Belle Fourche, South Dakota.
Typical home $347,000 (+2.6% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$869 (+91%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $8,806 +3%
- $338,194$347,000 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $22,889 +7%
- $324,111$347,000 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.
- Belle Fourche$1,821
- South Dakota$1,668
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 51 years.
Typical home values in Belle Fourche, SD rose 2.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Belle Fourche, Butte County, South Dakota
Belle Fourche is a city of 5,617 people in Butte County. 66% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 34% are rented. Unemployment in Butte County was 1.7% in August 2026, and the county had 0.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Belle Fourche is a small city where most homes are lived in by their owners, and the typical home value sits well above what many people expect for a town this size. Residents are somewhat younger than in many small towns, and fewer adults hold a four-year degree than across the country as a whole. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while July brings warm summer afternoons and a modest amount of rain and melted snow over the year.
Work. Most residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with restaurants, hotels and entertainment, shops and the building trades also employing many. Among the largest workplaces in Belle Fourche are the Belle Fourche School District, Rolling Hills Healthcare and Running Supply. Unemployment across Butte County is low, though the county has seen slightly fewer jobs than a year earlier, and few people work from home.
Things to do. The Redwater River runs in or beside town, and False Bottom Creek is a short drive away. A longer drive brings you to the D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery, a park, and to the Vore Buffalo Jump, an archaeological site. Mystic Miner Ski Resort, a ski area, is also a longer drive away.
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- 2,455households
- 17%of adults have a degree
- 11%below the poverty line
- 26 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Butte County had 2,921 jobs in 2025, 0.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 36° and lows near 13°; warmest in July, with highs near 87° and lows near 60°. About 42 inches of snow and 18 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Belle Fourche weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Belle Fourche
- Belle Fourche School District 09-1School district180FTE
- Rolling Hills HealthcareSkilled nursing facilities60
- Running SupplyRetail41
- Albany FarmsNoodles, fried, manufacturing26
- Systems Application & TechnologiesEngineering services22
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 4 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 149 people in all. School districts come 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
- HailRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Belle Fourche’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 Butte County.
Belle Fourche home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Belle Fourche$347,000
- South Dakota$317,874
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Belle Fourche listings — the market is roughly in balance.
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
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Belle Fourche25.78%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Belle Fourche35
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Belle Fourche7
Zip codes with a Belle Fourche address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Belle Fourche — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.