Counties / South Dakota / Gregory County

Gregory County, SD

FIPS 46053 · population 4,016 · outside every metro area

$140k
ACS owner-reported value · ACS 2024 5-year
The numbers

What this county costs and earns

Everything here joins on the county FIPS code, so each figure comes from the agency that publishes it with no name matching in between.

ACS owner-reported value
$140k
survey estimate; not a current listing or sale price
Census ACS · surveyed
ACS median gross rent
$614
occupied-unit survey; not current asking rent
Census ACS · surveyed
Gross yield
n/a
gross yield cannot be computed without measured market rent
requires both measured price and measured rent
HUD 2-bed standard
$929
the Section 8 payment standard
HUD Fair Market Rent · direct
Owner-reported value$140k
Surveyed gross rent$614
Rent burden 30%+29.7%
Median year built1963
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
26.5%vacant
2,188estimated housing units
Occupied tenure23.3% renter
owner 76.7%renter 23.3%
Structure mix84.7% single-family
Single-family 84.7%20+ units 0.4%Mobile home 6.9%Other 8.1%
ACS estimates describe the standing housing stock and occupied tenure. They do not measure current listings, transaction prices or asking rents.

Survey source: Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30. These values describe different housing universes and are not combined into gross yield.

Annual average covered jobs1,573▼ 0.8% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments228annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$803▲ 4.7% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorTrade, transportation, and utilities32.2% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS−0.8%WEEKLY WAGE+4.7%Trade, transportation, and utilities32.2%
Annual QCEW counts cover jobs located at reporting establishments. The industry share uses disclosed private covered employment; it is not a resident-employment measure or a forecast.

Workplace source: BLS QCEW — county employment and wages · annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 · pulled 2026-07-31. QCEW counts covered jobs located in the county, not employed residents or the metro score’s CES/LAUS series.

County brief

What the local evidence says

01Decision frame

Gregory County poses a thin-market tension. Realtor.com’s MLS snapshot has 9 active listings, while visible supply was 125% above the prior year and median listing price 6.99% lower. Marketing time was 54 days, shorter year over year, but neither that nor listing prices proves buyer demand: listings are asking, not closed-sale, evidence. Underwriters relying on resale liquidity or absorption should verify comparables, contracts and property condition. The ACS survey vacancy rate of 26.46% is a separate sign of slack, not current inventory.

02Housing economics

Housing economics are unpriced, not demonstrably cheap: county market rent is not published, so gross yield cannot be computed. HUD FMR of $929 per month is a payment standard, not asking-rent evidence, and cannot fill that gap. Separately, ACS reports a $139,900 owner-reported median value for owner-occupied homes and $614 surveyed median gross rent for occupied units. These describe different home sets and cannot be combined into yield. The 1.02% effective property-tax rate is a carrying-cost input; insurance, maintenance, financing and actual unit tax bills are not published.

03Demand & competition

Demand evidence is mixed and narrow. QCEW records 1,573 annual average covered jobs at county workplaces, down 0.82% year over year; it is neither resident employment nor unemployment. Trade, transportation, and utilities is the largest disclosed private supersector, warranting employer-level review. Tax-return migration was a net outflow, although incoming moving households averaged $25,010 more AGI than outgoing movers; this describes movers, not all residents. Investor borrowers made 2 of 24 purchase mortgages, or 8.33%, indicating limited measured non-occupant participation rather than an investor-led market.

04Risk & next checks

Risk limits remain property-specific. Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and modeled annual climate loss equals 0.13% of building value; it is not a dollar forecast, property damage estimate, or insurance quote. No Zillow county value series or FHFA annual HPI observation is published, preventing a cross-method check of price direction; these methods and vintages cannot be substituted. Missing closed-sale prices, market rents, flood-zone and insurance details, lease vacancy, condition and landlord expenses prevent unit-level cash-flow, appreciation and resilience conclusions.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Gregory County

Census-recognized incorporated places and CDPs that intersect this county. The list does not pretend to include every neighborhood or informal community.

Population scale

Largest Census places

ACS 2024 5-year
Gregory city1.4KBurke city708Bonesteel city286Fairfax town119Dallas town102Herrick town73St. Charles CDP6
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

7 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Gregory cityIncorporated place
    1,379
  2. 02
    Burke cityIncorporated place
    708
  3. 03
    Bonesteel cityIncorporated place
    286
  4. 04
    Fairfax townIncorporated place
    119
  5. 05
    Dallas townIncorporated place
    102
  6. 06
    Herrick townIncorporated place
    73
  7. 07
    St. Charles CDPCensus-designated place
    6

Population is the total place-wide ACS estimate, not an allocated county share. A place crossing a county line is labelled explicitly. Source: Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30.

Risk, demand and competition

The three things a price does not tell you

01
Risk & carrying costFEMA NRI + Census ACS
Dominant hazardinland flooding

0.131% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax1.02%

$1,428 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration-2

45 in · 47 out

Arriving vs leaving income+$25,010

$61,733 arriving · $36,723 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors8.3%

2 of 24 mortgages

investorother financed
Current listing pressure

What sellers and visible supply are doing

Realtor.com® Economic Research · county inventory 2026-06 · pulled 2026-07-28
Active listings9▲ 125.0% year over year
Median days on market54▼ 22.0% year over year
Listings price-reduced0.0%seller-concession signal
Median listing pricen/a▼ 7.0% year over year

Listing price is an asking price, not a closed sale. Quality-flagged county rows are withheld instead of displayed.

No rent index is published for this county.Zillow’s county rent series does not cover every county, and estimating one from a neighbouring county would be a guess wearing a number’s clothes. Everything above is measured here; no wider market is mapped for it either.
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. The small MLS snapshot may not represent executable sale prices or actual absorption.
  2. Unpublished market rents and operating costs could materially alter unit-level cash-flow results.
  3. County-level inland-flood modeling may not match a specific parcel's exposure, coverage or insurance cost.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Can gross yield be calculated from the published record?

No. County market rent is not published, and HUD FMR is a payment standard that cannot substitute for market rent.

Do published price series establish county appreciation direction?

No. The record contains neither a Zillow county home-value series nor an FHFA annual HPI observation.

What hazard requires property-specific due diligence?

Inland flood. The county modeled climate-loss ratio does not replace parcel-level flood-zone, insurance and coverage review.