Elkton, South Dakota.
Typical home $304,477 (+6.7% in a year). Brookings, SD metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$942 (+144%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $19,146 +7%
- $285,331$304,477 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $80,788 +36%
- $223,690$304,477 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.
- Elkton$1,598
- South Dakota$1,668
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Elkton, SD rose 6.7% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Elkton, Brookings County, South Dakota
Elkton is a city of 755 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Elkton is a very small city in Brookings County, in eastern South Dakota. Incomes across the county are modest, and a typical home in town costs less than in many parts of the country. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers are warm in July.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops, and restaurants and hotels also employing many. Across Brookings County, some of the largest workplaces are South Dakota State University, Daktronics and the Brookings School District. Unemployment across the county is low and a little lower than a year ago, and the number of jobs has grown slightly. Most people have a short commute, and few work from home.
Things to do. For time outdoors, Hartford Beach State Park is a protected area, and Lake Hendricks is a lake. McCrory Gardens and South Dakota Arboretum is a botanical garden. Each of these is a longer drive away. Pipestone National Monument, an archaeological site, is also a longer drive from town.
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- 355households
- 22%of adults have a degree
- 16 mintypical commute
- 6%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 23° and lows near 4°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 60°. About 40 inches of snow and 28 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Flandreau weather station, 14 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; Elkton has one 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 Elkton’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.
Elkton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Elkton$304,477
- 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 Elkton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Elkton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.