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 Custer, Hermosa, Box Elder, Keystone

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

Region: CusterCentral and Southern HillsHermosaCentral and Southern HillsBox ElderRapid City and the Ellsworth corridorKeystoneCentral and Southern Hills
County: CusterCuster CountyHermosaCuster CountyBox ElderPennington CountyKeystonePennington County
Jurisdiction: CusterNot recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.HermosaIncorporated town of Hermosa, with Custer County outside the town limitsBox ElderCity of Box ElderKeystoneIncorporated town of Keystone, with unincorporated Pennington County on the surrounding hillsides.
Corridor: CusterUS-16HermosaUS 79Box ElderI-90KeystoneUS 16A
To downtown Rapid City: CusterAbout 50 to 60 minutesHermosa26 min, 18.6 miBox Elder19 min, 10.9 miKeystoneAbout 25 minutes northeast
To Ellsworth AFB: CusterAbout an hour and ten minutesHermosaAbout 35 minutes, north through Rapid City to I-90Box Elder9 min, 2.3 miKeystoneAbout 40 minutes

Side by side

Custer, Hermosa, Box Elder, Keystone

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 HillsCuster	Central and Southern HillsHermosa	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorBox Elder	Central and Southern HillsKeystone
Where it sits
Regiondiffers	Central and Southern Hills	Central and Southern Hills	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor	Central and Southern Hills
Countydiffers	Custer County	Custer County	Pennington County	Pennington County
JurisdictiondiffersCity versus county decides who provides service and who inspects the work.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.	Incorporated town of Hermosa, with Custer County outside the town limits	City of Box Elder	Incorporated town of Keystone, with unincorporated Pennington County on the surrounding hillsides.
Corridordiffers	US-16	US 79	I-90	US 16A
To downtown Rapid Citydiffers	About 50 to 60 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.	26 min, 18.6 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	19 min, 10.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 25 minutes northeastDriving time and distance, off peak.
To Ellsworth AFBdiffers	About an hour and ten minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 35 minutes, north through Rapid City to I-90Driving time and distance, off peak.	9 min, 2.3 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 40 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
Winter drivingdiffers	Winter roads are a genuine planning factor at this distance, and on acreage you need to know who maintains yours.	US 79 is state maintained and is the reason the commute works. Town streets and county roads clear on their own schedule.	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.	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.
Housing and lots
Typical pricediffers	Median sold $627,000Black Hills MLS, single family, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 7 closed sales, small sample.	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.	$340k to $400kMedian sold $367,000. Black Hills MLS, single family, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 235 closed sales.	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.
Housing agediffers	Mixed ages. Older homes near the core, newer construction toward the edges.	A mix, with older in-town stock and newer building on the edges.	Heavily new construction since the B-21 announcement	An 1883 mining town, so genuinely old stock alongside newer builds and cabins.
New constructiondiffers	Not recorded townwide in this guide. Check current permits with the city or county.	Limited, mostly infill and small projects	Active, with subdivisions still building	Limited, mostly infill and small projects
Acreagediffers	Acreage is common outside the city core, with wells and septic systems typical on many rural properties.	Acreage parcels are common here	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot size.	Some acreage, mostly platted town lots
Typical lotdiffers	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot dimensions.	Small town lots inside the limits, acreage outside them.	Small city lots, about 0.15 to 0.18 acres in the newer plats	Small and steep in town, larger on the surrounding hillsides outside the limits.
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	Not recorded townwide in this guide. Read the recorded documents for the plat.	Few plats here carry recorded covenants
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	Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
Waterdiffers	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.	Town of Hermosa water inside the limits. The Hermosa Water Users Association is a separate system, and rural parcels are commonly on private wells. Which one serves a given address has to be checked address by address.	City of Box Elder municipal	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.
Sewerdiffers	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.	Town sewer with lagoon treatment inside the limits, currently being expanded. Rural parcels are on private septic.	City of Box Elder municipal	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.
Short term rentalsdiffers	Grandfathered permits are non transferable and expire when the property sells, and the rules flip at the city line.	Hermosa sits on the road to Custer State Park, which makes short-term rental a real question here. Nothing in the public record confirms a town ordinance either way, so confirm with the town before you count on the income.	A verify first town for rental plans, with one specific misconception the guide clears up.	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.
Schools
School districtdiffers	Custer School District 16-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.	Custer School District 16-1Assignment 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.	Hill City School District 51-2Assignment 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.	Pop's Grocery Shoppe on North Ferguson Street, a full grocery in town since 2007. Anything larger is Rapid City, 26 minutes north.	Lynn's Dakotamart is a full-service grocery store in town.	Nothing full service in town. Hill City is the closest small grocery and Rapid City is the real shopping, about 25 minutes northeast.
Healthcarediffers	Monument Health Custer Hospital and clinic are in town.	No clinic in town. Monument Health Rapid City Hospital is about 22 minutes north, and Monument Health Custer Hospital is about 27 miles southwest.	Monument Health Box Elder Clinic provides primary and urgent care in town. Hospital-level care is in Rapid City.	No clinic in town. Monument Health Custer Hospital has a 24 hour emergency department, and Rapid City has the larger hospital.
Recreationdiffers	Custer State Park at the door, including Sylvan Lake, the Needles Highway, the wildlife loop and the September buffalo roundup.	Custer State Park is the back door, with Battle Creek running at the edge of town and the Buffalo Gap National Grassland to the east.	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.	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.
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.	No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.
The trade
Housing and patterndiffers	A county seat at a park entrance, with a replacement Monument Health hospital and acreage starting just past the city limits.	A working prairie town with its own grocery, library and county fairgrounds, at the point where the grassland meets the Hills.	A young city building its first downtown at Liberty Plaza on 110 acres, with roughly 800 residential units planned.	An 1883 mining camp turned tourism town at the gateway to Mount Rushmore, 240 residents and millions of visitors.
What you gaindiffers	You are inside the Hills with real acreage, Custer State Park at the door, and a new hospital in a town of about 1,900.	Elementary and middle school in town, 26 minutes from Rapid City, with larger lots and rural utility tradeoffs common outside town.	The Ellsworth main gate is in town, 9 minutes from most addresses, on city water and sewer, with the region's newest housing pipeline.	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.
What you give updiffers	Rapid City is 50 to 60 minutes and Ellsworth over an hour, grandfathered rental permits expire when a property sells, and outside the city limits there are no county building codes.	High school is 27 miles away in Custer, and the water arrangement changes parcel to parcel.	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 seasonal town with no school, no grocery and no clinic, and a housing stock where half the doors are dark in winter.

Central and Southern HillsCuster
Central and Southern HillsHermosa
Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorBox Elder
Central and Southern HillsKeystone

Where it sits

Regiondiffers

Custer: Central and Southern Hills
Hermosa: Central and Southern Hills
Box Elder: Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor
Keystone: Central and Southern Hills

Countydiffers

Custer: Custer County
Hermosa: Custer County
Box Elder: Pennington County
Keystone: Pennington County

Jurisdictiondiffers

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

Custer: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.
Hermosa: Incorporated town of Hermosa, with Custer County outside the town limits
Box Elder: City of Box Elder
Keystone: Incorporated town of Keystone, with unincorporated Pennington County on the surrounding hillsides.

Corridordiffers

Custer: US-16
Hermosa: US 79
Box Elder: I-90
Keystone: US 16A

To downtown Rapid Citydiffers

Custer: About 50 to 60 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
Hermosa: 26 min, 18.6 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Box Elder: 19 min, 10.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Keystone: About 25 minutes northeastDriving time and distance, off peak.

To Ellsworth AFBdiffers

Custer: About an hour and ten minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
Hermosa: About 35 minutes, north through Rapid City to I-90Driving time and distance, off peak.
Box Elder: 9 min, 2.3 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Keystone: About 40 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.

Winter drivingdiffers

Custer: Winter roads are a genuine planning factor at this distance, and on acreage you need to know who maintains yours.
Hermosa: US 79 is state maintained and is the reason the commute works. Town streets and county roads clear on their own schedule.
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.
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.

Housing and lots

Typical pricediffers

Custer: Median sold $627,000Black Hills MLS, single family, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 7 closed sales, small sample.
Hermosa: 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.
Box Elder: $340k to $400kMedian sold $367,000. Black Hills MLS, single family, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 235 closed sales.
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.

Housing agediffers

Custer: Mixed ages. Older homes near the core, newer construction toward the edges.
Hermosa: A mix, with older in-town stock and newer building on the edges.
Box Elder: Heavily new construction since the B-21 announcement
Keystone: An 1883 mining town, so genuinely old stock alongside newer builds and cabins.

New constructiondiffers

Custer: Not recorded townwide in this guide. Check current permits with the city or county.
Hermosa: Limited, mostly infill and small projects
Box Elder: Active, with subdivisions still building
Keystone: Limited, mostly infill and small projects

Acreagediffers

Custer: Acreage is common outside the city core, with wells and septic systems typical on many rural properties.
Hermosa: Acreage parcels are common here
Box Elder: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot size.
Keystone: Some acreage, mostly platted town lots

Typical lotdiffers

Custer: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot dimensions.
Hermosa: Small town lots inside the limits, acreage outside them.
Box Elder: Small city lots, about 0.15 to 0.18 acres in the newer plats
Keystone: Small and steep in town, larger on the surrounding hillsides outside the limits.

Covenants and HOAdiffers

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

Custer: Not recorded townwide in this guide. Read the recorded documents for the plat.
Hermosa: Few plats here carry recorded covenants
Box Elder: Not recorded townwide in this guide. Read the recorded documents for the plat.
Keystone: Few plats here carry recorded covenants

Utilities and rules

Utility patterndiffers

Custer: Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
Hermosa: Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
Box Elder: City water and sewer inside the limits
Keystone: Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it

Waterdiffers

Custer: 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.
Hermosa: Town of Hermosa water inside the limits. The Hermosa Water Users Association is a separate system, and rural parcels are commonly on private wells. Which one serves a given address has to be checked address by address.
Box Elder: City of Box Elder municipal
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.

Sewerdiffers

Custer: 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.
Hermosa: Town sewer with lagoon treatment inside the limits, currently being expanded. Rural parcels are on private septic.
Box Elder: City of Box Elder municipal
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.

Short term rentalsdiffers

Custer: Grandfathered permits are non transferable and expire when the property sells, and the rules flip at the city line.
Hermosa: Hermosa sits on the road to Custer State Park, which makes short-term rental a real question here. Nothing in the public record confirms a town ordinance either way, so confirm with the town before you count on the income.
Box Elder: A verify first town for rental plans, with one specific misconception the guide clears up.
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.

Schools

School districtdiffers

Custer: Custer School District 16-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
Hermosa: Custer School District 16-1Assignment 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.
Keystone: Hill City School District 51-2Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.

Daily errands

Groceriesdiffers

Custer: Lynn's Dakotamart is a full-service grocery store in town.
Hermosa: Pop's Grocery Shoppe on North Ferguson Street, a full grocery in town since 2007. Anything larger is Rapid City, 26 minutes north.
Box Elder: Lynn's Dakotamart is a full-service grocery store in town.
Keystone: Nothing full service in town. Hill City is the closest small grocery and Rapid City is the real shopping, about 25 minutes northeast.

Healthcarediffers

Custer: Monument Health Custer Hospital and clinic are in town.
Hermosa: No clinic in town. Monument Health Rapid City Hospital is about 22 minutes north, and Monument Health Custer Hospital is about 27 miles southwest.
Box Elder: Monument Health Box Elder Clinic provides primary and urgent care in town. Hospital-level care is in Rapid City.
Keystone: No clinic in town. Monument Health Custer Hospital has a 24 hour emergency department, and Rapid City has the larger hospital.

Recreationdiffers

Custer: Custer State Park at the door, including Sylvan Lake, the Needles Highway, the wildlife loop and the September buffalo roundup.
Hermosa: Custer State Park is the back door, with Battle Creek running at the edge of town and the Buffalo Gap National Grassland to the east.
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.
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.

Mapped subdivisions

Outlines on filediffers

Custer: No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.
Hermosa: 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.
Keystone: No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.

The trade

Housing and patterndiffers

Custer: A county seat at a park entrance, with a replacement Monument Health hospital and acreage starting just past the city limits.
Hermosa: A working prairie town with its own grocery, library and county fairgrounds, at the point where the grassland meets the Hills.
Box Elder: A young city building its first downtown at Liberty Plaza on 110 acres, with roughly 800 residential units planned.
Keystone: An 1883 mining camp turned tourism town at the gateway to Mount Rushmore, 240 residents and millions of visitors.

What you gaindiffers

Custer: You are inside the Hills with real acreage, Custer State Park at the door, and a new hospital in a town of about 1,900.
Hermosa: Elementary and middle school in town, 26 minutes from Rapid City, with larger lots and rural utility tradeoffs common outside town.
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.
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.

What you give updiffers

Custer: Rapid City is 50 to 60 minutes and Ellsworth over an hour, grandfathered rental permits expire when a property sells, and outside the city limits there are no county building codes.
Hermosa: High school is 27 miles away in Custer, and the water arrangement changes parcel to parcel.
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.
Keystone: A seasonal town with no school, no grocery and no clinic, and a housing stock where half the doors are dark in winter.

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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ComparingCuster, Hermosa, Box Elder, Keystone

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