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 Buffalo Gap, Keystone, Box Elder, Summerset

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

Region: Buffalo GapCentral and Southern HillsKeystoneCentral and Southern HillsBox ElderRapid City and the Ellsworth corridorSummersetRapid City and the Ellsworth corridor
County: Buffalo GapCuster CountyKeystonePennington CountyBox ElderPennington CountySummersetMeade County
Jurisdiction: Buffalo GapIncorporated town of Buffalo Gap, with Custer County outside the limits.KeystoneIncorporated town of Keystone, with unincorporated Pennington County on the surrounding hillsides.Box ElderCity of Box ElderSummersetCity of Summerset, incorporated July 2005
Corridor: Buffalo GapSD 79KeystoneUS 16ABox ElderI-90SummersetI-90
To downtown Rapid City: Buffalo GapAbout 45 miles, roughly 56 minutesKeystoneAbout 25 minutes northeastBox Elder19 min, 10.9 miSummerset15 min, 10.0 mi
To Ellsworth AFB: Buffalo GapAbout 55 milesKeystoneAbout 40 minutesBox Elder9 min, 2.3 miSummerset30 min, 19.2 mi

Side by side

Buffalo Gap, Keystone, Box Elder, Summerset

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	Central and Southern HillsBuffalo Gap	Central and Southern HillsKeystone	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorBox Elder	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorSummerset
Where it sits
Regiondiffers	Central and Southern Hills	Central and Southern Hills	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor
Countydiffers	Custer County	Pennington County	Pennington County	Meade County
JurisdictiondiffersCity versus county decides who provides service and who inspects the work.	Incorporated town of Buffalo Gap, with Custer County outside the limits.	Incorporated town of Keystone, with unincorporated Pennington County on the surrounding hillsides.	City of Box Elder	City of Summerset, incorporated July 2005
Corridordiffers	SD 79	US 16A	I-90	I-90
To downtown Rapid Citydiffers	About 45 miles, roughly 56 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 25 minutes northeastDriving time and distance, off peak.	19 min, 10.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	15 min, 10.0 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
To Ellsworth AFBdiffers	About 55 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.	About 40 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.	9 min, 2.3 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	30 min, 19.2 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Winter drivingdiffers	Highway 79 is state maintained and is the connection to Hot Springs and Rapid City. Off it, this is open prairie with blowing snow.	Black Hills elevation on canyon roads, and a town that empties out for the season. Iron Mountain Road and the scenic routes are not winter commuting roads.	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.
Housing and lots
Typical pricediffers	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.	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.	$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.
Housing agediffers	An 1885 to 1939 historic core with an aging housing stock and about a fifth of units vacant.	An 1883 mining town, so genuinely old stock alongside newer builds and cabins.	Heavily new construction since the B-21 announcement	Mostly 2000s to present
New constructiondiffers	None underway	Limited, mostly infill and small projects	Active, with subdivisions still building	Limited, mostly infill and small projects
Acreagediffers	Acreage parcels are common here	Some acreage, mostly platted town lots	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.
Typical lotdiffers	A handful of historic townsite lots, with grassland and ranch ground around them.	Small and steep in town, larger on the surrounding hillsides outside the limits.	Small city lots, about 0.15 to 0.18 acres in the newer plats	Wide lots on new streets
Covenants and HOAdiffersCovenants are recorded per plat. The title commitment lists what binds the parcel.	Few plats here carry recorded covenants	Few plats here carry recorded covenants	Not recorded townwide in this guide. Read the recorded documents for the plat.	Recorded covenants on some plats, none on others
Utilities and rules
Utility patterndiffers	Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it	Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it	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.
Waterdiffers	Town of Buffalo Gap municipal water from a single well, serving about 93 connections. Rural parcels are on private wells.	Town of Keystone municipal water inside the limits, drawn from town wells, with no violations on its current record. Parcels outside the town limits are on private wells.	City of Box Elder municipal	Black Hawk Water User District, or Diamond D Water in Sun Valley
Sewerdiffers	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.	Confirm with the town before you rely on it. The town operates public works, but I have not been able to verify from the public record whether it runs a collection system or which parcels it reaches. Outside the limits, expect private septic.	City of Box Elder municipal	City of Summerset
Short term rentalsdiffers	This is hunting and grassland country rather than a tourism corridor. Demand is seasonal and specific.	A 2 percent municipal lodging tax applies to transient stays. Whether a separate short term rental ordinance exists is not clear from the public record, so confirm with the town in writing.	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.
Schools
School districtdiffers	Hot Springs School District 23-2, despite the town being in Custer CountyAssignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.	Hill City School District 51-2Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.	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.
Daily errands
Groceriesdiffers	Nothing full service in town. Hot Springs, about 14 miles south, is where errands happen.	Nothing full service in town. Hill City is the closest small grocery and Rapid City is the real shopping, about 25 minutes northeast.	Lynn's Dakotamart is a full-service grocery store in town.	Not recorded in this guide. Check what is open near the address.
Healthcarediffers	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.	No clinic in town. Monument Health Custer Hospital has a 24 hour emergency department, and Rapid City has the larger hospital.	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.
Recreationdiffers	Buffalo Gap National Grassland, hunting, rock collecting and OHV country, with the Cheyenne River nearby.	Mount Rushmore is past the town boundary, the 1880 Train runs from the Winter Street depot, and Custer State Park and the Norbeck Scenic Byway are close.	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.
Mapped subdivisions
Outlines on filediffers	No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.	No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.	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.
The trade
Housing and patterndiffers	A nearly intact turn-of-the-century western streetscape on the National Register, mostly quiet, at the gate to the grassland.	An 1883 mining camp turned tourism town at the gateway to Mount Rushmore, 240 residents and millions of visitors.	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.
What you gaindiffers	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.	Nightly rental demand runs about as high as anywhere in the Black Hills, if the rules and the covenants check out for the specific property.	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.
What you give updiffers	No school, no store and no services in town, an aging water system with an open compliance item, and an undocumented sewer situation.	A seasonal town with no school, no grocery and no clinic, and a housing stock where half the doors are dark in winter.	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.

Central and Southern HillsBuffalo Gap
Central and Southern HillsKeystone
Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorBox Elder
Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorSummerset

Where it sits

Regiondiffers

Buffalo Gap: Central and Southern Hills
Keystone: Central and Southern Hills
Box Elder: Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor
Summerset: Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor

Countydiffers

Buffalo Gap: Custer County
Keystone: Pennington County
Box Elder: Pennington County
Summerset: Meade County

Jurisdictiondiffers

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

Buffalo Gap: Incorporated town of Buffalo Gap, with Custer County outside the limits.
Keystone: Incorporated town of Keystone, with unincorporated Pennington County on the surrounding hillsides.
Box Elder: City of Box Elder
Summerset: City of Summerset, incorporated July 2005

Corridordiffers

Buffalo Gap: SD 79
Keystone: US 16A
Box Elder: I-90
Summerset: I-90

To downtown Rapid Citydiffers

Buffalo Gap: About 45 miles, roughly 56 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
Keystone: About 25 minutes northeastDriving time and distance, off peak.
Box Elder: 19 min, 10.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Summerset: 15 min, 10.0 miDriving time and distance, off peak.

To Ellsworth AFBdiffers

Buffalo Gap: About 55 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
Keystone: About 40 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
Box Elder: 9 min, 2.3 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Summerset: 30 min, 19.2 miDriving time and distance, off peak.

Winter drivingdiffers

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.
Keystone: Black Hills elevation on canyon roads, and a town that empties out for the season. Iron Mountain Road and the scenic routes are not winter commuting roads.
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.

Housing and lots

Typical pricediffers

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.
Keystone: 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.
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.

Housing agediffers

Buffalo Gap: An 1885 to 1939 historic core with an aging housing stock and about a fifth of units vacant.
Keystone: An 1883 mining town, so genuinely old stock alongside newer builds and cabins.
Box Elder: Heavily new construction since the B-21 announcement
Summerset: Mostly 2000s to present

New constructiondiffers

Buffalo Gap: None underway
Keystone: Limited, mostly infill and small projects
Box Elder: Active, with subdivisions still building
Summerset: Limited, mostly infill and small projects

Acreagediffers

Buffalo Gap: Acreage parcels are common here
Keystone: Some acreage, mostly platted town lots
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.

Typical lotdiffers

Buffalo Gap: A handful of historic townsite lots, with grassland and ranch ground around them.
Keystone: Small and steep in town, larger on the surrounding hillsides outside the limits.
Box Elder: Small city lots, about 0.15 to 0.18 acres in the newer plats
Summerset: Wide lots on new streets

Covenants and HOAdiffers

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

Buffalo Gap: Few plats here carry recorded covenants
Keystone: Few plats here carry recorded covenants
Box Elder: Not recorded townwide in this guide. Read the recorded documents for the plat.
Summerset: Recorded covenants on some plats, none on others

Utilities and rules

Utility patterndiffers

Buffalo Gap: Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
Keystone: Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
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.

Waterdiffers

Buffalo Gap: Town of Buffalo Gap municipal water from a single well, serving about 93 connections. Rural parcels are on private wells.
Keystone: Town of Keystone municipal water inside the limits, drawn from town wells, with no violations on its current record. Parcels outside the town limits are on private wells.
Box Elder: City of Box Elder municipal
Summerset: Black Hawk Water User District, or Diamond D Water in Sun Valley

Sewerdiffers

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.
Keystone: Confirm with the town before you rely on it. The town operates public works, but I have not been able to verify from the public record whether it runs a collection system or which parcels it reaches. Outside the limits, expect private septic.
Box Elder: City of Box Elder municipal
Summerset: City of Summerset

Short term rentalsdiffers

Buffalo Gap: This is hunting and grassland country rather than a tourism corridor. Demand is seasonal and specific.
Keystone: A 2 percent municipal lodging tax applies to transient stays. Whether a separate short term rental ordinance exists is not clear from the public record, so confirm with the town in writing.
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.

Schools

School districtdiffers

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.
Keystone: Hill City School District 51-2Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
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.

Daily errands

Groceriesdiffers

Buffalo Gap: Nothing full service in town. Hot Springs, about 14 miles south, is where errands happen.
Keystone: Nothing full service in town. Hill City is the closest small grocery and Rapid City is the real shopping, about 25 minutes northeast.
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.

Healthcarediffers

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.
Keystone: No clinic in town. Monument Health Custer Hospital has a 24 hour emergency department, and Rapid City has the larger hospital.
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.

Recreationdiffers

Buffalo Gap: Buffalo Gap National Grassland, hunting, rock collecting and OHV country, with the Cheyenne River nearby.
Keystone: Mount Rushmore is past the town boundary, the 1880 Train runs from the Winter Street depot, and Custer State Park and the Norbeck Scenic Byway are close.
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.

Mapped subdivisions

Outlines on filediffers

Buffalo Gap: No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.
Keystone: No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.
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.

The trade

Housing and patterndiffers

Buffalo Gap: A nearly intact turn-of-the-century western streetscape on the National Register, mostly quiet, at the gate to the grassland.
Keystone: An 1883 mining camp turned tourism town at the gateway to Mount Rushmore, 240 residents and millions of visitors.
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.

What you gaindiffers

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.
Keystone: Nightly rental demand runs about as high as anywhere in the Black Hills, if the rules and the covenants check out for the specific property.
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.

What you give updiffers

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.
Keystone: A seasonal town with no school, no grocery and no clinic, and a housing stock where half the doors are dark in winter.
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.

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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ComparingBuffalo Gap, Keystone, Box Elder, Summerset

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