Waubay, South Dakota.
Typical home $258,554 (+9.0% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$743 (+121%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $21,357 +9%
- $237,197$258,554 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $52,681 +26%
- $205,873$258,554 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.
- Waubay$1,357
- South Dakota$1,668
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in Waubay, SD rose 9.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Waubay, Day County, South Dakota
Waubay is a city of 473 people in Day County. Unemployment in Day County was 2.6% in August 2026, and the county had 0.6% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Day 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Waubay is a very small city in Day County, in the glacial lakes country of northeastern South Dakota. Winters are cold, with snow through much of the season, and summers are warm. Home values here are modest, and household incomes across the county sit a little above what its mostly rural economy might suggest.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by farming, shops and manufacturing. Across Day County, the largest workplaces include Waubay School District, Sanford Hospital Webster and Sun Dial Manor. Unemployment across the county is low and has barely changed over the past year, and the trip to work is short.
Things to do. Water is the main draw. Blue Dog Lake lies in or beside town, and Waubay National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area, is a short drive away, along with lakes such as Rush Lake and Bitter Lake. For a longer drive, the International Vinegar Museum is a museum worth the trip, and Pickerel Lake is another lake farther out.
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- 13 mintypical commute
What people in Day County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Day County had 1,966 jobs in 2025, 0.6% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 22° and lows near 4°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 62°. About 36 inches of snow and 23 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Waubay Natl Wild Life weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Day County
- Webster Area 18-5 SchoolsSchool district94FTE
- Waubay School District 18-3School district40FTE
- Sanford Hospital WebsterCritical access hospital39FTE
- Sun Dial ManorNursing homes39
- RDO Equipment CompanyCommercial and industrial machinery repair and maintenance31
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 133 people in all across the county; Waubay has one of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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 Waubay’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 Day County.
Waubay home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Waubay$258,554
- 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 Waubay address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Waubay — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.