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 Spearfish, St. Onge, Box Elder, Buffalo Gap

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

Region: SpearfishNorthern Hills and I-90St. OngeNorthern Hills and I-90Box ElderRapid City and the Ellsworth corridorBuffalo GapCentral and Southern Hills
County: SpearfishLawrence CountySt. OngeLawrence CountyBox ElderPennington CountyBuffalo GapCuster County
Jurisdiction: SpearfishNot 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.Box ElderCity of Box ElderBuffalo GapIncorporated town of Buffalo Gap, with Custer County outside the limits.
Corridor: SpearfishI-90St. OngeSD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at WhitewoodBox ElderI-90Buffalo GapSD 79
To downtown Rapid City: Spearfish53 min, 47.8 miSt. OngeAbout 44 miles, roughly 48 minutesBox Elder19 min, 10.9 miBuffalo GapAbout 45 miles, roughly 56 minutes
To Ellsworth AFB: Spearfish68 min, 57.0 miSt. OngeAbout 45 milesBox Elder9 min, 2.3 miBuffalo GapAbout 55 miles

Side by side

Spearfish, St. Onge, Box Elder, 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	Northern Hills and I-90Spearfish	Northern Hills and I-90St. Onge	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorBox Elder	Central and Southern HillsBuffalo Gap
Where it sits
Regiondiffers	Northern Hills and I-90	Northern Hills and I-90	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor	Central and Southern Hills
Countydiffers	Lawrence County	Lawrence County	Pennington County	Custer County
JurisdictiondiffersCity versus county decides who provides service and who inspects the work.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.	Unincorporated. No town government. Lawrence County zones the parcels and the Sheriff patrols them.	City of Box Elder	Incorporated town of Buffalo Gap, with Custer County outside the limits.
Corridordiffers	I-90	SD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at Whitewood	I-90	SD 79
To downtown Rapid Citydiffers	53 min, 47.8 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 44 miles, roughly 48 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.	19 min, 10.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 45 miles, roughly 56 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
To Ellsworth AFBdiffers	68 min, 57.0 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 45 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.	9 min, 2.3 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 55 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
Winter drivingdiffers	Chinook winds off the hills are a genuine feature of winter in this corridor.	Highway 34 is state maintained and connects three directions. County and private roads off it are a different conversation.	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.	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	$400k to $600kMedian sold $475,000. Mount Rushmore Area MLS, all residential, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 199 closed sales.	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.	$340k to $400kMedian sold $367,000. Black Hills MLS, single family, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 235 closed sales.	One single family sale shows in the Black Hills MLS over 24 months, at $80,000. One closing is a sample of one rather than a price level, so read it that way.
Housing agediffers	Older stock in the middle, edge subdivisions built 1996 to 2023	An 1891 townsite with genuinely old buildings, surrounded by ranch and acreage property of every era.	Heavily new construction since the B-21 announcement	An 1885 to 1939 historic core with an aging housing stock and about a fifth of units vacant.
New constructiondiffers	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	Active, with subdivisions still building	None underway
Acreagediffers	Acreage is available around Spearfish, primarily on surrounding Lawrence County ground rather than in the city core.	Acreage parcels are common here	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot size.	Acreage parcels are common here
Typical lotdiffers	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot dimensions.	Small townsite lots, with acreage and ranch ground around them.	Small city lots, about 0.15 to 0.18 acres in the newer plats	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.	Recorded covenants on some plats, none on others	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
Utilities and rules
Utility patterndiffers	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.	Mostly private well and septic	City water and sewer inside the limits	Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
Waterdiffers	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.	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 of Box Elder municipal	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 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.	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 of Box Elder municipal	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	The city studied rules in 2023 and 2024 and maintains an official short term rental page. Verify the current ordinance first.	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.	A verify first town for rental plans, with one specific misconception the guide clears up.	This is hunting and grassland country rather than a tourism corridor. Demand is seasonal and specific.
Schools
School districtdiffers	Spearfish School District 40-2Assignment 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.	Douglas School District 51-1Assignment 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	Full-service grocery options in town include Walmart, Safeway and Lueders Food Centers.	Nothing in town. Spearfish is eleven miles southeast and Belle Fourche thirteen northwest.	Lynn's Dakotamart is a full-service grocery store in town.	Nothing full service in town. Hot Springs, about 14 miles south, is where errands happen.
Healthcarediffers	Monument Health Spearfish Hospital and outpatient clinics are in town.	Monument Health Spearfish Hospital, a 35 bed facility with a 24 hour emergency department, about 18 minutes away.	Monument Health Box Elder Clinic provides primary and urgent care in town. Hospital-level care is in Rapid City.	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	D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery, Black Hills State University events, and Terry Peak and Deadwood a short drive south.	Creek bottoms, hay ground and hunting country, with Spearfish Canyon and the northern Hills half an hour away.	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.	Buffalo Gap National Grassland, hunting, rock collecting and OHV country, with the Cheyenne River nearby.
Mapped subdivisions
Outlines on filediffers	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.	16 mapped outlines, 3 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.
The trade
Housing and patterndiffers	A university town with a walkable middle, growing fast enough that new construction has moved to the edges.	An 1891 French-Canadian railroad townsite that is now a cattle auction crossroads and an acreage corridor.	A young city building its first downtown at Liberty Plaza on 110 acres, with roughly 800 residential units planned.	A nearly intact turn-of-the-century western streetscape on the National Register, mostly quiet, at the gate to the grassland.
What you gaindiffers	A downtown you can walk across, Black Hills State and Spearfish Canyon out the back door, on city water and sewer.	The cheapest ground in the northern Hills that still puts you eleven miles from a hospital and sixteen from three towns.	The Ellsworth main gate is in town, 9 minutes from most addresses, on city water and sewer, with the region's newest housing pipeline.	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	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 three-way school district split you have to verify per parcel, and no services of any kind in town.	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.	No school, no store and no services in town, an aging water system with an open compliance item, and an undocumented sewer situation.

Northern Hills and I-90Spearfish
Northern Hills and I-90St. Onge
Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorBox Elder
Central and Southern HillsBuffalo Gap

Where it sits

Regiondiffers

Spearfish: Northern Hills and I-90
St. Onge: Northern Hills and I-90
Box Elder: Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor
Buffalo Gap: Central and Southern Hills

Countydiffers

Spearfish: Lawrence County
St. Onge: Lawrence County
Box Elder: Pennington County
Buffalo Gap: Custer County

Jurisdictiondiffers

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

Spearfish: 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.
Box Elder: City of Box Elder
Buffalo Gap: Incorporated town of Buffalo Gap, with Custer County outside the limits.

Corridordiffers

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

To downtown Rapid Citydiffers

Spearfish: 53 min, 47.8 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
St. Onge: About 44 miles, roughly 48 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
Box Elder: 19 min, 10.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Buffalo Gap: About 45 miles, roughly 56 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.

To Ellsworth AFBdiffers

Spearfish: 68 min, 57.0 miDriving 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.
Box Elder: 9 min, 2.3 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Buffalo Gap: About 55 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.

Winter drivingdiffers

Spearfish: Chinook winds off the hills are a genuine feature of winter in this corridor.
St. Onge: Highway 34 is state maintained and connects three directions. County and private roads off it are a different conversation.
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.
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

Spearfish: $400k to $600kMedian sold $475,000. Mount Rushmore Area MLS, all residential, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 199 closed sales.
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.
Box Elder: $340k to $400kMedian sold $367,000. Black Hills MLS, single family, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 235 closed sales.
Buffalo Gap: One single family sale shows in the Black Hills MLS over 24 months, at $80,000. One closing is a sample of one rather than a price level, so read it that way.

Housing agediffers

Spearfish: Older stock in the middle, edge subdivisions built 1996 to 2023
St. Onge: An 1891 townsite with genuinely old buildings, surrounded by ranch and acreage property of every era.
Box Elder: Heavily new construction since the B-21 announcement
Buffalo Gap: An 1885 to 1939 historic core with an aging housing stock and about a fifth of units vacant.

New constructiondiffers

Spearfish: New construction remains active on the edges of town, including areas such as Sky Ridge and other newer developments.
St. Onge: Limited, mostly infill and small projects
Box Elder: Active, with subdivisions still building
Buffalo Gap: None underway

Acreagediffers

Spearfish: Acreage is available around Spearfish, primarily on surrounding Lawrence County ground rather than in the city core.
St. Onge: Acreage parcels are common here
Box Elder: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot size.
Buffalo Gap: Acreage parcels are common here

Typical lotdiffers

Spearfish: 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.
Box Elder: Small city lots, about 0.15 to 0.18 acres in the newer plats
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.

Spearfish: Recorded covenants on some plats, none on others
St. Onge: Few plats here carry recorded covenants
Box Elder: Not recorded townwide in this guide. Read the recorded documents for the plat.
Buffalo Gap: Few plats here carry recorded covenants

Utilities and rules

Utility patterndiffers

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

Waterdiffers

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

Sewerdiffers

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.
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.
Box Elder: City of Box Elder municipal
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

Spearfish: The city studied rules in 2023 and 2024 and maintains an official short term rental page. Verify the current ordinance first.
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.
Box Elder: A verify first town for rental plans, with one specific misconception the guide clears up.
Buffalo Gap: This is hunting and grassland country rather than a tourism corridor. Demand is seasonal and specific.

Schools

School districtdiffers

Spearfish: Spearfish School District 40-2Assignment 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.
Box Elder: Douglas School District 51-1Assignment 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

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

Healthcarediffers

Spearfish: Monument Health Spearfish Hospital and outpatient clinics are in town.
St. Onge: Monument Health Spearfish Hospital, a 35 bed facility with a 24 hour emergency department, about 18 minutes away.
Box Elder: Monument Health Box Elder Clinic provides primary and urgent care in town. Hospital-level care is in Rapid City.
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

Spearfish: D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery, Black Hills State University events, and Terry Peak and Deadwood a short drive south.
St. Onge: Creek bottoms, hay ground and hunting country, with Spearfish Canyon and the northern Hills half an hour away.
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.
Buffalo Gap: Buffalo Gap National Grassland, hunting, rock collecting and OHV country, with the Cheyenne River nearby.

Mapped subdivisions

Outlines on filediffers

Spearfish: 25 mapped outlines, 13 with a full guideReference outlines from county and city GIS, not surveys. The recorded plat controls.
St. Onge: 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.
Buffalo Gap: No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.

The trade

Housing and patterndiffers

Spearfish: A university town with a walkable middle, growing fast enough that new construction has moved to the edges.
St. Onge: An 1891 French-Canadian railroad townsite that is now a cattle auction crossroads and an acreage corridor.
Box Elder: A young city building its first downtown at Liberty Plaza on 110 acres, with roughly 800 residential units planned.
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

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

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.
St. Onge: A three-way school district split you have to verify per parcel, and no services of any kind in town.
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.
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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ComparingSpearfish, St. Onge, Box Elder, Buffalo Gap

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