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 Sturgis, Box Elder, Hermosa, Edgemont

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

Region: SturgisNorthern Hills and I-90Box ElderRapid City and the Ellsworth corridorHermosaCentral and Southern HillsEdgemontCentral and Southern Hills
County: SturgisMeade CountyBox ElderPennington CountyHermosaCuster CountyEdgemontFall River County
Jurisdiction: SturgisNot recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.Box ElderCity of Box ElderHermosaIncorporated town of Hermosa, with Custer County outside the town limitsEdgemontIncorporated city of Edgemont, with Fall River County outside the limits.
Corridor: SturgisI-90Box ElderI-90HermosaUS 79EdgemontUS 18 and SD 471
To downtown Rapid City: Sturgis33 min, 28.9 miBox Elder19 min, 10.9 miHermosa26 min, 18.6 miEdgemontAbout 100 miles northeast
To Ellsworth AFB: Sturgis48 min, 38.2 miBox Elder9 min, 2.3 miHermosaAbout 35 minutes, north through Rapid City to I-90EdgemontAbout 110 miles

Side by side

Sturgis, Box Elder, Hermosa, Edgemont

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-90Sturgis	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorBox Elder	Central and Southern HillsHermosa	Central and Southern HillsEdgemont
Where it sits
Regiondiffers	Northern Hills and I-90	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor	Central and Southern Hills	Central and Southern Hills
Countydiffers	Meade County	Pennington County	Custer County	Fall River 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.	City of Box Elder	Incorporated town of Hermosa, with Custer County outside the town limits	Incorporated city of Edgemont, with Fall River County outside the limits.
Corridordiffers	I-90	I-90	US 79	US 18 and SD 471
To downtown Rapid Citydiffers	33 min, 28.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	19 min, 10.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	26 min, 18.6 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 100 miles northeastDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
To Ellsworth AFBdiffers	48 min, 38.2 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	9 min, 2.3 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 35 minutes, north through Rapid City to I-90Driving time and distance, off peak.	About 110 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.
Winter drivingdiffers	I-90 is state maintained and the city clears its own streets. The county roads out past the edges clear later.	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.	US 79 is state maintained and is the reason the commute works. Town streets and county roads clear on their own schedule.	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.
Housing and lots
Typical pricediffers	$300k to $450kMedian sold $365,000. Mount Rushmore Area MLS, all residential, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 97 closed sales.	$340k to $400kMedian sold $367,000. Black Hills MLS, single family, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 235 closed sales.	About $650,000 average sold, 28 sales over 24 monthsAverage sold $648,229. Black Hills MLS, single family, 24 months through August 2026, as of August 2026. 28 closed sales.	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.
Housing agediffers	Older near the core, newer on the edges	Heavily new construction since the B-21 announcement	A mix, with older in-town stock and newer building on the edges.	An 1890 railroad town, so mostly older stock, with about a quarter of units vacant at the 2020 count.
New constructiondiffers	Limited, mostly infill and small projects	Active, with subdivisions still building	Limited, mostly infill and small projects	None underway
Acreagediffers	Acreage becomes more common outside the city core, including areas east of Sturgis and along the surrounding canyon and prairie corridors.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot size.	Acreage parcels are common here	Acreage parcels are common here
Typical lotdiffers	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot dimensions.	Small city lots, about 0.15 to 0.18 acres in the newer plats	Small town lots inside the limits, acreage outside them.	Town lots inside the limits, ranch scale outside them.
Covenants and HOAdiffersCovenants are recorded per plat. The title commitment lists what binds the parcel.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. Read the recorded documents for the plat.	Not recorded townwide in this guide. Read the recorded documents for the plat.	Few plats here carry recorded covenants	Few plats here carry recorded covenants
Utilities and rules
Utility patterndiffers	Not recorded townwide in this guide. Verify water and sewer service for the address.	City water and sewer inside the limits	Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it	City water and sewer inside the limits
Waterdiffers	Not recorded townwide in this guide. Verify the provider for the address.	City of Box Elder municipal	Town of Hermosa water inside the limits. The Hermosa Water Users Association is a separate system, and rural parcels are commonly on private wells. Which one serves a given address has to be checked address by address.	City of Edgemont municipal water. Rural parcels are on private wells.
Sewerdiffers	Not recorded townwide in this guide. Verify the service for the address.	City of Box Elder municipal	Town sewer with lagoon treatment inside the limits, currently being expanded. Rural parcels are on private septic.	City sewer inside the limits, with private septic on rural parcels.
Short term rentalsdiffers	No short term rental licensing ordinance. What the city does regulate is residential camping during the Rally.	A verify first town for rental plans, with one specific misconception the guide clears up.	Hermosa sits on the road to Custer State Park, which makes short-term rental a real question here. Nothing in the public record confirms a town ordinance either way, so confirm with the town before you count on the income.	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.
Schools
School districtdiffers	Meade School District 46-1Assignment 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.	Custer School District 16-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.	Edgemont School District 23-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
Daily errands
Groceriesdiffers	Lynn's Dakotamart is a full-service grocery store in town.	Lynn's Dakotamart is a full-service grocery store in town.	Pop's Grocery Shoppe on North Ferguson Street, a full grocery in town since 2007. Anything larger is Rapid City, 26 minutes north.	Small-town grocery and convenience in Edgemont, with Hot Springs about 35 miles east for more.
Healthcarediffers	Monument Health Sturgis Hospital and clinic are in town.	Monument Health Box Elder Clinic provides primary and urgent care in town. Hospital-level care is in Rapid City.	No clinic in town. Monument Health Rapid City Hospital is about 22 minutes north, and Monument Health Custer Hospital is about 27 miles southwest.	No hospital in town. Fall River Health Services in Hot Springs is a 25 bed critical access hospital with a 24 hour emergency department.
Recreationdiffers	Bear Butte State Park, Fort Meade Recreation Area and the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum, with the northern hills toward Spearfish and Deadwood close.	The Liberty Center, the city park and ballfield network, and the South Dakota Air and Space Museum are the in-town recreation. The Badlands are a day trip, not your neighborhood park.	Custer State Park is the back door, with Battle Creek running at the edge of town and the Buffalo Gap National Grassland to the east.	The hundred-year-old city park, the campground, the Elk Mountains and open country in every direction.
Mapped subdivisions
Outlines on filediffers	9 mapped outlines, 8 with a full guideReference outlines from county and city GIS, not surveys. The recorded plat controls.	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.	No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.
The trade
Housing and patterndiffers	A full Main Street town with its own grocery, hospital and high school, and Bear Butte on the horizon.	A young city building its first downtown at Liberty Plaza on 110 acres, with roughly 800 residential units planned.	A working prairie town with its own grocery, library and county fairgrounds, at the point where the grassland meets the Hills.	A working BNSF crew-change town founded in 1890, at the far southern edge of the Hills below the Elk Mountains.
What you gaindiffers	A town that stands on its own, grocery, hospital and high school inside it, at a price per square foot below Rapid City.	The Ellsworth main gate is in town, 9 minutes from most addresses, on city water and sewer, with the region's newest housing pipeline.	Elementary and middle school in town, 26 minutes from Rapid City, with larger lots and rural utility tradeoffs common outside town.	More town per dollar than anywhere else in the region, with its own school district and city utilities.
What you give updiffers	Half an hour of interstate each way to Rapid City, and for the first two weeks of August the Rally is your 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.	High school is 27 miles away in Custer, and the water arrangement changes parcel to parcel.	A hundred miles from Rapid City, 35 from a hospital, with two unresolved questions hanging over the local economy.

Northern Hills and I-90Sturgis
Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorBox Elder
Central and Southern HillsHermosa
Central and Southern HillsEdgemont

Where it sits

Regiondiffers

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

Countydiffers

Sturgis: Meade County
Box Elder: Pennington County
Hermosa: Custer County
Edgemont: Fall River County

Jurisdictiondiffers

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

Sturgis: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The address decides whether it is city or county ground.
Box Elder: City of Box Elder
Hermosa: Incorporated town of Hermosa, with Custer County outside the town limits
Edgemont: Incorporated city of Edgemont, with Fall River County outside the limits.

Corridordiffers

Sturgis: I-90
Box Elder: I-90
Hermosa: US 79
Edgemont: US 18 and SD 471

To downtown Rapid Citydiffers

Sturgis: 33 min, 28.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Box Elder: 19 min, 10.9 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Hermosa: 26 min, 18.6 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Edgemont: About 100 miles northeastDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.

To Ellsworth AFBdiffers

Sturgis: 48 min, 38.2 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Box Elder: 9 min, 2.3 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
Hermosa: About 35 minutes, north through Rapid City to I-90Driving time and distance, off peak.
Edgemont: About 110 milesDistance only. Drive time is not measured for this community, so time it from the parcel.

Winter drivingdiffers

Sturgis: I-90 is state maintained and the city clears its own streets. The county roads out past the edges clear later.
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.
Hermosa: US 79 is state maintained and is the reason the commute works. Town streets and county roads clear on their own schedule.
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.

Housing and lots

Typical pricediffers

Sturgis: $300k to $450kMedian sold $365,000. Mount Rushmore Area MLS, all residential, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 97 closed sales.
Box Elder: $340k to $400kMedian sold $367,000. Black Hills MLS, single family, trailing 12 months, as of August 2026. 235 closed sales.
Hermosa: About $650,000 average sold, 28 sales over 24 monthsAverage sold $648,229. Black Hills MLS, single family, 24 months through August 2026, as of August 2026. 28 closed sales.
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.

Housing agediffers

Sturgis: Older near the core, newer on the edges
Box Elder: Heavily new construction since the B-21 announcement
Hermosa: A mix, with older in-town stock and newer building on the edges.
Edgemont: An 1890 railroad town, so mostly older stock, with about a quarter of units vacant at the 2020 count.

New constructiondiffers

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

Acreagediffers

Sturgis: Acreage becomes more common outside the city core, including areas east of Sturgis and along the surrounding canyon and prairie corridors.
Box Elder: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot size.
Hermosa: Acreage parcels are common here
Edgemont: Acreage parcels are common here

Typical lotdiffers

Sturgis: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot dimensions.
Box Elder: Small city lots, about 0.15 to 0.18 acres in the newer plats
Hermosa: Small town lots inside the limits, acreage outside them.
Edgemont: Town lots inside the limits, ranch scale outside them.

Covenants and HOAdiffers

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

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

Utilities and rules

Utility patterndiffers

Sturgis: Not recorded townwide in this guide. Verify water and sewer service for the address.
Box Elder: City water and sewer inside the limits
Hermosa: Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
Edgemont: City water and sewer inside the limits

Waterdiffers

Sturgis: Not recorded townwide in this guide. Verify the provider for the address.
Box Elder: City of Box Elder municipal
Hermosa: Town of Hermosa water inside the limits. The Hermosa Water Users Association is a separate system, and rural parcels are commonly on private wells. Which one serves a given address has to be checked address by address.
Edgemont: City of Edgemont municipal water. Rural parcels are on private wells.

Sewerdiffers

Sturgis: Not recorded townwide in this guide. Verify the service for the address.
Box Elder: City of Box Elder municipal
Hermosa: Town sewer with lagoon treatment inside the limits, currently being expanded. Rural parcels are on private septic.
Edgemont: City sewer inside the limits, with private septic on rural parcels.

Short term rentalsdiffers

Sturgis: No short term rental licensing ordinance. What the city does regulate is residential camping during the Rally.
Box Elder: A verify first town for rental plans, with one specific misconception the guide clears up.
Hermosa: Hermosa sits on the road to Custer State Park, which makes short-term rental a real question here. Nothing in the public record confirms a town ordinance either way, so confirm with the town before you count on the income.
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.

Schools

School districtdiffers

Sturgis: Meade School District 46-1Assignment 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.
Hermosa: Custer School District 16-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.
Edgemont: Edgemont School District 23-1Assignment follows the official boundary for the address. Confirm with the district.

Daily errands

Groceriesdiffers

Sturgis: Lynn's Dakotamart is a full-service grocery store in town.
Box Elder: Lynn's Dakotamart is a full-service grocery store in town.
Hermosa: Pop's Grocery Shoppe on North Ferguson Street, a full grocery in town since 2007. Anything larger is Rapid City, 26 minutes north.
Edgemont: Small-town grocery and convenience in Edgemont, with Hot Springs about 35 miles east for more.

Healthcarediffers

Sturgis: Monument Health Sturgis Hospital and clinic are in town.
Box Elder: Monument Health Box Elder Clinic provides primary and urgent care in town. Hospital-level care is in Rapid City.
Hermosa: No clinic in town. Monument Health Rapid City Hospital is about 22 minutes north, and Monument Health Custer Hospital is about 27 miles southwest.
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.

Recreationdiffers

Sturgis: Bear Butte State Park, Fort Meade Recreation Area and the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum, with the northern hills toward Spearfish and Deadwood close.
Box Elder: The Liberty Center, the city park and ballfield network, and the South Dakota Air and Space Museum are the in-town recreation. The Badlands are a day trip, not your neighborhood park.
Hermosa: Custer State Park is the back door, with Battle Creek running at the edge of town and the Buffalo Gap National Grassland to the east.
Edgemont: The hundred-year-old city park, the campground, the Elk Mountains and open country in every direction.

Mapped subdivisions

Outlines on filediffers

Sturgis: 9 mapped outlines, 8 with a full guideReference outlines from county and city GIS, not surveys. The recorded plat controls.
Box Elder: 16 mapped outlines, 3 with a full guideReference outlines from county and city GIS, not surveys. The recorded plat controls.
Hermosa: No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.
Edgemont: No recorded subdivision outlines drawn for this community yet.

The trade

Housing and patterndiffers

Sturgis: A full Main Street town with its own grocery, hospital and high school, and Bear Butte on the horizon.
Box Elder: A young city building its first downtown at Liberty Plaza on 110 acres, with roughly 800 residential units planned.
Hermosa: A working prairie town with its own grocery, library and county fairgrounds, at the point where the grassland meets the Hills.
Edgemont: A working BNSF crew-change town founded in 1890, at the far southern edge of the Hills below the Elk Mountains.

What you gaindiffers

Sturgis: A town that stands on its own, grocery, hospital and high school inside it, at a price per square foot below Rapid City.
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.
Hermosa: Elementary and middle school in town, 26 minutes from Rapid City, with larger lots and rural utility tradeoffs common outside town.
Edgemont: More town per dollar than anywhere else in the region, with its own school district and city utilities.

What you give updiffers

Sturgis: Half an hour of interstate each way to Rapid City, and for the first two weeks of August the Rally is your 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.
Hermosa: High school is 27 miles away in Custer, and the water arrangement changes parcel to parcel.
Edgemont: A hundred miles from Rapid City, 35 from a hospital, with two unresolved questions hanging over the local economy.

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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ComparingSturgis, Box Elder, Hermosa, Edgemont

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