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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1 of 25 communities

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

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

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Selected, 4 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.

Rapid City
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.
4 is the most that fits. Drop one first.Guide

What changes

Between Edgemont, Custer, St. Onge, Buffalo Gap

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

Region: EdgemontCentral and Southern HillsCusterCentral and Southern HillsSt. OngeNorthern Hills and I-90Buffalo GapCentral and Southern Hills
County: EdgemontFall River CountyCusterCuster CountySt. OngeLawrence CountyBuffalo GapCuster County
Jurisdiction: EdgemontIncorporated city of Edgemont, with Fall River County outside the limits.CusterNot recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.St. OngeUnincorporated. No town government. Lawrence County zones the parcels and the Sheriff patrols them.Buffalo GapIncorporated town of Buffalo Gap, with Custer County outside the limits.
Corridor: EdgemontUS 18 and SD 471CusterUS-16St. OngeSD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at WhitewoodBuffalo GapSD 79
To downtown Rapid City: EdgemontAbout 100 miles northeastCusterAbout 50 to 60 minutesSt. OngeAbout 44 miles, roughly 48 minutesBuffalo GapAbout 45 miles, roughly 56 minutes
To Ellsworth AFB: EdgemontAbout 110 milesCusterAbout an hour and ten minutesSt. OngeAbout 45 milesBuffalo GapAbout 55 miles

Side by side

Edgemont, Custer, St. Onge, Buffalo Gap

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 HillsEdgemont	Central and Southern HillsCuster	Northern Hills and I-90St. Onge	Central and Southern HillsBuffalo Gap
Where it sits
Regiondiffers	Central and Southern Hills	Central and Southern Hills	Northern Hills and I-90	Central and Southern Hills
Countydiffers	Fall River County	Custer County	Lawrence County	Custer County
JurisdictiondiffersCity versus county decides who provides service and who inspects the work.	Incorporated city of Edgemont, with Fall River County outside the limits.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.	Unincorporated. No town government. Lawrence County zones the parcels and the Sheriff patrols them.	Incorporated town of Buffalo Gap, with Custer County outside the limits.
Corridordiffers	US 18 and SD 471	US-16	SD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at Whitewood	SD 79
To downtown Rapid Citydiffers	About 100 miles northeastDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.	About 50 to 60 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 44 miles, roughly 48 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 45 miles, roughly 56 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
To Ellsworth AFBdiffers	About 110 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.	About an hour and ten minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 45 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.	About 55 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
Winter drivingdiffers	Cold semi-arid country with a recorded low of 40 below. US 18 is the lifeline and it is a long way to anywhere in a storm.	Winter roads are a genuine planning factor at this distance, and on acreage you need to know who maintains yours.	Highway 34 is state maintained and connects three directions. County and private roads off it are a different conversation.	Highway 79 is state maintained and is the connection to Hot Springs and Rapid City. Off it, this is open prairie with blowing snow.
Housing and lots
Typical pricediffers	About $155,000 average sold, 13 sales over 24 monthsAverage sold $155,285. Black Hills MLS, single family, 24 months through August 2026, as of August 2026. 13 closed sales.	Median sold $627,000Black Hills MLS, single family, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 7 closed sales, small sample.	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.	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.
Housing agediffers	An 1890 railroad town, so mostly older stock, with about a quarter of units vacant at the 2020 count.	Mixed ages. Older homes near the core, newer construction toward the edges.	An 1891 townsite with genuinely old buildings, surrounded by ranch and acreage property of every era.	An 1885 to 1939 historic core with an aging housing stock and about a fifth of units vacant.
New constructiondiffers	None underway	Not recorded townwide in this guide. Check current permits with the city or county.	Limited, mostly infill and small projects	None underway
Acreagediffers	Acreage parcels are common here	Acreage is common outside the city core, with wells and septic systems typical on many rural properties.	Acreage parcels are common here	Acreage parcels are common here
Typical lotdiffers	Town lots inside the limits, ranch scale outside them.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot dimensions.	Small townsite lots, with acreage and ranch ground around them.	A handful of historic townsite lots, with grassland and ranch ground around them.
Covenants and HOAdiffersCovenants are recorded per plat. The title commitment lists what binds the parcel.	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	Few plats here carry recorded covenants
Utilities and rules
Utility patterndiffers	City water and sewer inside the limits	Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it	Mostly private well and septic	Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
Waterdiffers	City of Edgemont municipal water. Rural parcels are on private wells.	Municipal water inside the limits, a private well or a district system outside them.Read off the townwide utility pattern in the guide. The service address controls, so confirm the provider before you write an offer.	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 Buffalo Gap municipal water from a single well, serving about 93 connections. Rural parcels are on private wells.
Sewerdiffers	City sewer inside the limits, with private septic on rural parcels.	City sewer inside the limits, private septic outside them.Read off the townwide utility pattern in the guide. The service address controls, so confirm the provider before you write an offer.	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.	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.
Short term rentalsdiffers	Edgemont is not a tourism town. Short-term rental demand here is work crews, hunting season and Rally traffic passing through, not visitors staying to see something.	Grandfathered permits are non transferable and expire when the property sells, and the rules flip at the city line.	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 hunting and grassland country rather than a tourism corridor. Demand is seasonal and specific.
Schools
School districtdiffers	Edgemont School District 23-1Assignment 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.	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.	Hot Springs School District 23-2, despite the town being in Custer CountyAssignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
Daily errands
Groceriesdiffers	Small-town grocery and convenience in Edgemont, with Hot Springs about 35 miles east for more.	Lynn's Dakotamart is a full-service grocery store in town.	Nothing in town. Spearfish is eleven miles southeast and Belle Fourche thirteen northwest.	Nothing full service in town. Hot Springs, about 14 miles south, is where errands happen.
Healthcarediffers	No hospital in town. Fall River Health Services in Hot Springs is a 25 bed critical access hospital with a 24 hour emergency department.	Monument Health Custer Hospital and clinic are in town.	Monument Health Spearfish Hospital, a 35 bed facility with a 24 hour emergency department, about 18 minutes away.	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.
Recreationdiffers	The hundred-year-old city park, the campground, the Elk Mountains and open country in every direction.	Custer State Park at the door, including Sylvan Lake, the Needles Highway, the wildlife loop and the September buffalo roundup.	Creek bottoms, hay ground and hunting country, with Spearfish Canyon and the northern Hills half an hour away.	Buffalo Gap National Grassland, hunting, rock collecting and OHV country, with the Cheyenne River nearby.
The trade
Housing and patterndiffers	A working BNSF crew-change town founded in 1890, at the far southern edge of the Hills below the Elk Mountains.	A county seat at a park entrance, with a replacement Monument Health hospital and acreage starting just past the city limits.	An 1891 French-Canadian railroad townsite that is now a cattle auction crossroads and an acreage corridor.	A nearly intact turn-of-the-century western streetscape on the National Register, mostly quiet, at the gate to the grassland.
What you gaindiffers	More town per dollar than anywhere else in the region, with its own school district and city utilities.	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.	The cheapest ground in the northern Hills that still puts you eleven miles from a hospital and sixteen from three towns.	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.
What you give updiffers	A hundred miles from Rapid City, 35 from a hospital, with two unresolved questions hanging over the local economy.	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.	A three-way school district split you have to verify per parcel, and no services of any kind in town.	No school, no store and no services in town, an aging water system with an open compliance item, and an undocumented sewer situation.

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

Where it sits

Regiondiffers

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

Countydiffers

Edgemont: Fall River County
Custer: Custer County
St. Onge: Lawrence County
Buffalo Gap: Custer County

Jurisdictiondiffers

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

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

Corridordiffers

Edgemont: US 18 and SD 471
Custer: US-16
St. Onge: SD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at Whitewood
Buffalo Gap: SD 79

To downtown Rapid Citydiffers

Edgemont: About 100 miles northeastDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
Custer: About 50 to 60 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
St. Onge: About 44 miles, roughly 48 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
Buffalo Gap: About 45 miles, roughly 56 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.

To Ellsworth AFBdiffers

Edgemont: About 110 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
Custer: About an hour and ten minutesDriving 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.
Buffalo Gap: About 55 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.

Winter drivingdiffers

Edgemont: Cold semi-arid country with a recorded low of 40 below. US 18 is the lifeline and it is a long way to anywhere in a storm.
Custer: Winter roads are a genuine planning factor at this distance, and on acreage you need to know who maintains yours.
St. Onge: Highway 34 is state maintained and connects three directions. County and private roads off it are a different conversation.
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.

Housing and lots

Typical pricediffers

Edgemont: About $155,000 average sold, 13 sales over 24 monthsAverage sold $155,285. Black Hills MLS, single family, 24 months through August 2026, as of August 2026. 13 closed sales.
Custer: Median sold $627,000Black Hills MLS, single family, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 7 closed sales, small sample.
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.
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.

Housing agediffers

Edgemont: An 1890 railroad town, so mostly older stock, with about a quarter of units vacant at the 2020 count.
Custer: Mixed ages. Older homes near the core, newer construction toward the edges.
St. Onge: An 1891 townsite with genuinely old buildings, surrounded by ranch and acreage property of every era.
Buffalo Gap: An 1885 to 1939 historic core with an aging housing stock and about a fifth of units vacant.

New constructiondiffers

Edgemont: None underway
Custer: Not recorded townwide in this guide. Check current permits with the city or county.
St. Onge: Limited, mostly infill and small projects
Buffalo Gap: None underway

Acreagediffers

Edgemont: Acreage parcels are common here
Custer: Acreage is common outside the city core, with wells and septic systems typical on many rural properties.
St. Onge: Acreage parcels are common here
Buffalo Gap: Acreage parcels are common here

Typical lotdiffers

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

Covenants and HOAdiffers

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

Edgemont: Few plats here carry recorded covenants
Custer: Not recorded townwide in this guide. Read the recorded documents for the plat.
St. Onge: Few plats here carry recorded covenants
Buffalo Gap: Few plats here carry recorded covenants

Utilities and rules

Utility patterndiffers

Edgemont: City water and sewer inside the limits
Custer: Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
St. Onge: Mostly private well and septic
Buffalo Gap: Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it

Waterdiffers

Edgemont: City of Edgemont municipal water. Rural parcels are on private wells.
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.
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.
Buffalo Gap: Town of Buffalo Gap municipal water from a single well, serving about 93 connections. Rural parcels are on private wells.

Sewerdiffers

Edgemont: City sewer inside the limits, with private septic on rural parcels.
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.
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.
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.

Short term rentalsdiffers

Edgemont: Edgemont is not a tourism town. Short-term rental demand here is work crews, hunting season and Rally traffic passing through, not visitors staying to see something.
Custer: Grandfathered permits are non transferable and expire when the property sells, and the rules flip at the city line.
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.
Buffalo Gap: This is hunting and grassland country rather than a tourism corridor. Demand is seasonal and specific.

Schools

School districtdiffers

Edgemont: Edgemont School District 23-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
Custer: Custer School District 16-1Assignment 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.
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.

Daily errands

Groceriesdiffers

Edgemont: Small-town grocery and convenience in Edgemont, with Hot Springs about 35 miles east for more.
Custer: Lynn's Dakotamart is a full-service grocery store in town.
St. Onge: Nothing in town. Spearfish is eleven miles southeast and Belle Fourche thirteen northwest.
Buffalo Gap: Nothing full service in town. Hot Springs, about 14 miles south, is where errands happen.

Healthcarediffers

Edgemont: No hospital in town. Fall River Health Services in Hot Springs is a 25 bed critical access hospital with a 24 hour emergency department.
Custer: Monument Health Custer Hospital and clinic are in town.
St. Onge: Monument Health Spearfish Hospital, a 35 bed facility with a 24 hour emergency department, about 18 minutes away.
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.

Recreationdiffers

Edgemont: The hundred-year-old city park, the campground, the Elk Mountains and open country in every direction.
Custer: Custer State Park at the door, including Sylvan Lake, the Needles Highway, the wildlife loop and the September buffalo roundup.
St. Onge: Creek bottoms, hay ground and hunting country, with Spearfish Canyon and the northern Hills half an hour away.
Buffalo Gap: Buffalo Gap National Grassland, hunting, rock collecting and OHV country, with the Cheyenne River nearby.

The trade

Housing and patterndiffers

Edgemont: A working BNSF crew-change town founded in 1890, at the far southern edge of the Hills below the Elk Mountains.
Custer: A county seat at a park entrance, with a replacement Monument Health hospital and acreage starting just past the city limits.
St. Onge: An 1891 French-Canadian railroad townsite that is now a cattle auction crossroads and an acreage corridor.
Buffalo Gap: A nearly intact turn-of-the-century western streetscape on the National Register, mostly quiet, at the gate to the grassland.

What you gaindiffers

Edgemont: More town per dollar than anywhere else in the region, with its own school district and city utilities.
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.
St. Onge: The cheapest ground in the northern Hills that still puts you eleven miles from a hospital and sixteen from three towns.
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.

What you give updiffers

Edgemont: A hundred miles from Rapid City, 35 from a hospital, with two unresolved questions hanging over the local economy.
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.
St. Onge: A three-way school district split you have to verify per parcel, and no services of any kind in town.
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.

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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ComparingEdgemont, Custer, St. Onge, Buffalo Gap

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