Aurora, South Dakota.
Typical home $306,959 (+5.8% in a year). Brookings, SD metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$865 (+116%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $16,843 +6%
- $290,117$306,959 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $72,293 +31%
- $234,667$306,959 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Aurora$1,611
- South Dakota$1,668
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Aurora, SD rose 5.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Aurora, Brookings County, South Dakota
Aurora is a town of 1,047 people in Brookings County. Half its households earn more than $95,952 a year and half less, against $70,064 across Brookings County; 3% of its people live below the poverty line. 75% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 25% are rented. Unemployment in Brookings County was 2.0% in August 2026, and the county had 1.5% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in manufacturing, then schools and health care.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Aurora is a small town in Brookings County, and its residents are young for a place of its size, with a median age well below what is common across much of the country. Most homes are lived in by their owners, incomes run well above the county's, and very few residents live below the poverty line. A good share of adults hold a four-year degree, and the winters are cold and snowy while summers turn warm.
Work. People in Aurora work mostly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in other services, and in banks, insurance and property. Across Brookings County, some of the largest workplaces are South Dakota State University, Daktronics and the Brookings School District. Commutes are short, and unemployment across the county has stayed low, with the number of jobs growing a little over the past year.
Things to do. A short drive away, McCrory Gardens and South Dakota Arboretum is a botanical garden, and Hartford Beach State Park is a protected area. Coughlin–Alumni Stadium is also a short drive off. For a longer outing, Pipestone National Monument is an archaeological site a longer drive away.
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- 612households
- 43%of adults have a degree
- 3%below the poverty line
- 17 mintypical commute
- 11%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Brookings County had 19,542 jobs in 2025, 1.5% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 22° and lows near 4°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 60°. About 36 inches of snow and 25 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Brookings Northeast weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Brookings County
- South Dakota State UniversityUniversity or college1,932
- 3M Company1,217
- DaktronicsManufacturer, sales, installation & service of electronic scoring, timing, audio & video displays960
- Brookings School District 05-1School district496FTE
- FbhsDoors metal manufacturing420
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters363
- Hy-VeeSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores278
- Bel Brands USACheese, natural, manufacturing272
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 37 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 5,396 people in all across the county; Aurora has none of its own. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Winter weatherVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- HailVery high
- Strong windVery high
- Ice stormsVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Aurora’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Brookings County and the Brookings, SD metro.
Aurora home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Aurora$306,959
- South Dakota$317,874
- United States$366,157
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Aurora8
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Aurora address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Aurora — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.