November 14, 2025 - A variety of factors contribute to Rapid City’s shortage of affordable housing. They include a shortage of high-income housing, wage stagnation, growing demand for single-person homes, and an overdependence on

July 15, 2024 - Elevate Rapid City’s study dug into the reason housing is increasingly expensive in the area. The study discovered that the increase in housing prices is largely due to a shortage of housing units combined with an increasing population.

April 21, 2026 - According to the Federal Government, affordable housing is general housing costs that should amount to no more than 30% of one’s gross income. This includes rent or mortgage payments, fees, and utilities like gas, electricity, water, and internet. So, what this study is saying is that Rapid City doesn’t have much, if any affordable housing available for someone who wants to be a homeowner.

March 19, 2026 - Vicki Fisher is the Rapid City community development director. She said available stock has moved Rapid City out of the shortage it saw after COVID-19, but the city is never out of the housing woods.

March 13, 2024 - In some places, today’s real estate climate can make that a challenge. We’re seeing this in Rapid City, where recent population growth has led to a housing shortage and dramatic increases in both home prices and rents.

March 13, 2026 - Low and aging inventory drives high housing costs across the region. The issue is compounded by population growth, high borrowing rates, rising property values, and workforce shortages in technical trades.

March 4, 2026 - The Rapid City area is in need of thousands of more affordable units, according to a study by Benchmark Data Labs. The data is from 2018 and experts say the problem has increased since then.

July 3, 2021 - RAPID CITY — Housing availability and affordability are concerns of South Dakotans statewide and specifically in western South Dakota as the area continues to see explosive growth.

April 30, 2026 - More recently, economic uncertainty has kept more homebuyers on the sidelines, but it's also discouraged home sellers, further limiting new listings and putting upward pressure on prices.

March 6, 2026 - “We see the need for affordable housing being an issue – obviously housing costs have risen quite a bit in the last three, four years," Brennan said. "Some of the aftereffects of that is when you don’t have housing for your workforce – especially in a tourism-based economy – you push them to the outskirts of town or into the communities outside of Rapid City and then they don’t have transportation.

March 23, 2026 - Prices skyrocketed during the pandemic and have remained elevated since, largely due to persistent inflation and a chronic inventory shortage. But the market is starting to shift.

September 20, 2023 - Since the pandemic, costs for both rental and owner-occupied housing have risen substantially, putting additional pressure on our community’s most vulnerable. 38% of Rapid City households are renters.

September 20, 2025 - Elevate's study shows the tight market has pushed rents alone over $1,500 in many cases. And vacancy rates — which should be in the 5% to 7% range to be considered "healthy" — are nowhere near where they should be.

September 23, 2025 - The shortage of homes on the market also comes as the economy continues to stabilize from the deep recession a decade ago, with more people staying in their homes, said Pam Heiberger, president of the Black Hills Association of Realtors.

April 29, 2026 - The initiative that began roughly a decade ago has resulted in development or retention of 645 apartments totaling more that 1,230 bedrooms for people who have difficulty obtaining quality housing in Rapid City, where there is a dire shortage of affordable housing and average rental rates are the highest in the state.

January 12, 2024 - A housing 2018 study conducted by the Black Hills Knowledge Network revealed a massive shortage of housing units (nearly 3,500) for residents whose average median household income is less than $35,000 per year.

Learn about natural hazards and environmental risks, such as floods, fires, wind, and heat that could impact homes in Rapid City.