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, Spearfish, Keystone, St. Onge

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 HillsSpearfishNorthern Hills and I-90KeystoneCentral and Southern HillsSt. OngeNorthern Hills and I-90
County: EdgemontFall River CountySpearfishLawrence CountyKeystonePennington CountySt. OngeLawrence County
Jurisdiction: EdgemontIncorporated city of Edgemont, with Fall River County outside the limits.SpearfishNot recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.KeystoneIncorporated town of Keystone, with unincorporated Pennington County on the surrounding hillsides.St. OngeUnincorporated. No town government. Lawrence County zones the parcels and the Sheriff patrols them.
Corridor: EdgemontUS 18 and SD 471SpearfishI-90KeystoneUS 16ASt. OngeSD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at Whitewood
To downtown Rapid City: EdgemontAbout 100 miles northeastSpearfish53 min, 47.8 miKeystoneAbout 25 minutes northeastSt. OngeAbout 44 miles, roughly 48 minutes
To Ellsworth AFB: EdgemontAbout 110 milesSpearfish68 min, 57.0 miKeystoneAbout 40 minutesSt. OngeAbout 45 miles

Side by side

Edgemont, Spearfish, Keystone, 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 HillsEdgemont	Northern Hills and I-90Spearfish	Central and Southern HillsKeystone	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	Fall River County	Lawrence 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.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.	Incorporated town of Keystone, with unincorporated Pennington County on the surrounding hillsides.	Unincorporated. No town government. Lawrence County zones the parcels and the Sheriff patrols them.
Corridordiffers	US 18 and SD 471	I-90	US 16A	SD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at Whitewood
To downtown Rapid Citydiffers	About 100 miles northeastDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.	53 min, 47.8 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 25 minutes northeastDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 44 miles, roughly 48 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.	68 min, 57.0 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 40 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 45 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.	Chinook winds off the hills are a genuine feature of winter in this corridor.	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.	Highway 34 is state maintained and connects three directions. County and private roads off it are a different conversation.
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.	$400k to $600kMedian sold $475,000. Mount Rushmore Area MLS, all residential, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 199 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.	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	An 1890 railroad town, so mostly older stock, with about a quarter of units vacant at the 2020 count.	Older stock in the middle, edge subdivisions built 1996 to 2023	An 1883 mining town, so genuinely old stock alongside newer builds and cabins.	An 1891 townsite with genuinely old buildings, surrounded by ranch and acreage property of every era.
New constructiondiffers	None underway	New construction remains active on the edges of town, including areas such as Sky Ridge and other newer developments.	Limited, mostly infill and small projects	Limited, mostly infill and small projects
Acreagediffers	Acreage parcels are common here	Acreage is available around Spearfish, primarily on surrounding Lawrence County ground rather than in the city core.	Some acreage, mostly platted town lots	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 and steep in town, larger on the surrounding hillsides outside the limits.	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.	Few plats here carry recorded covenants	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	City water and sewer inside the limits	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	City of Edgemont municipal water. Rural parcels are on private wells.	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 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.	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, with private septic on rural parcels.	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.	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.	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	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.	The city studied rules in 2023 and 2024 and maintains an official short term rental page. Verify the current ordinance first.	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.	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	Edgemont School District 23-1Assignment 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.	Hill City School District 51-2Assignment 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	Small-town grocery and convenience in Edgemont, with Hot Springs about 35 miles east for more.	Full-service grocery options in town include Walmart, Safeway and Lueders Food Centers.	Nothing full service in town. Hill City is the closest small grocery and Rapid City is the real shopping, about 25 minutes northeast.	Nothing in town. Spearfish is eleven miles southeast and Belle Fourche thirteen northwest.
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 Spearfish Hospital and outpatient clinics are in town.	No clinic in town. Monument Health Custer Hospital has a 24 hour emergency department, and Rapid City has the larger hospital.	Monument Health Spearfish Hospital, a 35 bed facility with a 24 hour emergency department, about 18 minutes away.
Recreationdiffers	The hundred-year-old city park, the campground, the Elk Mountains and open country in every direction.	D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery, Black Hills State University events, and Terry Peak and Deadwood a short drive south.	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.	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 working BNSF crew-change town founded in 1890, at the far southern edge of the Hills below the Elk Mountains.	A university town with a walkable middle, growing fast enough that new construction has moved to the edges.	An 1883 mining camp turned tourism town at the gateway to Mount Rushmore, 240 residents and millions of visitors.	An 1891 French-Canadian railroad townsite that is now a cattle auction crossroads and an acreage corridor.
What you gaindiffers	More town per dollar than anywhere else in the region, with its own school district and city utilities.	A downtown you can walk across, Black Hills State and Spearfish Canyon out the back door, on city water and sewer.	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 cheapest ground in the northern Hills that still puts you eleven miles from a hospital and sixteen from three towns.
What you give updiffers	A hundred miles from Rapid City, 35 from a hospital, with two unresolved questions hanging over the local economy.	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.	A seasonal town with no school, no grocery and no clinic, and a housing stock where half the doors are dark in winter.	A three-way school district split you have to verify per parcel, and no services of any kind in town.

Central and Southern HillsEdgemont
Northern Hills and I-90Spearfish
Central and Southern HillsKeystone
Northern Hills and I-90St. Onge

Where it sits

Regiondiffers

Edgemont: Central and Southern Hills
Spearfish: Northern Hills and I-90
Keystone: Central and Southern Hills
St. Onge: Northern Hills and I-90

Countydiffers

Edgemont: Fall River County
Spearfish: Lawrence County
Keystone: Pennington County
St. Onge: 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.
Spearfish: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.
Keystone: Incorporated town of Keystone, with unincorporated Pennington County on the surrounding hillsides.
St. Onge: Unincorporated. No town government. Lawrence County zones the parcels and the Sheriff patrols them.

Corridordiffers

Edgemont: US 18 and SD 471
Spearfish: I-90
Keystone: US 16A
St. Onge: SD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at Whitewood

To downtown Rapid Citydiffers

Edgemont: About 100 miles northeastDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
Spearfish: 53 min, 47.8 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Keystone: About 25 minutes northeastDriving time and distance, off peak.
St. Onge: About 44 miles, roughly 48 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.
Spearfish: 68 min, 57.0 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Keystone: About 40 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.

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.
Spearfish: Chinook winds off the hills are a genuine feature of winter in this corridor.
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.
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

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.
Spearfish: $400k to $600kMedian sold $475,000. Mount Rushmore Area MLS, all residential, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 199 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.
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

Edgemont: An 1890 railroad town, so mostly older stock, with about a quarter of units vacant at the 2020 count.
Spearfish: Older stock in the middle, edge subdivisions built 1996 to 2023
Keystone: An 1883 mining town, so genuinely old stock alongside newer builds and cabins.
St. Onge: An 1891 townsite with genuinely old buildings, surrounded by ranch and acreage property of every era.

New constructiondiffers

Edgemont: None underway
Spearfish: New construction remains active on the edges of town, including areas such as Sky Ridge and other newer developments.
Keystone: Limited, mostly infill and small projects
St. Onge: Limited, mostly infill and small projects

Acreagediffers

Edgemont: Acreage parcels are common here
Spearfish: Acreage is available around Spearfish, primarily on surrounding Lawrence County ground rather than in the city core.
Keystone: Some acreage, mostly platted town lots
St. Onge: Acreage parcels are common here

Typical lotdiffers

Edgemont: Town lots inside the limits, ranch scale outside them.
Spearfish: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot dimensions.
Keystone: Small and steep in town, larger on the surrounding hillsides outside the limits.
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.

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

Utilities and rules

Utility patterndiffers

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

Waterdiffers

Edgemont: City of Edgemont municipal water. Rural parcels are on private wells.
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.
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.
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

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

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.
Spearfish: The city studied rules in 2023 and 2024 and maintains an official short term rental page. Verify the current ordinance first.
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.
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

Edgemont: Edgemont School District 23-1Assignment 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.
Keystone: Hill City School District 51-2Assignment 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

Edgemont: Small-town grocery and convenience in Edgemont, with Hot Springs about 35 miles east for more.
Spearfish: Full-service grocery options in town include Walmart, Safeway and Lueders Food Centers.
Keystone: Nothing full service in town. Hill City is the closest small grocery and Rapid City is the real shopping, about 25 minutes northeast.
St. Onge: Nothing in town. Spearfish is eleven miles southeast and Belle Fourche thirteen northwest.

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.
Spearfish: Monument Health Spearfish Hospital and outpatient clinics are in town.
Keystone: No clinic in town. Monument Health Custer Hospital has a 24 hour emergency department, and Rapid City has the larger hospital.
St. Onge: Monument Health Spearfish Hospital, a 35 bed facility with a 24 hour emergency department, about 18 minutes away.

Recreationdiffers

Edgemont: The hundred-year-old city park, the campground, the Elk Mountains and open country in every direction.
Spearfish: D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery, Black Hills State University events, and Terry Peak and Deadwood a short drive south.
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.
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

Edgemont: 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.
Keystone: 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

Edgemont: A working BNSF crew-change town founded in 1890, at the far southern edge of the Hills below the Elk Mountains.
Spearfish: A university town with a walkable middle, growing fast enough that new construction has moved to the edges.
Keystone: An 1883 mining camp turned tourism town at the gateway to Mount Rushmore, 240 residents and millions of visitors.
St. Onge: An 1891 French-Canadian railroad townsite that is now a cattle auction crossroads and an acreage corridor.

What you gaindiffers

Edgemont: More town per dollar than anywhere else in the region, with its own school district and city utilities.
Spearfish: A downtown you can walk across, Black Hills State and Spearfish Canyon out the back door, on city water and sewer.
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.
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

Edgemont: A hundred miles from Rapid City, 35 from a hospital, with two unresolved questions hanging over the local economy.
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.
Keystone: A seasonal town with no school, no grocery and no clinic, and a housing stock where half the doors are dark in winter.
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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ComparingEdgemont, Spearfish, Keystone, St. Onge

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