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, Keystone, Box Elder, Whitewood

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 HillsKeystoneCentral and Southern HillsBox ElderRapid City and the Ellsworth corridorWhitewoodNorthern Hills and I-90
County: EdgemontFall River CountyKeystonePennington CountyBox ElderPennington CountyWhitewoodLawrence County
Jurisdiction: EdgemontIncorporated city of Edgemont, with Fall River County outside the limits.KeystoneIncorporated town of Keystone, with unincorporated Pennington County on the surrounding hillsides.Box ElderCity of Box ElderWhitewoodNot recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.
Corridor: EdgemontUS 18 and SD 471KeystoneUS 16ABox ElderI-90WhitewoodI-90 and US-85
To downtown Rapid City: EdgemontAbout 100 miles northeastKeystoneAbout 25 minutes northeastBox Elder19 min, 10.9 miWhitewoodAbout 35 minutes
To Ellsworth AFB: EdgemontAbout 110 milesKeystoneAbout 40 minutesBox Elder9 min, 2.3 miWhitewoodAbout 40 minutes

Side by side

Edgemont, Keystone, Box Elder, Whitewood

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 HillsKeystone	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorBox Elder	Northern Hills and I-90Whitewood
Where it sits
Regiondiffers	Central and Southern Hills	Central and Southern Hills	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor	Northern Hills and I-90
Countydiffers	Fall River County	Pennington County	Pennington County	Lawrence County
JurisdictiondiffersCity versus county decides who provides service and who inspects the work.	Incorporated city of Edgemont, with Fall River County outside the limits.	Incorporated town of Keystone, with unincorporated Pennington County on the surrounding hillsides.	City of Box Elder	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.
Corridordiffers	US 18 and SD 471	US 16A	I-90	I-90 and US-85
To downtown Rapid Citydiffers	About 100 miles northeastDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.	About 25 minutes northeastDriving time and distance, off peak.	19 min, 10.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 35 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 40 minutesDriving 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	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.	Black Hills elevation on canyon roads, and a town that empties out for the season. Iron Mountain Road and the scenic routes are not winter commuting roads.	I-90 is state maintained and the city clears the newer plats. Box Elder publishes no plow priority map, so ask a neighbor how the street clears after a real storm.	I-90 and US-85 are state maintained. The town streets and the roads out past them clear on their own schedule.
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.	About $618,000 average sold, but only 9 sales over 24 monthsAverage sold $618,449. Black Hills MLS, single family, 24 months through August 2026, as of August 2026. 9 closed sales, small sample.	$340k to $400kMedian sold $367,000. Black Hills MLS, single family, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 235 closed sales.	No town median is published for Whitewood, and it sits in Lawrence County, which the Mount Rushmore Area MLS covers rather than the Black Hills feed behind the figures here. Prices sit under Sturgis, Spearfish and Deadwood, each about ten minutes out.
Housing agediffers	An 1890 railroad town, so mostly older stock, with about a quarter of units vacant at the 2020 count.	An 1883 mining town, so genuinely old stock alongside newer builds and cabins.	Heavily new construction since the B-21 announcement	Older and modest through town, so systems matter more than finishes.
New constructiondiffers	None underway	Limited, mostly infill and small projects	Active, with subdivisions still building	Limited, mostly infill and small projects
Acreagediffers	Acreage parcels are common here	Some acreage, mostly platted town lots	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot size.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot size.
Typical lotdiffers	Town lots inside the limits, ranch scale outside them.	Small and steep in town, larger on the surrounding hillsides outside the limits.	Small city lots, about 0.15 to 0.18 acres in the newer plats	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot dimensions.
Covenants and HOAdiffersCovenants are recorded per plat. The title commitment lists what binds the parcel.	Few plats here carry recorded covenants	Few plats here carry recorded covenants	Not recorded townwide in this guide. Read the recorded documents for the plat.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. Read the recorded documents for the plat.
Utilities and rules
Utility patterndiffers	City water and sewer inside the limits	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	City of Edgemont municipal water. Rural parcels are on private wells.	Town of Keystone municipal water inside the limits, drawn from town wells, with no violations on its current record. Parcels outside the town limits are on private wells.	City of Box Elder municipal	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.
Sewerdiffers	City sewer inside the limits, with private septic on rural parcels.	Confirm with the town before you rely on it. The town operates public works, but I have not been able to verify from the public record whether it runs a collection system or which parcels it reaches. Outside the limits, expect private septic.	City of Box Elder municipal	City 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.
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.	A 2 percent municipal lodging tax applies to transient stays. Whether a separate short term rental ordinance exists is not clear from the public record, so confirm with the town in writing.	A verify first town for rental plans, with one specific misconception the guide clears up.	No short term rental provisions in the city code, and Rally season renting is common here under state rules.
Schools
School districtdiffers	Edgemont School District 23-1Assignment 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.	Douglas School District 51-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.	Meade School District 46-1, despite being in Lawrence 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.	Nothing full service in town. Hill City is the closest small grocery and Rapid City is the real shopping, about 25 minutes northeast.	Lynn's Dakotamart is a full-service grocery store in town.	No full-service grocery store is in Whitewood. Most larger grocery trips go to Sturgis or Spearfish.
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.	No clinic in town. Monument Health Custer Hospital has a 24 hour emergency department, and Rapid City has the larger hospital.	Monument Health Box Elder Clinic provides primary and urgent care in town. Hospital-level care is in Rapid City.	Monument Health Sturgis HospitalNo hospital in Whitewood. Sturgis is the nearer of the two, with Spearfish next.
Recreationdiffers	The hundred-year-old city park, the campground, the Elk Mountains and open country in every direction.	Mount Rushmore is past the town boundary, the 1880 Train runs from the Winter Street depot, and Custer State Park and the Norbeck Scenic Byway are close.	The Liberty Center, the city park and ballfield network, and the South Dakota Air and Space Museum are the in-town recreation. The Badlands are a day trip, not your neighborhood park.	Sturgis and Bear Butte State Park about eight miles east, Deadwood 10 to 12 miles southwest, Spearfish and Spearfish Canyon 10 to 12 miles northwest.
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.	23 mapped outlines, 0 with a full guideReference outlines from county and city GIS, not surveys. The recorded plat controls.
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.	An 1883 mining camp turned tourism town at the gateway to Mount Rushmore, 240 residents and millions of visitors.	A young city building its first downtown at Liberty Plaza on 110 acres, with roughly 800 residential units planned.	A quiet main street with Sturgis, Spearfish and Deadwood each about ten minutes out and the interstate right there.
What you gaindiffers	More town per dollar than anywhere else in the region, with its own school district and city utilities.	Nightly rental demand runs about as high as anywhere in the Black Hills, if the rules and the covenants check out for the specific property.	The Ellsworth main gate is in town, 9 minutes from most addresses, on city water and sewer, with the region's newest housing pipeline.	Small town prices with three larger towns about ten minutes out in three directions, in Meade 46-1 despite sitting in Lawrence County.
What you give updiffers	A hundred miles from Rapid City, 35 from a hospital, with two unresolved questions hanging over the local economy.	A seasonal town with no school, no grocery and no clinic, and a housing stock where half the doors are dark in winter.	Comparable sales run thin inside brand new subdivisions and builder incentives move the effective price without moving the list price. I-90 fills at shift change, and the flight line is close enough that you hear it.	Anything past the basics is a drive to Sturgis, Spearfish or Deadwood, and there are no published MLS figures for the town on its own.

Central and Southern HillsEdgemont
Central and Southern HillsKeystone
Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorBox Elder
Northern Hills and I-90Whitewood

Where it sits

Regiondiffers

Edgemont: Central and Southern Hills
Keystone: Central and Southern Hills
Box Elder: Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor
Whitewood: Northern Hills and I-90

Countydiffers

Edgemont: Fall River County
Keystone: Pennington County
Box Elder: Pennington County
Whitewood: Lawrence 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.
Keystone: Incorporated town of Keystone, with unincorporated Pennington County on the surrounding hillsides.
Box Elder: City of Box Elder
Whitewood: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.

Corridordiffers

Edgemont: US 18 and SD 471
Keystone: US 16A
Box Elder: I-90
Whitewood: I-90 and US-85

To downtown Rapid Citydiffers

Edgemont: About 100 miles northeastDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
Keystone: About 25 minutes northeastDriving time and distance, off peak.
Box Elder: 19 min, 10.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Whitewood: About 35 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.
Keystone: About 40 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
Box Elder: 9 min, 2.3 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Whitewood: About 40 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.

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.
Keystone: Black Hills elevation on canyon roads, and a town that empties out for the season. Iron Mountain Road and the scenic routes are not winter commuting roads.
Box Elder: I-90 is state maintained and the city clears the newer plats. Box Elder publishes no plow priority map, so ask a neighbor how the street clears after a real storm.
Whitewood: I-90 and US-85 are state maintained. The town streets and the roads out past them clear on their own schedule.

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.
Keystone: About $618,000 average sold, but only 9 sales over 24 monthsAverage sold $618,449. Black Hills MLS, single family, 24 months through August 2026, as of August 2026. 9 closed sales, small sample.
Box Elder: $340k to $400kMedian sold $367,000. Black Hills MLS, single family, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 235 closed sales.
Whitewood: No town median is published for Whitewood, and it sits in Lawrence County, which the Mount Rushmore Area MLS covers rather than the Black Hills feed behind the figures here. Prices sit under Sturgis, Spearfish and Deadwood, each about ten minutes out.

Housing agediffers

Edgemont: An 1890 railroad town, so mostly older stock, with about a quarter of units vacant at the 2020 count.
Keystone: An 1883 mining town, so genuinely old stock alongside newer builds and cabins.
Box Elder: Heavily new construction since the B-21 announcement
Whitewood: Older and modest through town, so systems matter more than finishes.

New constructiondiffers

Edgemont: None underway
Keystone: Limited, mostly infill and small projects
Box Elder: Active, with subdivisions still building
Whitewood: Limited, mostly infill and small projects

Acreagediffers

Edgemont: Acreage parcels are common here
Keystone: Some acreage, mostly platted town lots
Box Elder: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot size.
Whitewood: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot size.

Typical lotdiffers

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

Covenants and HOAdiffers

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

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

Utilities and rules

Utility patterndiffers

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

Waterdiffers

Edgemont: City of Edgemont municipal water. Rural parcels are on private wells.
Keystone: Town of Keystone municipal water inside the limits, drawn from town wells, with no violations on its current record. Parcels outside the town limits are on private wells.
Box Elder: City of Box Elder municipal
Whitewood: 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.

Sewerdiffers

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

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.
Keystone: A 2 percent municipal lodging tax applies to transient stays. Whether a separate short term rental ordinance exists is not clear from the public record, so confirm with the town in writing.
Box Elder: A verify first town for rental plans, with one specific misconception the guide clears up.
Whitewood: No short term rental provisions in the city code, and Rally season renting is common here under state rules.

Schools

School districtdiffers

Edgemont: Edgemont School District 23-1Assignment 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.
Box Elder: Douglas School District 51-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
Whitewood: Meade School District 46-1, despite being in Lawrence 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.
Keystone: Nothing full service in town. Hill City is the closest small grocery and Rapid City is the real shopping, about 25 minutes northeast.
Box Elder: Lynn's Dakotamart is a full-service grocery store in town.
Whitewood: No full-service grocery store is in Whitewood. Most larger grocery trips go to Sturgis or Spearfish.

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.
Keystone: No clinic in town. Monument Health Custer Hospital has a 24 hour emergency department, and Rapid City has the larger hospital.
Box Elder: Monument Health Box Elder Clinic provides primary and urgent care in town. Hospital-level care is in Rapid City.
Whitewood: Monument Health Sturgis HospitalNo hospital in Whitewood. Sturgis is the nearer of the two, with Spearfish next.

Recreationdiffers

Edgemont: The hundred-year-old city park, the campground, the Elk Mountains and open country in every direction.
Keystone: Mount Rushmore is past the town boundary, the 1880 Train runs from the Winter Street depot, and Custer State Park and the Norbeck Scenic Byway are close.
Box Elder: The Liberty Center, the city park and ballfield network, and the South Dakota Air and Space Museum are the in-town recreation. The Badlands are a day trip, not your neighborhood park.
Whitewood: Sturgis and Bear Butte State Park about eight miles east, Deadwood 10 to 12 miles southwest, Spearfish and Spearfish Canyon 10 to 12 miles northwest.

Mapped subdivisions

Outlines on filediffers

Edgemont: No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.
Keystone: No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.
Box Elder: 16 mapped outlines, 3 with a full guideReference outlines from county and city GIS, not surveys. The recorded plat controls.
Whitewood: 23 mapped outlines, 0 with a full guideReference outlines from county and city GIS, not surveys. The recorded plat controls.

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.
Keystone: An 1883 mining camp turned tourism town at the gateway to Mount Rushmore, 240 residents and millions of visitors.
Box Elder: A young city building its first downtown at Liberty Plaza on 110 acres, with roughly 800 residential units planned.
Whitewood: A quiet main street with Sturgis, Spearfish and Deadwood each about ten minutes out and the interstate right there.

What you gaindiffers

Edgemont: More town per dollar than anywhere else in the region, with its own school district and city utilities.
Keystone: Nightly rental demand runs about as high as anywhere in the Black Hills, if the rules and the covenants check out for the specific property.
Box Elder: The Ellsworth main gate is in town, 9 minutes from most addresses, on city water and sewer, with the region's newest housing pipeline.
Whitewood: Small town prices with three larger towns about ten minutes out in three directions, in Meade 46-1 despite sitting in Lawrence County.

What you give updiffers

Edgemont: A hundred miles from Rapid City, 35 from a hospital, with two unresolved questions hanging over the local economy.
Keystone: A seasonal town with no school, no grocery and no clinic, and a housing stock where half the doors are dark in winter.
Box Elder: Comparable sales run thin inside brand new subdivisions and builder incentives move the effective price without moving the list price. I-90 fills at shift change, and the flight line is close enough that you hear it.
Whitewood: Anything past the basics is a drive to Sturgis, Spearfish or Deadwood, and there are no published MLS figures for the town on its own.

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, Keystone, Box Elder, Whitewood

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