Lead, South Dakota.
Typical home $374,908 (-1.4% in a year). Spearfish, SD metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,129 (+135%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $5,367 -1%
- $380,275$374,908 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $60,117 +19%
- $314,790$374,908 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.
- Lead$1,968
- South Dakota$1,668
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 20 years.
Typical home values in Lead, SD fell 1.4% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Lead, Lawrence County, South Dakota
Lead is a city of 2,982 people in Lawrence County. 70% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 30% are rented. Unemployment in Lawrence County was 1.9% in August 2026, and the county had 0.9% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in restaurants and hotels, then professional services.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Lead is a small city in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and most homes here are lived in by their owners. Winters are long and cold, with a great deal of snow, and summers are warm without being hot. Fewer adults here hold a four-year degree than in many places, and the share living below the poverty line is modest.
Work. Many residents work in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, with others in professional and business services, schools, hospitals and social care, and the building trades. Very few work from home. Across Lawrence County, some of the largest workplaces are Monument Health Spearfish Hospital, Black Hills State University and the Spearfish School District, and unemployment is low and has eased slightly over the past year.
Things to do. In or beside town, the Adams Museum & House is a museum, and the Gem Theatre and the Bella Union Saloon are theatres. A short drive away, Mystic Miner Ski Resort is a ski area, which suits the snowy winters, and Roughlock Falls Nature Area is a protected area for a walk in warmer months.
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- 1,345households
- 20%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 2%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Lawrence County had 13,691 jobs in 2025, 0.9% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 38° and lows near 18°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 57°. About 184 inches of snow and 32 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Lead weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Lawrence County
- Monument Health Spearfish HospitalGeneral hospital448FTE
- Black Hills State UniversityUniversity or college418
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters414
- Spearfish School District 40-2School district318FTE
- Northern Hills Training CenterActivity centers for disabled persons, the elderly, and persons diagnosed with intellectual and developmental disabilities147
- Lead-Deadwood School District 40-1School district137FTE
- Cadillac Jack's Gaming ResortCasinos118
- Monument Health Lead-deadwood HospitCritical access hospital100FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 19 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,806 people in all across the county; Lead has one of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), colleges 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
- LightningVery high
- HailRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Lead’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. 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 Lawrence County and the Spearfish, SD metro.
Lead home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Lead$374,908
- South Dakota$317,874
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Lead 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.
- Lead21.58%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Lead126
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Lead21
Zip codes with a Lead address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Lead — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.