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.

Narrow it

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.

Browse

The five facts that decide a shortlist

Find a community

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.
Selected Guide
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.
Compare Guide
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.
Compare Guide
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.
Compare Guide
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.
Compare Guide
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.
Selected Guide

What changes

Between Summerset, St. Onge, Black Hawk

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

Region: SummersetRapid City and the Ellsworth corridorSt. OngeNorthern Hills and I-90Black HawkRapid City and the Ellsworth corridor
County: SummersetMeade CountySt. OngeLawrence CountyBlack HawkMeade County
Jurisdiction: SummersetCity of Summerset, incorporated July 2005St. OngeUnincorporated. No town government. Lawrence County zones the parcels and the Sheriff patrols them.Black HawkUnincorporated Meade County
Corridor: SummersetI-90St. OngeSD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at WhitewoodBlack HawkI-90
To downtown Rapid City: Summerset15 min, 10.0 miSt. OngeAbout 44 miles, roughly 48 minutesBlack HawkAbout 12 to 15 minutes
To Ellsworth AFB: Summerset30 min, 19.2 miSt. OngeAbout 45 milesBlack HawkAbout 30 minutes, the same I-90 run as Summerset just north

Side by side

Summerset, St. Onge, Black Hawk

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	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorSummerset	Northern Hills and I-90St. Onge	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorBlack Hawk
Where it sits
Regiondiffers	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor	Northern Hills and I-90	Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor
Countydiffers	Meade County	Lawrence County	Meade County
JurisdictiondiffersCity versus county decides who provides service and who inspects the work.	City of Summerset, incorporated July 2005	Unincorporated. No town government. Lawrence County zones the parcels and the Sheriff patrols them.	Unincorporated Meade County
Corridordiffers	I-90	SD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at Whitewood	I-90
To downtown Rapid Citydiffers	15 min, 10.0 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 44 miles, roughly 48 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.	About 12 to 15 minutesDriving time and distance, off peak.
To Ellsworth AFBdiffers	30 min, 19.2 miDriving time and distance, off peak.	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.
Winter drivingdiffers	The commute is I-90, so winter driving here is interstate driving rather than a two lane canyon road.	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.
Housing and lots
Typical pricediffers	Builder inventory sets the level here, and the MLS publishes no Summerset median on its own.	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.
Housing agediffers	Mostly 2000s to present	An 1891 townsite with genuinely old buildings, surrounded by ranch and acreage property of every era.	Mixed street to street, sometimes neighbor to neighbor
New construction	Limited, mostly infill and small projects	Limited, mostly infill and small projects	Limited, mostly infill and small projects
Acreagediffers	Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot size.	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.
Typical lotdiffers	Wide lots on new streets	Small townsite lots, with acreage and ranch ground around them.	Bigger lots, with shop space and outbuildings normal
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	Recorded covenants on some plats, none on othersRecorded covenants vary by subdivision and should be checked for the specific property.
Utilities and rules
Utility patterndiffers	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.	Mostly private well and septic	Mixed, municipal service in town with well and septic outside it
Waterdiffers	Black Hawk Water User District, or Diamond D Water in Sun Valley	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
Sewerdiffers	City of Summerset	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
Short term rentalsdiffers	The thinnest rules on this list, which means a rental plan has to be pinned down for the specific address.	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.
Schools
School districtdiffers	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.	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.
Daily errands
Groceriesdiffers	Not recorded in this guide. Check what is open near the address.	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.
Healthcarediffers	Hospital-level care is in Rapid City, about 15 minutes south.	Monument Health Spearfish Hospital, a 35 bed facility with a 24 hour emergency department, about 18 minutes away.	Monument Health Rapid City Hospital
Recreationdiffers	Leisure Lane, Steamboat and Castlewood parks are the everyday recreation. Leisure Lane is the big one, with playgrounds, basketball, picnic shelters, open grass and the community garden.	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.
Mapped subdivisions
Outlines on filediffers	2 mapped outlines, 2 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.	12 mapped outlines, 5 with a full guideReference outlines from county and city GIS, not surveys. The recorded plat controls.
The trade
Housing and patterndiffers	New streets and builder inventory, with Highlands at Norman Ranch adding over 100 first phase homesites across more than 300 acres.	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.
What you gaindiffers	Newer houses on city sewer with Hills views at a price central Rapid City does not offer, and Highlands at Norman Ranch is still selling first phase homesites.	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.
What you give updiffers	You are fifteen minutes out from most of Rapid City's services and you drive I-90 to get to them in the winter. The city is also split between Meade 46-1 and Rapid City Area Schools 51-4, so the district follows the address.	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.

Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorSummerset
Northern Hills and I-90St. Onge
Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridorBlack Hawk

Where it sits

Regiondiffers

Summerset: Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor
St. Onge: Northern Hills and I-90
Black Hawk: Rapid City and the Ellsworth corridor

Countydiffers

Summerset: Meade County
St. Onge: Lawrence County
Black Hawk: Meade County

Jurisdictiondiffers

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

Summerset: City of Summerset, incorporated July 2005
St. Onge: Unincorporated. No town government. Lawrence County zones the parcels and the Sheriff patrols them.
Black Hawk: Unincorporated Meade County

Corridordiffers

Summerset: I-90
St. Onge: SD 34, with I-90 seven miles southeast at Whitewood
Black Hawk: I-90

To downtown Rapid Citydiffers

Summerset: 15 min, 10.0 miDriving time and distance, off peak.
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.

To Ellsworth AFBdiffers

Summerset: 30 min, 19.2 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.
Black Hawk: About 30 minutes, the same I-90 run as Summerset just northDriving time and distance, off peak.

Winter drivingdiffers

Summerset: The commute is I-90, so winter driving here is interstate driving rather than a two lane canyon road.
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.

Housing and lots

Typical pricediffers

Summerset: Builder inventory sets the level here, and the MLS publishes no Summerset median on its own.
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.

Housing agediffers

Summerset: Mostly 2000s to present
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

New construction

Summerset: Limited, mostly infill and small projects
St. Onge: Limited, mostly infill and small projects
Black Hawk: Limited, mostly infill and small projects

Acreagediffers

Summerset: Not recorded townwide in this guide. The recorded plat carries the lot size.
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.

Typical lotdiffers

Summerset: Wide lots on new streets
St. Onge: Small townsite lots, with acreage and ranch ground around them.
Black Hawk: Bigger lots, with shop space and outbuildings normal

Covenants and HOAdiffers

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

Summerset: Recorded covenants on some plats, none on others
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.

Utilities and rules

Utility patterndiffers

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

Waterdiffers

Summerset: Black Hawk Water User District, or Diamond D Water in Sun Valley
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

Sewerdiffers

Summerset: City of Summerset
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

Short term rentalsdiffers

Summerset: The thinnest rules on this list, which means a rental plan has to be pinned down for the specific address.
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.

Schools

School districtdiffers

Summerset: 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.
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.

Daily errands

Groceriesdiffers

Summerset: Not recorded in this guide. Check what is open near the address.
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.

Healthcarediffers

Summerset: Hospital-level care is in Rapid City, about 15 minutes south.
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

Recreationdiffers

Summerset: Leisure Lane, Steamboat and Castlewood parks are the everyday recreation. Leisure Lane is the big one, with playgrounds, basketball, picnic shelters, open grass and the community garden.
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.

Mapped subdivisions

Outlines on filediffers

Summerset: 2 mapped outlines, 2 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.
Black Hawk: 12 mapped outlines, 5 with a full guideReference outlines from county and city GIS, not surveys. The recorded plat controls.

The trade

Housing and patterndiffers

Summerset: New streets and builder inventory, with Highlands at Norman Ranch adding over 100 first phase homesites across more than 300 acres.
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.

What you gaindiffers

Summerset: Newer houses on city sewer with Hills views at a price central Rapid City does not offer, and Highlands at Norman Ranch is still selling first phase homesites.
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.

What you give updiffers

Summerset: You are fifteen minutes out from most of Rapid City's services and you drive I-90 to get to them in the winter. The city is also split between Meade 46-1 and Rapid City Area Schools 51-4, so the district follows the address.
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.

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

Contact

Want to talk through the tradeoffs?

Two towns can look identical in a table and feel nothing alike on a Tuesday night in February. Call or text and tell me which rows above are the ones you cannot live with, and we can work the list down from there.

Call 605-490-2040 Text 605-490-2040 Send a Message

Address Questions

Considering a home here?

Send the address and we can talk it through. The details that change from one property to the next are jurisdiction, water and sewer, the school the district assigns, covenants, road maintenance and the rest of what never shows up on a listing.

Or send a message from the contact page

ComparingSummerset, St. Onge, Black Hawk

Compare Clear