Bison, South Dakota.
Typical home $165,533 (+6.2% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$492 (+130%) since Feb 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $9,622 +6%
- $155,911$165,533 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $36,952 +29%
- $128,582$165,533 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.
- Bison$869
- South Dakota$1,668
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Bison, SD rose 6.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Bison, Perkins County, South Dakota
Bison is a town of 302 people in Perkins County. Unemployment in Perkins County was 2.0% in August 2026, and the county had 3.8% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Perkins County work in farming, 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Bison is a very small town on the northwestern plains of South Dakota, the kind of place where residents tend to know one another. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers turn warm in July, and the year brings a modest amount of rain and melted snow. Homes here cost less than in much of the country, and incomes across Perkins County sit below the state's typical household.
Work. Many residents work in farming, forestry and mining, with others in schools, hospitals and social care, the building trades, and shops. Across Perkins County, the largest workplaces include the Lemmon School District, Five Counties Nursing Home and the Bison School District. Unemployment across the county is low and about the same as a year ago, though there were fewer jobs in the county last year than the year before.
Things to do. Box Spring Creek is a river a short drive away. A longer drive brings you to Shadehill Reservoir, a good spot for time on the water, and to Grand River National Grassland, a protected area of open prairie. Shadehill Recreation Area, also a protected area a longer drive away, rounds out the outdoor options.
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- 188households
- 23%of adults have a degree
- 5%below the poverty line
What people in Perkins County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Perkins County had 1,076 jobs in 2025, 3.8% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 30° and lows near 10°; warmest in July, with highs near 86° and lows near 59°. About 40 inches of snow and 18 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Bison weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Perkins County
- Lemmon School District 52-4School district46FTE
- Five Counties Nursing HomeSkilled nursing facilities35
- Bison School District 52-1School district31FTE
- CHSFarm supplies merchant wholesalers30
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 65 people in all across the county; Bison has one of its own. 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
- Cold wavesVery high
- Strong windVery high
- WildfireRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Bison’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 Perkins County.
Bison home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Bison$165,533
- 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.
Zip codes with a Bison address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Bison — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.