Bruce, South Dakota.
Typical home $360,350 (+9.7% in a year). Brookings, SD metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,021 (+117%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $31,780 +10%
- $328,570$360,350 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $71,902 +25%
- $288,448$360,350 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.
- Bruce$1,891
- South Dakota$1,668
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Bruce, SD rose 9.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Bruce, Brookings County, South Dakota
Bruce is a city of 210 people in Brookings County. 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 people in Brookings County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Bruce is a very small city in Brookings County, in eastern South Dakota, with a population well under what most people picture when they hear the word city. Homes here cost more than a visitor might guess for a small prairie town. Poverty is low, and the county's household incomes sit in a comfortable middle range. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, and summers are warm in July without being extreme. The year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops, and restaurants and hotels also employing many people. Across Brookings County, the largest workplaces include South Dakota State University, 3M Company and Daktronics. Unemployment in the county is low and a little lower than a year ago, and the county has added jobs over the past year. A typical commute is moderate in length, and a share of residents work from home.
Things to do. Oakwood Lakes State Park, a protected area, is a short drive away, as is Lake Tetonkaha, a good choice for time on the water. Peg Munky Run, a river, is also close by. Farther afield, McCrory Gardens and South Dakota Arboretum, a botanical garden, makes a longer outing.
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- 6%below the poverty line
- 20 mintypical commute
- 12%work from home
What people in Brookings County 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, 10 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; Bruce 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
- Cold wavesVery high
- Strong windRelatively 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 Bruce’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.
Bruce home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Bruce$360,350
- 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.
- Bruce5
Zip codes with a Bruce address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Bruce — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.