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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6 of 25 communities
Under $400kClose to EllsworthClose to Rapid CityShort commuteNew construction availableAcreage availableCity water and sewerSmaller marketMore ruralEstablished housingNewer housingClear filtersClear 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
Selected, 3 of 4
Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor
Everything within about twenty five minutes of downtown Rapid City or the Ellsworth main gate, where most of the newer inventory, the shortest commutes and the jurisdiction questions about city versus county service are.
- Typical price
- Unincorporated, so closings report under Rapid City and Meade County rather than a Black Hawk median. Lot size and outbuildings move the price more than the street does.
- To Ellsworth AFB
- About 30 minutes, the same I-90 run as Summerset just northDriving time and distance, off peak.
- To downtown Rapid City
- About 12 to 15 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
- Utility pattern
- Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
- School district
- Rapid City Area Schools 51-4 for most addressesAssignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
- 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
- No published median exists for the community. Closed sales on the specific street are the only figure worth quoting here.
- To Ellsworth AFB
- About 15 minutes northDriving time and distance, off peak.
- To downtown Rapid City
- About 6 miles northwestDistance 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
- Split between Douglas 51-1 and Rapid City Area 51-4. Address specific.Assignment 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.
What changes
Between Colonial Pine Hills, St. Onge, Wall
The rows below are the ones where these do not read the same. Ordered as the table runs, not by importance.
- Region
- Colonial Pine HillsRapid City and the Ellsworth corridorSt. OngeNorthern Hills and I-90WallPrairie and Badlands
- County
- Colonial Pine HillsPennington CountySt. OngeLawrence CountyWallPennington County
- Jurisdiction
- Colonial Pine HillsUnincorporated. There is no city government. Pennington County zones the lots, issues the permits and patrols the roads.St. OngeUnincorporated. No town government. Lawrence County zones the parcels and the Sheriff patrols them.WallIncorporated town of Wall, with Pennington County outside the limits.
- Corridor
- Colonial Pine HillsUS 16 and Sheridan Lake RoadSt. OngeSD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at WhitewoodWallI-90 exits 109 and 110
- To downtown Rapid City
- Colonial Pine HillsRoughly 6 miles northeastSt. OngeAbout 44 miles, roughly 48 minutesWallAbout 50 miles west on I-90
- To Ellsworth AFB
- Colonial Pine HillsAbout 25 to 30 minutes, through or around Rapid CitySt. OngeAbout 45 milesWallAbout 43 miles west
Side by side
Colonial Pine Hills, St. Onge, Wall
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.
| Attribute | Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorColonial Pine Hills | Northern Hills and I-90St. Onge | Prairie and BadlandsWall |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where it sits | |||
| Regiondiffers | Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor | Northern Hills and I-90 | Prairie and Badlands |
| Countydiffers | Pennington County | Lawrence County | Pennington County |
| JurisdictiondiffersCity versus county decides who provides service and who inspects the work. | Unincorporated. There is no city government. Pennington County zones the lots, issues the permits and patrols the roads. | Unincorporated. No town government. Lawrence County zones the parcels and the Sheriff patrols them. | Incorporated town of Wall, with Pennington County outside the limits. |
| Corridordiffers | US 16 and Sheridan Lake Road | SD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at Whitewood | I-90 exits 109 and 110 |
| To downtown Rapid Citydiffers | Roughly 6 miles northeastDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel. | 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. |
| To Ellsworth AFBdiffers | About 25 to 30 minutes, through or around Rapid CityDriving 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. |
| Winter drivingdiffers | You are 900 feet above Rapid City on grades, and some subdivision roads are privately plowed. Snow tires are not a luxury item up here. | 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. |
| Housing and lots | |||
| Typical pricediffers | About $683,000 average sold in the Sheridan Lake Road MLS area, 71 sales over 12 monthsAverage sold $682,615. Black Hills MLS, single family, 12 months through August 2026, as of August 2026. 71 closed sales. | 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. |
| Housing agediffers | Platted over several decades, so 1970s cabins and current builds sit on the same road. | 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. |
| New construction | Limited, mostly infill and small projects | Limited, mostly infill and small projects | Limited, mostly infill and small projects |
| Acreage | Acreage parcels are common here | Acreage parcels are common here | Acreage parcels are common here |
| Typical lotdiffers | Large by Rapid City standards, from generous lots to several acres. | Small townsite lots, with acreage and ranch ground around them. | Platted town lots, and then it jumps straight to ranch scale. |
| Covenants and HOAdiffersCovenants are recorded per plat. The title commitment lists what binds the parcel. | Recorded covenants on some plats, none on others | Few plats here carry recorded covenants | Few plats here carry recorded covenants |
| Utilities and rules | |||
| Utility patterndiffers | Mostly private well and septic | Mostly private well and septic | City water and sewer inside the limits |
| Waterdiffers | Depends entirely on the parcel. The Colonial Pine Hills Sanitary District serves roughly 430 connections. Several separate water associations serve other pockets, and the rest of the area is on private wells. | 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. |
| Sewerdiffers | Private on-site septic throughout, permitted by Pennington County. There is no municipal sewer and no lagoon serving the area. | 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. |
| Short term rentalsdiffers | This is unincorporated county, so there is no municipal short-term rental ordinance. County zoning and subdivision covenants are what govern, and the covenants out here are often stricter than the county. | 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. |
| Schools | |||
| School districtdiffers | Rapid City Area School District 51-4Assignment 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. |
| Daily errands | |||
| Groceriesdiffers | Everything is in Rapid City, roughly fifteen minutes down US 16. | Nothing in town. Spearfish is eleven miles southeast and Belle Fourche thirteen northwest. | The Wall Food Center on South Boulevard West. |
| Healthcarediffers | No clinic up here. Monument Health Rapid City Hospital and the Rapid City clinics are the answer. | 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. |
| Recreationdiffers | Sheridan Lake, Pactola, the Mickelson Trail and the whole central Hills network start where the subdivisions end. | 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. |
| The trade | |||
| Housing and patterndiffers | Ponderosa pine subdivisions platted over decades, no two alike, on county rules six miles from the city. | 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. |
| What you gaindiffers | Hills elevation, trees and lot size with a Rapid City commute and Rapid City schools. | 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. |
| What you give updiffers | Well or association water, septic on every parcel, private roads in places, and wildfire exposure that affects insurance. | 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. |
- Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorColonial Pine Hills
- Northern Hills and I-90St. Onge
- Prairie and BadlandsWall
Where it sits
Regiondiffers
- Colonial Pine Hills
- Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor
- St. Onge
- Northern Hills and I-90
- Wall
- Prairie and Badlands
Countydiffers
- Colonial Pine Hills
- Pennington County
- St. Onge
- Lawrence County
- Wall
- Pennington County
Jurisdictiondiffers
City versus county decides who provides service and who inspects the work.- Colonial Pine Hills
- Unincorporated. There is no city government. Pennington County zones the lots, issues the permits and patrols the roads.
- 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.
Corridordiffers
- Colonial Pine Hills
- US 16 and Sheridan Lake Road
- St. Onge
- SD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at Whitewood
- Wall
- I-90 exits 109 and 110
To downtown Rapid Citydiffers
- Colonial Pine Hills
- Roughly 6 miles northeastDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
- 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.
To Ellsworth AFBdiffers
- Colonial Pine Hills
- About 25 to 30 minutes, through or around Rapid CityDriving 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.
Winter drivingdiffers
- Colonial Pine Hills
- You are 900 feet above Rapid City on grades, and some subdivision roads are privately plowed. Snow tires are not a luxury item up here.
- 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.
Housing and lots
Typical pricediffers
- Colonial Pine Hills
- About $683,000 average sold in the Sheridan Lake Road MLS area, 71 sales over 12 monthsAverage sold $682,615. Black Hills MLS, single family, 12 months through August 2026, as of August 2026. 71 closed sales.
- 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.
Housing agediffers
- Colonial Pine Hills
- Platted over several decades, so 1970s cabins and current builds sit on the same road.
- 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.
New construction
- Colonial Pine Hills
- Limited, mostly infill and small projects
- St. Onge
- Limited, mostly infill and small projects
- Wall
- Limited, mostly infill and small projects
Acreage
- Colonial Pine Hills
- Acreage parcels are common here
- St. Onge
- Acreage parcels are common here
- Wall
- Acreage parcels are common here
Typical lotdiffers
- Colonial Pine Hills
- Large by Rapid City standards, from generous lots to several acres.
- St. Onge
- Small townsite lots, with acreage and ranch ground around them.
- Wall
- Platted town lots, and then it jumps straight to ranch scale.
Covenants and HOAdiffers
Covenants are recorded per plat. The title commitment lists what binds the parcel.- Colonial Pine Hills
- Recorded covenants on some plats, none on others
- St. Onge
- Few plats here carry recorded covenants
- Wall
- Few plats here carry recorded covenants
Utilities and rules
Utility patterndiffers
- Colonial Pine Hills
- Mostly private well and septic
- St. Onge
- Mostly private well and septic
- Wall
- City water and sewer inside the limits
Waterdiffers
- Colonial Pine Hills
- Depends entirely on the parcel. The Colonial Pine Hills Sanitary District serves roughly 430 connections. Several separate water associations serve other pockets, and the rest of the area is on private wells.
- 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.
Sewerdiffers
- Colonial Pine Hills
- Private on-site septic throughout, permitted by Pennington County. There is no municipal sewer and no lagoon serving the area.
- 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.
Short term rentalsdiffers
- Colonial Pine Hills
- This is unincorporated county, so there is no municipal short-term rental ordinance. County zoning and subdivision covenants are what govern, and the covenants out here are often stricter than the county.
- 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.
Schools
School districtdiffers
- Colonial Pine Hills
- Rapid City Area School District 51-4Assignment 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.
Daily errands
Groceriesdiffers
- Colonial Pine Hills
- Everything is in Rapid City, roughly fifteen minutes down US 16.
- St. Onge
- Nothing in town. Spearfish is eleven miles southeast and Belle Fourche thirteen northwest.
- Wall
- The Wall Food Center on South Boulevard West.
Healthcarediffers
- Colonial Pine Hills
- No clinic up here. Monument Health Rapid City Hospital and the Rapid City clinics are the answer.
- 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.
Recreationdiffers
- Colonial Pine Hills
- Sheridan Lake, Pactola, the Mickelson Trail and the whole central Hills network start where the subdivisions end.
- 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.
The trade
Housing and patterndiffers
- Colonial Pine Hills
- Ponderosa pine subdivisions platted over decades, no two alike, on county rules six miles from the city.
- 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.
What you gaindiffers
- Colonial Pine Hills
- Hills elevation, trees and lot size with a Rapid City commute and Rapid City schools.
- 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.
What you give updiffers
- Colonial Pine Hills
- Well or association water, septic on every parcel, private roads in places, and wildfire exposure that affects insurance.
- 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.
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
Want to talk through the tradeoffs?
Two towns can look identical in a table and feel nothing alike on a Tuesday night in February. Call or text and tell me which rows above are the ones you cannot live with, and we can work the list down from there.
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Send the address and we can talk it through. The details that change from one property to the next are jurisdiction, water and sewer, the school the district assigns, covenants, road maintenance and the rest of what never shows up on a listing.