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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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

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What changes

Between St. Onge, Black Hawk, Buffalo Gap, Custer

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

Region: St. OngeNorthern Hills and I-90Black HawkRapid City and the Ellsworth corridorBuffalo GapCentral and Southern HillsCusterCentral and Southern Hills
County: St. OngeLawrence CountyBlack HawkMeade CountyBuffalo GapCuster CountyCusterCuster County
Jurisdiction: St. OngeUnincorporated. No town government. Lawrence County zones the parcels and the Sheriff patrols them.Black HawkUnincorporated Meade CountyBuffalo GapIncorporated town of Buffalo Gap, with Custer County outside the limits.CusterNot recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.
Corridor: St. OngeSD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at WhitewoodBlack HawkI-90Buffalo GapSD 79CusterUS-16
To downtown Rapid City: St. OngeAbout 44 miles, roughly 48 minutesBlack HawkAbout 12 to 15 minutesBuffalo GapAbout 45 miles, roughly 56 minutesCusterAbout 50 to 60 minutes
To Ellsworth AFB: St. OngeAbout 45 milesBlack HawkAbout 30 minutes, the same I-90 run as Summerset just northBuffalo GapAbout 55 milesCusterAbout an hour and ten minutes

Side by side

St. Onge, Black Hawk, Buffalo Gap, Custer

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-90St. Onge	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorBlack Hawk	Central and Southern HillsBuffalo Gap	Central and Southern HillsCuster
Where it sits
Regiondiffers	Northern Hills and I-90	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor	Central and Southern Hills	Central and Southern Hills
Countydiffers	Lawrence County	Meade County	Custer County	Custer County
JurisdictiondiffersCity versus county decides who provides service and who inspects the work.	Unincorporated. No town government. Lawrence County zones the parcels and the Sheriff patrols them.	Unincorporated Meade County	Incorporated town of Buffalo Gap, with Custer County outside the limits.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.
Corridordiffers	SD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at Whitewood	I-90	SD 79	US-16
To downtown Rapid Citydiffers	About 44 miles, roughly 48 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 12 to 15 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 45 miles, roughly 56 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 50 to 60 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
To Ellsworth AFBdiffers	About 45 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.	About 30 minutes, the same I-90 run as Summerset just northDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 55 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.	About an hour and ten minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
Winter drivingdiffers	Highway 34 is state maintained and connects three directions. County and private roads off it are a different conversation.	The road out front may be maintained publicly or by the neighborhood, so ask who plows before you buy.	Highway 79 is state maintained and is the connection to Hot Springs and Rapid City. Off it, this is open prairie with blowing snow.	Winter roads are a genuine planning factor at this distance, and on acreage you need to know who maintains yours.
Housing and lots
Typical pricediffers	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.	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.	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.	Median sold $627,000Black Hills MLS, single family, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 7 closed sales, small sample.
Housing agediffers	An 1891 townsite with genuinely old buildings, surrounded by ranch and acreage property of every era.	Mixed street to street, sometimes neighbor to neighbor	An 1885 to 1939 historic core with an aging housing stock and about a fifth of units vacant.	Mixed ages. Older homes near the core, newer construction toward the edges.
New constructiondiffers	Limited, mostly infill and small projects	Limited, mostly infill and small projects	None underway	Not recorded townwide in this guide. Check current permits with the city or county.
Acreagediffers	Acreage parcels are common here	Larger lots and acre properties are part of the Black Hawk market, including properties with room for shops and outbuildings.	Acreage parcels are common here	Acreage is common outside the city core, with wells and septic systems typical on many rural properties.
Typical lotdiffers	Small townsite lots, with acreage and ranch ground around them.	Bigger lots, with shop space and outbuildings normal	A handful of historic townsite lots, with grassland 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	Recorded covenants on some plats, none on othersRecorded covenants vary by subdivision and should be checked for the specific property.	Few plats here carry recorded covenants	Not recorded townwide in this guide. Read the recorded documents for the plat.
Utilities and rules
Utility patterndiffers	Mostly private well and septic	Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it	Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it	Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
Waterdiffers	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.	Black Hawk Water User District	Town of Buffalo Gap municipal water from a single well, serving about 93 connections. Rural parcels are on private wells.	Municipal water inside the limits, a private well or a district system outside them.Read off the townwide utility pattern in the guide. The service address controls, so confirm the provider before you write an offer.
Sewerdiffers	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.	Black Hawk Sanitary District serves roughly 200 homes and businesses; properties outside the district are on private septic	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.	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	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.	No municipal short term rental ordinance, because there is no municipality. State licensing still applies, and the subdivision covenant usually decides.	This is hunting and grassland country rather than a tourism corridor. Demand is seasonal and specific.	Grandfathered permits are non transferable and expire when the property sells, and the rules flip at the city line.
Schools
School districtdiffers	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.	Rapid City Area Schools 51-4 for most addressesAssignment 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.	Custer School District 16-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
Daily errands
Groceriesdiffers	Nothing in town. Spearfish is eleven miles southeast and Belle Fourche thirteen northwest.	No full-service grocery store is in Black Hawk. Most larger grocery trips go into Rapid City.	Nothing full service in town. Hot Springs, about 14 miles south, is where errands happen.	Lynn's Dakotamart is a full-service grocery store in town.
Healthcarediffers	Monument Health Spearfish Hospital, a 35 bed facility with a 24 hour emergency department, about 18 minutes away.	Monument Health Rapid City Hospital	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.	Monument Health Custer Hospital and clinic are in town.
Recreationdiffers	Creek bottoms, hay ground and hunting country, with Spearfish Canyon and the northern Hills half an hour away.	Piedmont and the Stagebarn area are just north, with the central hills close enough for a half day.	Buffalo Gap National Grassland, hunting, rock collecting and OHV country, with the Cheyenne River nearby.	Custer State Park at the door, including Sylvan Lake, the Needles Highway, the wildlife loop and the September buffalo roundup.
Mapped subdivisions
Outlines on filediffers	No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.	12 mapped outlines, 5 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	An 1891 French-Canadian railroad townsite that is now a cattle auction crossroads and an acreage corridor.	Unincorporated foothills pockets where lot size, home age and outbuildings change from one parcel to the next.	A nearly intact turn-of-the-century western streetscape on the National Register, mostly quiet, at the gate to the grassland.	A county seat at a park entrance, with a replacement Monument Health hospital and acreage starting just past the city limits.
What you gaindiffers	The cheapest ground in the northern Hills that still puts you eleven miles from a hospital and sixteen from three towns.	Bigger lots, room for a shop, and about 12 to 15 minutes to downtown Rapid City, without a city hall setting the local rules.	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.	You are inside the Hills with real acreage, Custer State Park at the door, and a new hospital in a town of about 1,900.
What you give updiffers	A three-way school district split you have to verify per parcel, and no services of any kind in town.	There is no city hall, so the subdivision covenant decides what you can build or rent, and water, sewer and road maintenance all change parcel to parcel.	No school, no store and no services in town, an aging water system with an open compliance item, and an undocumented sewer situation.	Rapid City is 50 to 60 minutes and Ellsworth over an hour, grandfathered rental permits expire when a property sells, and outside the city limits there are no county building codes.

Northern Hills and I-90St. Onge
Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorBlack Hawk
Central and Southern HillsBuffalo Gap
Central and Southern HillsCuster

Where it sits

Regiondiffers

St. Onge: Northern Hills and I-90
Black Hawk: Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor
Buffalo Gap: Central and Southern Hills
Custer: Central and Southern Hills

Countydiffers

St. Onge: Lawrence County
Black Hawk: Meade County
Buffalo Gap: Custer County
Custer: Custer County

Jurisdictiondiffers

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

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

Corridordiffers

St. Onge: SD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at Whitewood
Black Hawk: I-90
Buffalo Gap: SD 79
Custer: US-16

To downtown Rapid Citydiffers

St. Onge: About 44 miles, roughly 48 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
Black Hawk: About 12 to 15 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
Buffalo Gap: About 45 miles, roughly 56 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
Custer: About 50 to 60 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.

To Ellsworth AFBdiffers

St. Onge: About 45 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
Black Hawk: About 30 minutes, the same I-90 run as Summerset just northDriving 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.
Custer: About an hour and ten minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.

Winter drivingdiffers

St. Onge: Highway 34 is state maintained and connects three directions. County and private roads off it are a different conversation.
Black Hawk: The road out front may be maintained publicly or by the neighborhood, so ask who plows before you buy.
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.
Custer: Winter roads are a genuine planning factor at this distance, and on acreage you need to know who maintains yours.

Housing and lots

Typical pricediffers

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.
Black Hawk: 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.
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.
Custer: Median sold $627,000Black Hills MLS, single family, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 7 closed sales, small sample.

Housing agediffers

St. Onge: An 1891 townsite with genuinely old buildings, surrounded by ranch and acreage property of every era.
Black Hawk: Mixed street to street, sometimes neighbor to neighbor
Buffalo Gap: An 1885 to 1939 historic core with an aging housing stock and about a fifth of units vacant.
Custer: Mixed ages. Older homes near the core, newer construction toward the edges.

New constructiondiffers

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

Acreagediffers

St. Onge: Acreage parcels are common here
Black Hawk: Larger lots and acre properties are part of the Black Hawk market, including properties with room for shops and outbuildings.
Buffalo Gap: Acreage parcels are common here
Custer: Acreage is common outside the city core, with wells and septic systems typical on many rural properties.

Typical lotdiffers

St. Onge: Small townsite lots, with acreage and ranch ground around them.
Black Hawk: Bigger lots, with shop space and outbuildings normal
Buffalo Gap: A handful of historic townsite lots, with grassland and ranch ground around them.
Custer: 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.

St. Onge: Few plats here carry recorded covenants
Black Hawk: Recorded covenants on some plats, none on othersRecorded covenants vary by subdivision and should be checked for the specific property.
Buffalo Gap: Few plats here carry recorded covenants
Custer: Not recorded townwide in this guide. Read the recorded documents for the plat.

Utilities and rules

Utility patterndiffers

St. Onge: Mostly private well and septic
Black Hawk: Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
Buffalo Gap: Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
Custer: Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it

Waterdiffers

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.
Black Hawk: Black Hawk Water User District
Buffalo Gap: Town of Buffalo Gap municipal water from a single well, serving about 93 connections. Rural parcels are on private wells.
Custer: Municipal water inside the limits, a private well or a district system outside them.Read off the townwide utility pattern in the guide. The service address controls, so confirm the provider before you write an offer.

Sewerdiffers

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.
Black Hawk: Black Hawk Sanitary District serves roughly 200 homes and businesses; properties outside the district are on private septic
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.
Custer: City sewer inside the limits, private septic outside them.Read off the townwide utility pattern in the guide. The service address controls, so confirm the provider before you write an offer.

Short term rentalsdiffers

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.
Black Hawk: No municipal short term rental ordinance, because there is no municipality. State licensing still applies, and the subdivision covenant usually decides.
Buffalo Gap: This is hunting and grassland country rather than a tourism corridor. Demand is seasonal and specific.
Custer: Grandfathered permits are non transferable and expire when the property sells, and the rules flip at the city line.

Schools

School districtdiffers

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.
Black Hawk: Rapid City Area Schools 51-4 for most addressesAssignment 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.
Custer: Custer School District 16-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.

Daily errands

Groceriesdiffers

St. Onge: Nothing in town. Spearfish is eleven miles southeast and Belle Fourche thirteen northwest.
Black Hawk: No full-service grocery store is in Black Hawk. Most larger grocery trips go into Rapid City.
Buffalo Gap: Nothing full service in town. Hot Springs, about 14 miles south, is where errands happen.
Custer: Lynn's Dakotamart is a full-service grocery store in town.

Healthcarediffers

St. Onge: Monument Health Spearfish Hospital, a 35 bed facility with a 24 hour emergency department, about 18 minutes away.
Black Hawk: Monument Health Rapid City Hospital
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.
Custer: Monument Health Custer Hospital and clinic are in town.

Recreationdiffers

St. Onge: Creek bottoms, hay ground and hunting country, with Spearfish Canyon and the northern Hills half an hour away.
Black Hawk: Piedmont and the Stagebarn area are just north, with the central hills close enough for a half day.
Buffalo Gap: Buffalo Gap National Grassland, hunting, rock collecting and OHV country, with the Cheyenne River nearby.
Custer: Custer State Park at the door, including Sylvan Lake, the Needles Highway, the wildlife loop and the September buffalo roundup.

Mapped subdivisions

Outlines on filediffers

St. Onge: No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.
Black Hawk: 12 mapped outlines, 5 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.
Custer: No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.

The trade

Housing and patterndiffers

St. Onge: An 1891 French-Canadian railroad townsite that is now a cattle auction crossroads and an acreage corridor.
Black Hawk: Unincorporated foothills pockets where lot size, home age and outbuildings change from one parcel to the next.
Buffalo Gap: A nearly intact turn-of-the-century western streetscape on the National Register, mostly quiet, at the gate to the grassland.
Custer: A county seat at a park entrance, with a replacement Monument Health hospital and acreage starting just past the city limits.

What you gaindiffers

St. Onge: The cheapest ground in the northern Hills that still puts you eleven miles from a hospital and sixteen from three towns.
Black Hawk: Bigger lots, room for a shop, and about 12 to 15 minutes to downtown Rapid City, without a city hall setting the local rules.
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.
Custer: You are inside the Hills with real acreage, Custer State Park at the door, and a new hospital in a town of about 1,900.

What you give updiffers

St. Onge: A three-way school district split you have to verify per parcel, and no services of any kind in town.
Black Hawk: There is no city hall, so the subdivision covenant decides what you can build or rent, and water, sewer and road maintenance all change parcel to parcel.
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.
Custer: Rapid City is 50 to 60 minutes and Ellsworth over an hour, grandfathered rental permits expire when a property sells, and outside the city limits there are no county building codes.

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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ComparingSt. Onge, Black Hawk, Buffalo Gap, Custer

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