verify per parcel, and no services of any kind in town.
Wall: Fifty miles to a hospital and to real shopping, and an economy that runs on a three month season.
Buffalo Gap: No school, no store and no services in town, an aging water system with an open compliance item, and an undocumented sewer situation.

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

Contact

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ComparingBox Elder, St. Onge, Wall, Buffalo Gap

Compare Clear

Compare Black Hills Communities

The five facts that decide a shortlist

Northern Hills and I-90

Sturgis

Central and Southern Hills

Edgemont

Hermosa

Hot Springs

Keystone