Castlewood, South Dakota.
Typical home $422,381 (-3.1% in a year). Watertown, SD metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,026 (+86%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $13,694 -3%
- $436,075$422,381 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $31,174 -7%
- $453,556$422,381 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.
- Castlewood$2,217
- South Dakota$1,668
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Castlewood, SD fell 3.1% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Castlewood, Hamlin County, South Dakota
Castlewood is a city of 698 people in Hamlin County. Half its households earn more than $87,045 a year and half less, against $87,101 across Hamlin County; 4% of its people live below the poverty line. 82% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 18% are rented. Unemployment in Hamlin County was 1.5% in August 2026, and the county had 2.8% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Castlewood is a small city on the eastern side of South Dakota, where most homes are lived in by their owners and neighbors tend to know one another. Household incomes are about level with the county's, and fewer residents live below the poverty line than in many places. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and temperatures that can drop well below freezing, while July is warm. Rain and melted snow add up to a moderate amount over the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, farming and professional and business services also employing a good number. Across Hamlin County, some of the largest workplaces are Agropur Lake Norden, a cheese manufacturer, Hamlin School District, and Legacy Healthcare, which runs nursing homes. Unemployment is low, and the commute to work is typical for a small town, with few people working from home.
Things to do. Stray Horse Creek runs in or beside town, and Clear Lake and Dry Lake are both a short drive away for time on the water. For a longer outing, the Redlin Art Center is a museum a longer drive away, and Bramble Park Zoo is another longer drive away.
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- 292households
- 25%of adults have a degree
- 4%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 4%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Hamlin County had 2,703 jobs in 2025, 2.8% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 22° and lows near 2°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 58°. About 24 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Castlewood #2 weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Hamlin County
- Agropur Lake NordenCheese manufacturing440
- Hamlin School District 28-3School district104FTE
- Legacy HealthcareNursing homes71
- Hamlin Building CenterLumber retailing yards70
- Efraimson Electric Inc BryantLow voltage electrical work57
- RiverviewDairy cattle farming52
- GarfieldDairy cattle farming51
- JR DistributingAnimal feeds, prepared, manufacturing49
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 9 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 867 people in all across the county; Castlewood 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
- Strong windVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Castlewood’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 Hamlin County and the Watertown, SD metro.
Castlewood home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Castlewood$422,381
- 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.
- Castlewood9
Zip codes with a Castlewood address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Castlewood — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Castlewood
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 57226 | Clear Lake | 1,953 | — | $254,498 |
| 57223 | Castlewood | 1,429 | — | $339,808 |