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, Spearfish, Buffalo Gap, St. Onge

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 HillsSpearfishNorthern Hills and I-90Buffalo GapCentral and Southern HillsSt. OngeNorthern Hills and I-90
County: CusterCuster CountySpearfishLawrence CountyBuffalo GapCuster CountySt. OngeLawrence County
Jurisdiction: CusterNot recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.SpearfishNot recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.Buffalo GapIncorporated town of Buffalo Gap, with Custer County outside the limits.St. OngeUnincorporated. No town government. Lawrence County zones the parcels and the Sheriff patrols them.
Corridor: CusterUS-16SpearfishI-90Buffalo GapSD 79St. OngeSD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at Whitewood
To downtown Rapid City: CusterAbout 50 to 60 minutesSpearfish53 min, 47.8 miBuffalo GapAbout 45 miles, roughly 56 minutesSt. OngeAbout 44 miles, roughly 48 minutes
To Ellsworth AFB: CusterAbout an hour and ten minutesSpearfish68 min, 57.0 miBuffalo GapAbout 55 milesSt. OngeAbout 45 miles

Side by side

Custer, Spearfish, Buffalo Gap, St. Onge

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	Northern Hills and I-90Spearfish	Central and Southern HillsBuffalo Gap	Northern Hills and I-90St. Onge
Where it sits
Regiondiffers	Central and Southern Hills	Northern Hills and I-90	Central and Southern Hills	Northern Hills and I-90
Countydiffers	Custer County	Lawrence County	Custer County	Lawrence 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.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.	Incorporated town of Buffalo Gap, with Custer County outside the limits.	Unincorporated. No town government. Lawrence County zones the parcels and the Sheriff patrols them.
Corridordiffers	US-16	I-90	SD 79	SD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at Whitewood
To downtown Rapid Citydiffers	About 50 to 60 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.	53 min, 47.8 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 45 miles, roughly 56 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 44 miles, roughly 48 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
To Ellsworth AFBdiffers	About an hour and ten minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.	68 min, 57.0 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 55 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.	About 45 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
Winter drivingdiffers	Winter roads are a genuine planning factor at this distance, and on acreage you need to know who maintains yours.	Chinook winds off the hills are a genuine feature of winter in this corridor.	Highway 79 is state maintained and is the connection to Hot Springs and Rapid City. Off it, this is open prairie with blowing snow.	Highway 34 is state maintained and connects three directions. County and private roads off it are a different conversation.
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.	$400k to $600kMedian sold $475,000. Mount Rushmore Area MLS, all residential, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 199 closed sales.	One single family sale shows in the Black Hills MLS over 24 months, at $80,000. One closing is a sample of one rather than a price level, so read it that way.	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.
Housing agediffers	Mixed ages. Older homes near the core, newer construction toward the edges.	Older stock in the middle, edge subdivisions built 1996 to 2023	An 1885 to 1939 historic core with an aging housing stock and about a fifth of units vacant.	An 1891 townsite with genuinely old buildings, surrounded by ranch and acreage property of every era.
New constructiondiffers	Not recorded townwide in this guide. Check current permits with the city or county.	New construction remains active on the edges of town, including areas such as Sky Ridge and other newer developments.	None underway	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 is available around Spearfish, primarily on surrounding Lawrence County ground rather than in the city core.	Acreage parcels are common here	Acreage parcels are common here
Typical lotdiffers	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot dimensions.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot dimensions.	A handful of historic townsite lots, with grassland and ranch ground around them.	Small townsite lots, with acreage and ranch ground around them.
Covenants and HOAdiffersCovenants are recorded per plat. The title commitment lists what binds the parcel.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. Read the recorded documents for the plat.	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	Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it	City water and sewer are typical inside city-served areas. Acreage outside the city can use wells, septic systems or other service arrangements, so utilities should be confirmed by address.	Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it	Mostly private well and septic
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.	City water inside the Spearfish limits. Acreage outside the limits runs on a private well or a rural water district.Read off the townwide utility pattern in the guide. The service address controls, so confirm the provider before you write an offer.	Town of Buffalo Gap municipal water from a single well, serving about 93 connections. Rural parcels are 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.
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.	City sewer inside the Spearfish limits, private septic on acreage outside them.Read off the townwide utility pattern in the guide. The service address controls, so confirm the provider before you write an offer.	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.	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.
Short term rentalsdiffers	Grandfathered permits are non transferable and expire when the property sells, and the rules flip at the city line.	The city studied rules in 2023 and 2024 and maintains an official short term rental page. Verify the current ordinance first.	This is hunting and grassland country rather than a tourism corridor. Demand is seasonal and specific.	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.
Schools
School districtdiffers	Custer School District 16-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.	Spearfish School District 40-2Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.	Hot Springs School District 23-2, despite the town being in Custer CountyAssignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.	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.
Daily errands
Groceriesdiffers	Lynn's Dakotamart is a full-service grocery store in town.	Full-service grocery options in town include Walmart, Safeway and Lueders Food Centers.	Nothing full service in town. Hot Springs, about 14 miles south, is where errands happen.	Nothing in town. Spearfish is eleven miles southeast and Belle Fourche thirteen northwest.
Healthcarediffers	Monument Health Custer Hospital and clinic are in town.	Monument Health Spearfish Hospital and outpatient clinics are in town.	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.	Monument Health Spearfish Hospital, a 35 bed facility with a 24 hour emergency department, about 18 minutes away.
Recreationdiffers	Custer State Park at the door, including Sylvan Lake, the Needles Highway, the wildlife loop and the September buffalo roundup.	D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery, Black Hills State University events, and Terry Peak and Deadwood a short drive south.	Buffalo Gap National Grassland, hunting, rock collecting and OHV country, with the Cheyenne River nearby.	Creek bottoms, hay ground and hunting country, with Spearfish Canyon and the northern Hills half an hour away.
Mapped subdivisions
Outlines on filediffers	No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.	25 mapped outlines, 13 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 county seat at a park entrance, with a replacement Monument Health hospital and acreage starting just past the city limits.	A university town with a walkable middle, growing fast enough that new construction has moved to the edges.	A nearly intact turn-of-the-century western streetscape on the National Register, mostly quiet, at the gate to the grassland.	An 1891 French-Canadian railroad townsite that is now a cattle auction crossroads and an acreage corridor.
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.	A downtown you can walk across, Black Hills State and Spearfish Canyon out the back door, on city water and sewer.	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.	The cheapest ground in the northern Hills that still puts you eleven miles from a hospital and sixteen from three towns.
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.	The highest median sold price of the region's higher volume markets at $475,000 across 199 sales, and Rapid City is 53 minutes on the interstate with the Ellsworth gate 68.	No school, no store and no services in town, an aging water system with an open compliance item, and an undocumented sewer situation.	A three-way school district split you have to verify per parcel, and no services of any kind in town.

Central and Southern HillsCuster
Northern Hills and I-90Spearfish
Central and Southern HillsBuffalo Gap
Northern Hills and I-90St. Onge

Where it sits

Regiondiffers

Custer: Central and Southern Hills
Spearfish: Northern Hills and I-90
Buffalo Gap: Central and Southern Hills
St. Onge: Northern Hills and I-90

Countydiffers

Custer: Custer County
Spearfish: Lawrence County
Buffalo Gap: Custer County
St. Onge: Lawrence 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.
Spearfish: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.
Buffalo Gap: Incorporated town of Buffalo Gap, with Custer County outside the limits.
St. Onge: Unincorporated. No town government. Lawrence County zones the parcels and the Sheriff patrols them.

Corridordiffers

Custer: US-16
Spearfish: I-90
Buffalo Gap: SD 79
St. Onge: SD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at Whitewood

To downtown Rapid Citydiffers

Custer: About 50 to 60 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
Spearfish: 53 min, 47.8 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Buffalo Gap: About 45 miles, roughly 56 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
St. Onge: About 44 miles, roughly 48 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.

To Ellsworth AFBdiffers

Custer: About an hour and ten minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
Spearfish: 68 min, 57.0 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Buffalo Gap: About 55 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
St. Onge: About 45 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.

Winter drivingdiffers

Custer: Winter roads are a genuine planning factor at this distance, and on acreage you need to know who maintains yours.
Spearfish: Chinook winds off the hills are a genuine feature of winter in this corridor.
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.
St. Onge: Highway 34 is state maintained and connects three directions. County and private roads off it are a different conversation.

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.
Spearfish: $400k to $600kMedian sold $475,000. Mount Rushmore Area MLS, all residential, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 199 closed sales.
Buffalo Gap: One single family sale shows in the Black Hills MLS over 24 months, at $80,000. One closing is a sample of one rather than a price level, so read it that way.
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.

Housing agediffers

Custer: Mixed ages. Older homes near the core, newer construction toward the edges.
Spearfish: Older stock in the middle, edge subdivisions built 1996 to 2023
Buffalo Gap: An 1885 to 1939 historic core with an aging housing stock and about a fifth of units vacant.
St. Onge: An 1891 townsite with genuinely old buildings, surrounded by ranch and acreage property of every era.

New constructiondiffers

Custer: Not recorded townwide in this guide. Check current permits with the city or county.
Spearfish: New construction remains active on the edges of town, including areas such as Sky Ridge and other newer developments.
Buffalo Gap: None underway
St. Onge: 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.
Spearfish: Acreage is available around Spearfish, primarily on surrounding Lawrence County ground rather than in the city core.
Buffalo Gap: Acreage parcels are common here
St. Onge: Acreage parcels are common here

Typical lotdiffers

Custer: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot dimensions.
Spearfish: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot dimensions.
Buffalo Gap: A handful of historic townsite lots, with grassland and ranch ground around them.
St. Onge: Small townsite lots, with acreage and ranch ground around them.

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.
Spearfish: Recorded covenants on some plats, none on others
Buffalo Gap: Few plats here carry recorded covenants
St. Onge: Few plats here carry recorded covenants

Utilities and rules

Utility patterndiffers

Custer: Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
Spearfish: City water and sewer are typical inside city-served areas. Acreage outside the city can use wells, septic systems or other service arrangements, so utilities should be confirmed by address.
Buffalo Gap: Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
St. Onge: Mostly private well and septic

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.
Spearfish: City water inside the Spearfish limits. Acreage outside the limits runs on a private well or a rural water district.Read off the townwide utility pattern in the guide. The service address controls, so confirm the provider before you write an offer.
Buffalo Gap: Town of Buffalo Gap municipal water from a single well, serving about 93 connections. Rural parcels are 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.

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.
Spearfish: City sewer inside the Spearfish limits, private septic on acreage outside them.Read off the townwide utility pattern in the guide. The service address controls, so confirm the provider before you write an offer.
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.
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.

Short term rentalsdiffers

Custer: Grandfathered permits are non transferable and expire when the property sells, and the rules flip at the city line.
Spearfish: The city studied rules in 2023 and 2024 and maintains an official short term rental page. Verify the current ordinance first.
Buffalo Gap: This is hunting and grassland country rather than a tourism corridor. Demand is seasonal and specific.
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.

Schools

School districtdiffers

Custer: Custer School District 16-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
Spearfish: Spearfish School District 40-2Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
Buffalo Gap: Hot Springs School District 23-2, despite the town being in Custer CountyAssignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
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.

Daily errands

Groceriesdiffers

Custer: Lynn's Dakotamart is a full-service grocery store in town.
Spearfish: Full-service grocery options in town include Walmart, Safeway and Lueders Food Centers.
Buffalo Gap: Nothing full service in town. Hot Springs, about 14 miles south, is where errands happen.
St. Onge: Nothing in town. Spearfish is eleven miles southeast and Belle Fourche thirteen northwest.

Healthcarediffers

Custer: Monument Health Custer Hospital and clinic are in town.
Spearfish: Monument Health Spearfish Hospital and outpatient clinics are in town.
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.
St. Onge: Monument Health Spearfish Hospital, a 35 bed facility with a 24 hour emergency department, about 18 minutes away.

Recreationdiffers

Custer: Custer State Park at the door, including Sylvan Lake, the Needles Highway, the wildlife loop and the September buffalo roundup.
Spearfish: D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery, Black Hills State University events, and Terry Peak and Deadwood a short drive south.
Buffalo Gap: Buffalo Gap National Grassland, hunting, rock collecting and OHV country, with the Cheyenne River nearby.
St. Onge: Creek bottoms, hay ground and hunting country, with Spearfish Canyon and the northern Hills half an hour away.

Mapped subdivisions

Outlines on filediffers

Custer: No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.
Spearfish: 25 mapped outlines, 13 with a full guideReference outlines from county and city GIS, not surveys. The recorded plat controls.
Buffalo Gap: No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.
St. Onge: 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.
Spearfish: A university town with a walkable middle, growing fast enough that new construction has moved to the edges.
Buffalo Gap: A nearly intact turn-of-the-century western streetscape on the National Register, mostly quiet, at the gate to the grassland.
St. Onge: An 1891 French-Canadian railroad townsite that is now a cattle auction crossroads and an acreage corridor.

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.
Spearfish: A downtown you can walk across, Black Hills State and Spearfish Canyon out the back door, on city water and sewer.
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.
St. Onge: The cheapest ground in the northern Hills that still puts you eleven miles from a hospital and sixteen from three towns.

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.
Spearfish: The highest median sold price of the region's higher volume markets at $475,000 across 199 sales, and Rapid City is 53 minutes on the interstate with the Ellsworth gate 68.
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.
St. Onge: A three-way school district split you have to verify per parcel, and no services of any kind in town.

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, Spearfish, Buffalo Gap, St. Onge

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