Madison, South Dakota.
Typical home $263,217 (+1.0% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$857 (+163%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $2,598 +1%
- $260,619$263,217 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $73,518 +39%
- $189,699$263,217 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.
- Madison$1,382
- 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 Madison, SD rose 1.0% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Living in Madison, Lake County, South Dakota
Madison is a city of 6,191 people in Lake County. Half its households earn more than $65,593 a year and half less, against $76,808 across Lake County; 10% of its people live below the poverty line. 60% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 40% are rented. Unemployment in Lake County was 1.8% in August 2026, and the county had 1.5% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Madison is a small city and the seat of Lake County, South Dakota. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and typical home values and household incomes sit below what the county as a whole sees on the income side. Winters are cold, with January highs staying below freezing and lows near zero, and a fair amount of snow falls each year, while July brings warm summer days.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, manufacturing, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Dakota State University, Manitou Equipment America and East River Electric Power Cooperative are among the largest workplaces in Madison. Commutes are short, and unemployment across Lake County is low and little changed from a year earlier.
Things to do. Prairie Village, Herman and Milwaukee Railroad is a museum in or beside town, and the Herschell-Spillman Steam Riding Gallery, a tourist attraction, is there too. Lake Madison is a lake a short drive away, and Lake Herman State Park, a protected area, is also a short drive away.
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- 2,573households
- 34%of adults have a degree
- 10%below the poverty line
- 11 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Lake County had 5,142 jobs in 2025, 1.5% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 24° and lows near 5°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 61°. About 37 inches of snow and 26 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Madison 2SE weather station, a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Madison
- Dakota State UniversityUniversity or college404
- Manitou Equipment America LLC - MadisonConstruction machinery manufacturing341
- East River Electric Power CooperativeTransmission of electric power168
- Madison Central School District 39-2School district159FTE
- Bethel Lutheran HomeContinuing care retirement communities118
- Global Polymer IndustriesProfile shapes, nonrigid plastics, manufacturing107
- Falcon PlasticsWindows and window frames, plastics, manufacturing62
- Valiant LivingGroup homes, intellectual and developmental disability60
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 14 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,135 people in all. 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
- Cold wavesVery high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Madison’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 Lake County.
Madison home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Madison$263,217
- 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 6 Madison 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.
- Madison17.72%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Madison53
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Madison11
Zip codes with a Madison address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Madison — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.