Spencer, South Dakota.
Typical home $257,891 (+9.4% in a year). Sioux Falls, SD metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$780 (+136%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $22,073 +9%
- $235,818$257,891 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $56,690 +28%
- $201,200$257,891 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.
- Spencer$1,354
- South Dakota$1,668
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Spencer, SD rose 9.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Spencer, McCook County, South Dakota
Spencer is a city of 136 people in McCook County. Unemployment in McCook County was 1.8% in August 2026, and the county had 4.9% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in McCook County work in schools and health care, then farming.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Spencer is a very small city in McCook County, South Dakota, with a population that is among the smallest of any incorporated place in the state. Poverty is uncommon here, and homes are priced well above what the small-town setting might suggest. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers turn warm in July and the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with farming, the building trades, and banks, insurance and property also drawing many people. Across McCook County, the largest workplaces include the Bridgewater-Emery Schools, the McCook Central School District and the Canistota School District. Unemployment across the county is low and slightly lower than a year ago, and the county added jobs last year. The typical commute is fairly long, and a good number of people work from home.
Things to do. The nearest places worth a trip all take a longer drive. Bitter Lake is a lake for time on the water, and Enemy Creek is a river for a quieter outing. Porter Sculpture Park is a museum for an afternoon indoors and out. Each of these is a longer drive away from town.
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- 3%below the poverty line
- 28 mintypical commute
- 13%work from home
What people in McCook County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. McCook County had 1,404 jobs in 2025, 4.9% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 25° and lows near 6°; warmest in July, with highs near 84° 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 Alexandria weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in McCook County
- Bridgewater-Emery 30-3 SchoolsSchool district54FTE
- McCook Central School District 43-7School district52FTE
- Canistota School District 43-1School district48FTE
- Montrose School District 43-2School district39FTE
- PipestoneAdministrative management and general management consulting services30
- All States Ag PartsLawn maintenance machinery and equipment merchant wholesalers24
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 54 people in all across the county; Spencer has none 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
- Winter weatherVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- Inland floodingVery high
- HailVery high
- Ice stormsVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Spencer’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very 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 McCook County and the Sioux Falls, SD metro.
Spencer home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Spencer$257,891
- 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 Spencer address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Spencer — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.