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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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

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What changes

Between Box Elder, Summerset, Edgemont, Belle Fourche

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 corridorSummersetRapid City and the Ellsworth corridorEdgemontCentral and Southern HillsBelle FourcheNorthern Hills and I-90
County: Box ElderPennington CountySummersetMeade CountyEdgemontFall River CountyBelle FourcheButte County
Jurisdiction: Box ElderCity of Box ElderSummersetCity of Summerset, incorporated July 2005EdgemontIncorporated city of Edgemont, with Fall River County outside the limits.Belle FourcheNot recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.
Corridor: Box ElderI-90SummersetI-90EdgemontUS 18 and SD 471Belle FourcheUS-85 and SD-34
To downtown Rapid City: Box Elder19 min, 10.9 miSummerset15 min, 10.0 miEdgemontAbout 100 miles northeastBelle FourcheAbout 55 to 60 minutes
To Ellsworth AFB: Box Elder9 min, 2.3 miSummerset30 min, 19.2 miEdgemontAbout 110 milesBelle FourcheAbout an hour

Side by side

Box Elder, Summerset, Edgemont, Belle Fourche

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 corridorSummerset	Central and Southern HillsEdgemont	Northern Hills and I-90Belle Fourche
Where it sits
Regiondiffers	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor	Central and Southern Hills	Northern Hills and I-90
Countydiffers	Pennington County	Meade County	Fall River County	Butte County
JurisdictiondiffersCity versus county decides who provides service and who inspects the work.	City of Box Elder	City of Summerset, incorporated July 2005	Incorporated city of Edgemont, with Fall River County outside the limits.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.
Corridordiffers	I-90	I-90	US 18 and SD 471	US-85 and SD-34
To downtown Rapid Citydiffers	19 min, 10.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	15 min, 10.0 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.	About 55 to 60 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
To Ellsworth AFBdiffers	9 min, 2.3 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	30 min, 19.2 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 110 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.	About an hourDriving time and distance, off peak.
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.	The commute is I-90, so winter driving here is interstate driving rather than a two lane canyon road.	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.	Out on the acreage the question is who maintains the road in winter, and it is worth asking in writing.
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.	Builder inventory sets the level here, and the MLS publishes no Summerset median on its own.	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.	$275k to $375kMedian sold $300,000. Mount Rushmore Area MLS, all residential, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 113 closed sales.
Housing agediffers	Heavily new construction since the B-21 announcement	Mostly 2000s to present	An 1890 railroad town, so mostly older stock, with about a quarter of units vacant at the 2020 count.	Older homes in town, newer construction on the edges
New constructiondiffers	Active, with subdivisions still building	Limited, mostly infill and small projects	None underway	Limited, mostly infill and small projects
Acreagediffers	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot size.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot size.	Acreage parcels are common here	Larger lots and acreage become more common around the edges of Belle Fourche and in nearby rural subdivisions.
Typical lotdiffers	Small city lots, about 0.15 to 0.18 acres in the newer plats	Wide lots on new streets	Town lots inside the limits, ranch scale outside them.	Generous in town, acreage out past it
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	Few plats here carry recorded covenants	Not recorded townwide in this guide. Read the recorded documents for the plat.
Utilities and rules
Utility patterndiffers	City water and sewer inside the limits	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.	City water and sewer inside the limits	Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
Waterdiffers	City of Box Elder municipal	Black Hawk Water User District, or Diamond D Water in Sun Valley	City of Edgemont municipal water. Rural parcels are on private wells.	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	City of Box Elder municipal	City of Summerset	City sewer inside the limits, with private septic on rural parcels.	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	A verify first town for rental plans, with one specific misconception the guide clears up.	The thinnest rules on this list, which means a rental plan has to be pinned down for the specific address.	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.	General zoning and state rules do the work in Belle Fourche. Confirm the lodging use category with city hall for the address before you count on rental income.
Schools
School districtdiffers	Douglas School District 51-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the 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.	Edgemont School District 23-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.	Belle Fourche School District 9-1Assignment 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.	Not recorded in this guide. Check what is open near the address.	Small-town grocery and convenience in Edgemont, with Hot Springs about 35 miles east for more.	Full-service grocery options in town include Lueders Food Centers and Lynn's Dakotamart.
Healthcarediffers	Monument Health Box Elder Clinic provides primary and urgent care in town. Hospital-level care is in Rapid City.	Hospital-level care is in Rapid City, about 15 minutes south.	No hospital in town. Fall River Health Services in Hot Springs is a 25 bed critical access hospital with a 24 hour emergency department.	Monument Health has a clinic in Belle Fourche. Hospital-level care is available in Spearfish.
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.	Leisure Lane, Steamboat and Castlewood parks are the everyday recreation. Leisure Lane is the big one, with playgrounds, basketball, picnic shelters, open grass and the community garden.	The hundred-year-old city park, the campground, the Elk Mountains and open country in every direction.	The Geographic Center of the Nation monument, the Tri-State Museum, and the Black Hills Roundup rodeo every Fourth of July week since 1918.
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.	2 mapped outlines, 2 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.
The trade
Housing and patterndiffers	A young city building its first downtown at Liberty Plaza on 110 acres, with roughly 800 residential units planned.	New streets and builder inventory, with Highlands at Norman Ranch adding over 100 first phase homesites across more than 300 acres.	A working BNSF crew-change town founded in 1890, at the far southern edge of the Hills below the Elk Mountains.	A ranching hub with a working main street, mature trees and a rodeo the whole town turns out for.
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.	Newer houses on city sewer with Hills views at a price central Rapid City does not offer, and Highlands at Norman Ranch is still selling first phase homesites.	More town per dollar than anywhere else in the region, with its own school district and city utilities.	A $300,000 median across 113 trailing twelve month sales, under Spearfish, Sturgis and Deadwood, with acreage out past town.
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.	You are fifteen minutes out from most of Rapid City's services and you drive I-90 to get to them in the winter. The city is also split between Meade 46-1 and Rapid City Area Schools 51-4, so the district follows the address.	A hundred miles from Rapid City, 35 from a hospital, with two unresolved questions hanging over the local economy.	Rapid City is 55 to 60 minutes and Ellsworth about an hour, so this is a commute you pick on purpose.

Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorBox Elder
Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorSummerset
Central and Southern HillsEdgemont
Northern Hills and I-90Belle Fourche

Where it sits

Regiondiffers

Box Elder: Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor
Summerset: Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor
Edgemont: Central and Southern Hills
Belle Fourche: Northern Hills and I-90

Countydiffers

Box Elder: Pennington County
Summerset: Meade County
Edgemont: Fall River County
Belle Fourche: Butte County

Jurisdictiondiffers

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

Box Elder: City of Box Elder
Summerset: City of Summerset, incorporated July 2005
Edgemont: Incorporated city of Edgemont, with Fall River County outside the limits.
Belle Fourche: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.

Corridordiffers

Box Elder: I-90
Summerset: I-90
Edgemont: US 18 and SD 471
Belle Fourche: US-85 and SD-34

To downtown Rapid Citydiffers

Box Elder: 19 min, 10.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Summerset: 15 min, 10.0 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.
Belle Fourche: About 55 to 60 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.

To Ellsworth AFBdiffers

Box Elder: 9 min, 2.3 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Summerset: 30 min, 19.2 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.
Belle Fourche: About an hourDriving 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.
Summerset: The commute is I-90, so winter driving here is interstate driving rather than a two lane canyon road.
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.
Belle Fourche: Out on the acreage the question is who maintains the road in winter, and it is worth asking in writing.

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.
Summerset: Builder inventory sets the level here, and the MLS publishes no Summerset median on its own.
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.
Belle Fourche: $275k to $375kMedian sold $300,000. Mount Rushmore Area MLS, all residential, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 113 closed sales.

Housing agediffers

Box Elder: Heavily new construction since the B-21 announcement
Summerset: Mostly 2000s to present
Edgemont: An 1890 railroad town, so mostly older stock, with about a quarter of units vacant at the 2020 count.
Belle Fourche: Older homes in town, newer construction on the edges

New constructiondiffers

Box Elder: Active, with subdivisions still building
Summerset: Limited, mostly infill and small projects
Edgemont: None underway
Belle Fourche: Limited, mostly infill and small projects

Acreagediffers

Box Elder: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot size.
Summerset: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot size.
Edgemont: Acreage parcels are common here
Belle Fourche: Larger lots and acreage become more common around the edges of Belle Fourche and in nearby rural subdivisions.

Typical lotdiffers

Box Elder: Small city lots, about 0.15 to 0.18 acres in the newer plats
Summerset: Wide lots on new streets
Edgemont: Town lots inside the limits, ranch scale outside them.
Belle Fourche: Generous in town, acreage out past it

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.
Summerset: Recorded covenants on some plats, none on others
Edgemont: Few plats here carry recorded covenants
Belle Fourche: 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
Summerset: 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.
Edgemont: City water and sewer inside the limits
Belle Fourche: Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it

Waterdiffers

Box Elder: City of Box Elder municipal
Summerset: Black Hawk Water User District, or Diamond D Water in Sun Valley
Edgemont: City of Edgemont municipal water. Rural parcels are on private wells.
Belle Fourche: 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
Summerset: City of Summerset
Edgemont: City sewer inside the limits, with private septic on rural parcels.
Belle Fourche: 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.
Summerset: The thinnest rules on this list, which means a rental plan has to be pinned down for the specific address.
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.
Belle Fourche: General zoning and state rules do the work in Belle Fourche. Confirm the lodging use category with city hall for the address before you count on rental income.

Schools

School districtdiffers

Box Elder: Douglas School District 51-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
Summerset: 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.
Edgemont: Edgemont School District 23-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
Belle Fourche: Belle Fourche School District 9-1Assignment 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.
Summerset: Not recorded in this guide. Check what is open near the address.
Edgemont: Small-town grocery and convenience in Edgemont, with Hot Springs about 35 miles east for more.
Belle Fourche: Full-service grocery options in town include Lueders Food Centers and Lynn's Dakotamart.

Healthcarediffers

Box Elder: Monument Health Box Elder Clinic provides primary and urgent care in town. Hospital-level care is in Rapid City.
Summerset: Hospital-level care is in Rapid City, about 15 minutes south.
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.
Belle Fourche: Monument Health has a clinic in Belle Fourche. Hospital-level care is available in Spearfish.

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.
Summerset: Leisure Lane, Steamboat and Castlewood parks are the everyday recreation. Leisure Lane is the big one, with playgrounds, basketball, picnic shelters, open grass and the community garden.
Edgemont: The hundred-year-old city park, the campground, the Elk Mountains and open country in every direction.
Belle Fourche: The Geographic Center of the Nation monument, the Tri-State Museum, and the Black Hills Roundup rodeo every Fourth of July week since 1918.

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.
Summerset: 2 mapped outlines, 2 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.
Belle Fourche: 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.
Summerset: New streets and builder inventory, with Highlands at Norman Ranch adding over 100 first phase homesites across more than 300 acres.
Edgemont: A working BNSF crew-change town founded in 1890, at the far southern edge of the Hills below the Elk Mountains.
Belle Fourche: A ranching hub with a working main street, mature trees and a rodeo the whole town turns out for.

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.
Summerset: Newer houses on city sewer with Hills views at a price central Rapid City does not offer, and Highlands at Norman Ranch is still selling first phase homesites.
Edgemont: More town per dollar than anywhere else in the region, with its own school district and city utilities.
Belle Fourche: A $300,000 median across 113 trailing twelve month sales, under Spearfish, Sturgis and Deadwood, with acreage out past town.

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.
Summerset: You are fifteen minutes out from most of Rapid City's services and you drive I-90 to get to them in the winter. The city is also split between Meade 46-1 and Rapid City Area Schools 51-4, so the district follows the address.
Edgemont: A hundred miles from Rapid City, 35 from a hospital, with two unresolved questions hanging over the local economy.
Belle Fourche: Rapid City is 55 to 60 minutes and Ellsworth about an hour, so this is a commute you pick on purpose.

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, Summerset, Edgemont, Belle Fourche

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