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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6 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, 3 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.

Black Hawk
Typical price
Unincorporated, so closings report under Rapid City and Meade County rather than a Black Hawk median. Lot size and outbuildings move the price more than the street does.
To Ellsworth AFB
About 30 minutes, the same I-90 run as Summerset just northDriving time and distance, off peak.
To downtown Rapid City
About 12 to 15 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
Utility pattern
Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
School district
Rapid City Area Schools 51-4 for most addressesAssignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
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Box Elder
Typical price
$340k to $400kMedian sold $367,000. Black Hills MLS, single family, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 235 closed sales.
To Ellsworth AFB
9 min, 2.3 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
To downtown Rapid City
19 min, 10.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Utility pattern
City water and sewer inside the limits
School district
Douglas School District 51-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
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Green Valley
Typical price
No published median exists for the community. Closed sales on the specific street are the only figure worth quoting here.
To Ellsworth AFB
About 15 minutes northDriving time and distance, off peak.
To downtown Rapid City
About 6 miles northwestDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
Utility pattern
Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
School district
Split between Douglas 51-1 and Rapid City Area 51-4. Address specific.Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
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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.
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Rapid Valley
Typical price
About $350,000 average sold, 274 sales over 12 monthsAverage sold $349,971. Black Hills MLS, single family, 12 months through August 2026, as of August 2026. 274 closed sales.
To Ellsworth AFB
22 min, 10.4 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
To downtown Rapid City
11 min, 5.2 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Utility pattern
Utility service varies by address. Rapid Valley Sanitary District serves portions of the area, while properties outside district service may use private wells and septic systems.
School district
Mostly Rapid City Area School District 51-4, with portions in Douglas 51-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
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Summerset
Typical price
Builder inventory sets the level here, and the MLS publishes no Summerset median on its own.
To Ellsworth AFB
30 min, 19.2 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
To downtown Rapid City
15 min, 10.0 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Utility pattern
Sewer collection is provided by the City of Summerset. Water service varies by address and can include Black Hawk Water User District or Diamond D Water in Sun Valley.
School district
Meade 46-1 and Rapid City Area Schools 51-4, split within the cityAssignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
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What changes

Between Newell, St. Onge, Spearfish

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

County: NewellButte CountySt. OngeLawrence CountySpearfishLawrence County
Jurisdiction: NewellIncorporated municipality of Newell, with Butte County outside the limits.St. OngeUnincorporated. No town government. Lawrence County zones the parcels and the Sheriff patrols them.SpearfishNot recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.
Corridor: NewellUS 212 and SD 79St. OngeSD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at WhitewoodSpearfishI-90
To downtown Rapid City: NewellAbout 54 miles, roughly 70 minutesSt. OngeAbout 44 miles, roughly 48 minutesSpearfish53 min, 47.8 mi
To Ellsworth AFB: NewellAbout 60 milesSt. OngeAbout 45 milesSpearfish68 min, 57.0 mi
Winter driving: NewellUS 212 and SD 79 are state maintained, and the state rebuilt the Nisland to Newell stretch and the south junction in 2025. Off the highway it is open country and wind moves snow.St. OngeHighway 34 is state maintained and connects three directions. County and private roads off it are a different conversation.SpearfishChinook winds off the hills are a genuine feature of winter in this corridor.

Side by side

Newell, St. Onge, Spearfish

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	Northern Hills and I-90Newell	Northern Hills and I-90St. Onge	Northern Hills and I-90Spearfish
Where it sits
Region	Northern Hills and I-90	Northern Hills and I-90	Northern Hills and I-90
Countydiffers	Butte County	Lawrence County	Lawrence County
JurisdictiondiffersCity versus county decides who provides service and who inspects the work.	Incorporated municipality of Newell, with Butte County outside the limits.	Unincorporated. No town government. Lawrence County zones the parcels and the Sheriff patrols them.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.
Corridordiffers	US 212 and SD 79	SD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at Whitewood	I-90
To downtown Rapid Citydiffers	About 54 miles, roughly 70 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 44 miles, roughly 48 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.	53 min, 47.8 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
To Ellsworth AFBdiffers	About 60 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.	68 min, 57.0 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Winter drivingdiffers	US 212 and SD 79 are state maintained, and the state rebuilt the Nisland to Newell stretch and the south junction in 2025. Off the highway it is open country and wind moves snow.	Highway 34 is state maintained and connects three directions. County and private roads off it are a different conversation.	Chinook winds off the hills are a genuine feature of winter in this corridor.
Housing and lots
Typical pricediffers	No figure published. Newell is Mount Rushmore Area MLS territory and the current feed covers only the Black Hills MLS, so any count from that feed is a floor rather than this town's price level.	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.	$400k to $600kMedian sold $475,000. Mount Rushmore Area MLS, all residential, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 199 closed sales.
Housing agediffers	A 1910 townsite, so genuinely old in-town stock with newer building scattered around it.	An 1891 townsite with genuinely old buildings, surrounded by ranch and acreage property of every era.	Older stock in the middle, edge subdivisions built 1996 to 2023
New constructiondiffers	Limited, mostly infill and small projects	Limited, mostly infill and small projects	New construction remains active on the edges of town, including areas such as Sky Ridge and other newer developments.
Acreagediffers	Acreage parcels are common here	Acreage parcels are common here	Acreage is available around Spearfish, primarily on surrounding Lawrence County ground rather than in the city core.
Typical lotdiffers	Small townsite lots, then irrigated project acreage, then rangeland, in that order as you drive out.	Small townsite lots, with acreage and ranch ground around them.	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	Recorded covenants on some plats, none on others
Utilities and rules
Utility patterndiffers	Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it	Mostly private well and septic	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.
Waterdiffers	Town of Newell municipal water inside the limits, from groundwater, serving about 378 connections. Rural properties are on the Butte-Meade Sanitary Water District or on private wells. Irrigation water from the Belle Fourche Irrigation District is an entirely separate thing from domestic water.	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.	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.
Sewerdiffers	Municipal sewer inside the limits, billed monthly alongside water. Rural parcels are on 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.	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.
Short term rentalsdiffers	Newell is an agricultural town rather than a tourism town. Short-term rental demand here is hunting season, Rally week and ag events, not year-round visitors.	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.	The city studied rules in 2023 and 2024 and maintains an official short term rental page. Verify the current ordinance first.
Schools
School districtdiffers	Newell School District 09-2Assignment 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.	Spearfish School District 40-2Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
Daily errands
Groceriesdiffers	A grocery store and a hardware store in town, with Belle Fourche about 25 miles for anything larger.	Nothing in town. Spearfish is eleven miles southeast and Belle Fourche thirteen northwest.	Full-service grocery options in town include Walmart, Safeway and Lueders Food Centers.
Healthcarediffers	No hospital or clinic in Newell. Sturgis is about 26 miles, Spearfish about 37, and Monument Health has a clinic in Belle Fourche.	Monument Health Spearfish Hospital, a 35 bed facility with a 24 hour emergency department, about 18 minutes away.	Monument Health Spearfish Hospital and outpatient clinics are in town.
Recreationdiffers	A nine-hole golf course, the Newell Museum, the Belle Fourche Reservoir north of town, and hunting in every direction.	Creek bottoms, hay ground and hunting country, with Spearfish Canyon and the northern Hills half an hour away.	D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery, Black Hills State University events, and Terry Peak and Deadwood a short drive south.
Mapped subdivisions
Outlines on filediffers	No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.	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.
The trade
Housing and patterndiffers	A federal reclamation townsite from 1910 at the center of a 57,000 acre irrigation project, with a sale barn and its own school.	An 1891 French-Canadian railroad townsite that is now a cattle auction crossroads and an acreage corridor.	A university town with a walkable middle, growing fast enough that new construction has moved to the edges.
What you gaindiffers	A complete small town with its own K through 12 school and irrigated ground around it, at prices the Hills corridor cannot touch.	The cheapest ground in the northern Hills that still puts you eleven miles from a hospital and sixteen from three towns.	A downtown you can walk across, Black Hills State and Spearfish Canyon out the back door, on city water and sewer.
What you give updiffers	Seventy minutes to Rapid City, 26 miles to a hospital, and an irrigation district assessment that attaches to the land as a lien.	A three-way school district split you have to verify per parcel, and no services of any kind in town.	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.

Northern Hills and I-90Newell
Northern Hills and I-90St. Onge
Northern Hills and I-90Spearfish

Where it sits

Region

Newell: Northern Hills and I-90
St. Onge: Northern Hills and I-90
Spearfish: Northern Hills and I-90

Countydiffers

Newell: Butte County
St. Onge: Lawrence County
Spearfish: Lawrence County

Jurisdictiondiffers

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

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

Corridordiffers

Newell: US 212 and SD 79
St. Onge: SD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at Whitewood
Spearfish: I-90

To downtown Rapid Citydiffers

Newell: About 54 miles, roughly 70 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
St. Onge: About 44 miles, roughly 48 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
Spearfish: 53 min, 47.8 miDriving time and distance, off peak.

To Ellsworth AFBdiffers

Newell: About 60 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.
Spearfish: 68 min, 57.0 miDriving time and distance, off peak.

Winter drivingdiffers

Newell: US 212 and SD 79 are state maintained, and the state rebuilt the Nisland to Newell stretch and the south junction in 2025. Off the highway it is open country and wind moves snow.
St. Onge: Highway 34 is state maintained and connects three directions. County and private roads off it are a different conversation.
Spearfish: Chinook winds off the hills are a genuine feature of winter in this corridor.

Housing and lots

Typical pricediffers

Newell: No figure published. Newell is Mount Rushmore Area MLS territory and the current feed covers only the Black Hills MLS, so any count from that feed is a floor rather than this town's price level.
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.
Spearfish: $400k to $600kMedian sold $475,000. Mount Rushmore Area MLS, all residential, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 199 closed sales.

Housing agediffers

Newell: A 1910 townsite, so genuinely old in-town stock with newer building scattered around it.
St. Onge: An 1891 townsite with genuinely old buildings, surrounded by ranch and acreage property of every era.
Spearfish: Older stock in the middle, edge subdivisions built 1996 to 2023

New constructiondiffers

Newell: Limited, mostly infill and small projects
St. Onge: Limited, mostly infill and small projects
Spearfish: New construction remains active on the edges of town, including areas such as Sky Ridge and other newer developments.

Acreagediffers

Newell: Acreage parcels are common here
St. Onge: Acreage parcels are common here
Spearfish: Acreage is available around Spearfish, primarily on surrounding Lawrence County ground rather than in the city core.

Typical lotdiffers

Newell: Small townsite lots, then irrigated project acreage, then rangeland, in that order as you drive out.
St. Onge: Small townsite lots, with acreage and ranch ground around them.
Spearfish: 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.

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

Utilities and rules

Utility patterndiffers

Newell: Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
St. Onge: Mostly private well and septic
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.

Waterdiffers

Newell: Town of Newell municipal water inside the limits, from groundwater, serving about 378 connections. Rural properties are on the Butte-Meade Sanitary Water District or on private wells. Irrigation water from the Belle Fourche Irrigation District is an entirely separate thing from domestic water.
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.
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.

Sewerdiffers

Newell: Municipal sewer inside the limits, billed monthly alongside water. Rural parcels are on 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.
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.

Short term rentalsdiffers

Newell: Newell is an agricultural town rather than a tourism town. Short-term rental demand here is hunting season, Rally week and ag events, not year-round visitors.
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.
Spearfish: The city studied rules in 2023 and 2024 and maintains an official short term rental page. Verify the current ordinance first.

Schools

School districtdiffers

Newell: Newell School District 09-2Assignment 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.
Spearfish: Spearfish School District 40-2Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.

Daily errands

Groceriesdiffers

Newell: A grocery store and a hardware store in town, with Belle Fourche about 25 miles for anything larger.
St. Onge: Nothing in town. Spearfish is eleven miles southeast and Belle Fourche thirteen northwest.
Spearfish: Full-service grocery options in town include Walmart, Safeway and Lueders Food Centers.

Healthcarediffers

Newell: No hospital or clinic in Newell. Sturgis is about 26 miles, Spearfish about 37, and Monument Health has a clinic in Belle Fourche.
St. Onge: Monument Health Spearfish Hospital, a 35 bed facility with a 24 hour emergency department, about 18 minutes away.
Spearfish: Monument Health Spearfish Hospital and outpatient clinics are in town.

Recreationdiffers

Newell: A nine-hole golf course, the Newell Museum, the Belle Fourche Reservoir north of town, and hunting in every direction.
St. Onge: Creek bottoms, hay ground and hunting country, with Spearfish Canyon and the northern Hills half an hour away.
Spearfish: D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery, Black Hills State University events, and Terry Peak and Deadwood a short drive south.

Mapped subdivisions

Outlines on filediffers

Newell: No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.
St. Onge: 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.

The trade

Housing and patterndiffers

Newell: A federal reclamation townsite from 1910 at the center of a 57,000 acre irrigation project, with a sale barn and its own school.
St. Onge: An 1891 French-Canadian railroad townsite that is now a cattle auction crossroads and an acreage corridor.
Spearfish: A university town with a walkable middle, growing fast enough that new construction has moved to the edges.

What you gaindiffers

Newell: A complete small town with its own K through 12 school and irrigated ground around it, at prices the Hills corridor cannot touch.
St. Onge: The cheapest ground in the northern Hills that still puts you eleven miles from a hospital and sixteen from three towns.
Spearfish: A downtown you can walk across, Black Hills State and Spearfish Canyon out the back door, on city water and sewer.

What you give updiffers

Newell: Seventy minutes to Rapid City, 26 miles to a hospital, and an irrigation district assessment that attaches to the land as a lien.
St. Onge: A three-way school district split you have to verify per parcel, and no services of any kind in town.
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.

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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ComparingNewell, St. Onge, Spearfish

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