Deadwood, SD short-term rental market report (2026)
Lawrence County, South Dakota. Rules, revenue, home values, demand, climate, reach and risk, each figure with its source.
- RulesVery strict (5/5)
- 4-BR typical value$548K
- FEMA riskRelatively Low
- Demand drivers within 50 mi5
- People within 300 mi2.5 million
- ClimateSki-plus-summer
Everything STR HUB holds on Deadwood, SD in one place, in the order an investor needs it: whether you can operate, what the numbers are, why and when people come, who can reach it, and what could go wrong.
Every figure comes from a named dataset listed under Sources and method, dated September 21, 2026. Where we do not hold a figure, that part of the report is left out rather than estimated. The Opportunity Score here is partial: it was calculated without revenue data, with the cash-flow component assumed to be below average, so it can understate the market.
Can you operate in Deadwood?
| Rule | What we hold on file |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | City of Deadwood (Lawrence County) |
| Permit or licence | Conditional Use Permit for a 'Vacation Home Establishment,' reviewed annually by the Deadwood Planning & Zoning Commission and Board; only allowed in Commercial and Commercial Highway zoning districts. |
| Lodging and sales taxes | South Dakota state sales & use tax (4.2%) + state Tourism Tax (1.5%) + municipal sales tax + Deadwood Business Improvement District tax assessments (Districts 1-7) — operators must also hold a state Excise Tax registration and a South Dakota Dept. of Health Lodging License. |
Rules for Deadwood last verified September 20, 2026. Rules change, and a city rating does not cover HOA or deed restrictions. Confirm current requirements with the jurisdiction before you buy or list.
Which way the rules are moving
Stable. The rules we hold report no recent or pending change.
Deadwood has been regulating vacation home rentals for roughly three decades, making it one of the longest-standing STR regulatory regimes in the entire eight-state research region — this is a mature, restrictive market, not an emerging one.
Classified from the regulation text we publish; a direction is only kept when the sentence it rests on appears word for word in that text.
The numbers
We have not verified revenue figures for this market yet.
Home values in Lawrence County
Zillow Home Value Index: county-wide typical values for Lawrence County, not list prices. A specific property can sit well above or below them.
What it costs to own
Screening figures, not a bill or a quote. The tax rate is a county-wide median for owner-occupied homes (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2018-2022); second homes and rentals are often taxed more heavily, and a purchase usually resets the assessed value. Expected annual loss is from the FEMA National Risk Index.
Housing market momentum
County-level, for-sale housing market: it says nothing directly about STR bookings. A relative ranking among tracked markets, not a forecast. Sources: Realtor.com Economic Research, U.S. Census Bureau, Zillow Home Value Index.
Why people come
5 demand drivers sit within 50 miles of Deadwood. Ordered by published attendance. Attendance appears only where a source publishes it.
Events
- Sturgis Motorcycle Rally
- When
- First 10 days of August
- Attendance
- 617,000 (617,000 attendees (2023 official figure, per Wikipedia).)
- STR angle
- The single largest annual event in western South Dakota; a small town of about 7,000 residents temporarily hosts hundreds of thousands of visitors, making regional STR capacity the binding constraint.
Attractions
- Deadwood
- When
- Year-round gaming; peaks June to August, Sturgis rally week and winter snowmobile season.
- STR angle
- A whole town designated a National Historic Landmark, with legal casino gaming on Main Street, in the northern Black Hills. Rally week can carry a large share of annual income; cabins around Lead and Terry Peak add a ski and snowmobile season.
Outdoor activities
- Terry Peak
- When
- Winter ski season, roughly December through March, heavily weekend- and holiday-driven.
- STR angle
- Gives the northern Black Hills a winter season to go with summer tourism and the Sturgis rally (tracked separately). Cabins around Lead and Deadwood serve skiers and snowmobilers alike.
- Source
- Wikipedia: Terry Peak
Landmarks
- Mount Rushmore National Memorial
- When
- Year-round; busiest months by 2025 NPS recreation visits were Jul, Aug, Jun.
- Attendance
- 1,905,649 (NPS recreation visits, full calendar year 2025 — Wikipedia reports 2,440,449 for 2022, so 2025 is well below that level)
- STR angle
- Rushmore is the organising stop of a Black Hills family road trip that also takes in Custer State Park, Crazy Horse and the Badlands, with visits packed into June through August. Cabins and family houses around Hill City, Keystone and Custer book by the week in summer, and the Sturgis rally adds a second, higher-rate peak in August.
- Crazy Horse Memorial
- When
- Year-round; summer peaks with the rest of the Black Hills.
- STR angle
- The unfinished mountain carving sits between Custer and Hill City and is on the same itinerary as Rushmore, which keeps visitors in the southern Hills a night longer. It supports the same summer-weekly cabin market rather than creating a separate one.
When they come
Ski-plus-summer climate: at least three months bring six inches or more of snowfall, and May to September is comfortable. 4 of 12 months have an average high between 60°F and 88°F, and 7 months average six inches or more of snow. Warmest month: July (average high 80°F). Coldest: February (average low 12°F).
- Jan37°21°ColdSnow
- Feb30°12°ColdSnow
- Mar41°23°ColdSnow
- Apr48°29°CoolSnow
- May59°41°CoolSnow
- Jun74°54°Comfortable
- Jul80°60°Comfortable
- Aug79°59°ComfortableEvent
- Sep72°52°Comfortable
- Oct53°36°CoolSnow
- Nov46°28°Cool
- Dec39°22°ColdSnow
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average high (°F) | 37 | 30 | 41 | 48 | 59 | 74 | 80 | 79 | 72 | 53 | 46 | 39 |
| Average low (°F) | 21 | 12 | 23 | 29 | 41 | 54 | 60 | 59 | 52 | 36 | 28 | 22 |
| Precipitation (in) | 1.3 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 3.6 | 4.7 | 2.6 | 2.3 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 2.8 | 1.0 | 1.3 |
| Snowfall (in) | 8.4 | 11.3 | 10.2 | 18.2 | 7.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 12.4 | 5.5 | 9.1 |
| Sunshine (hours a day) | 6.7 | 8.0 | 9.3 | 9.6 | 10.6 | 13.1 | 13.4 | 12.6 | 10.8 | 8.5 | 7.7 | 6.3 |
| Event month | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Event months within 50 miles
- August: Sturgis Motorcycle Rally
This is climate and events, not booking data. Monthly normals are 2019-2023 averages from the Open-Meteo Historical Weather API (ERA5 reanalysis) at the market pin. Event months come from the demand drivers listed above. We do not hold monthly occupancy or rate data for this market.
Who can reach it
Largest counties within 150 miles
| County | Population |
|---|---|
| Pennington County, SD | 110,386 |
| Campbell County, WY | 46,857 |
| Meade County, SD | 29,970 |
County populations (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2018-2022) summed for every county whose centre lies within each straight-line radius. Straight lines are shorter than roads, so read these as generous upper bounds, not drive-time counts.
What could go wrong
| Hazard | FEMA rating | Score (0-100) |
|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | 93.2 |
| Winter weather | Relatively High | 89.4 |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | 84.3 |
| River flooding | Relatively Low | 57.1 |
| Earthquake | Very Low | 38.1 |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | 37.8 |
This is a county-level index, not an insurance quote or a flood-zone determination. A coastal or wildfire-fringe rental can carry far more exposure than its county average suggests. FEMA does not model hurricane and coastal flooding for this county, which is not the same as zero risk. Get property-level flood, wind and wildfire quotes before you buy.
Market context
Housing and jobs in Lawrence County
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2018-2022. Vacation-home share is housing units held for seasonal, recreational or occasional use. All three describe the whole county, not one town or neighbourhood.
What is within 15 km of the Deadwood pin
Counts of features mapped in OpenStreetMap within 15 km of the market pin. A fixed radius favours dense metros, and map coverage varies by area.
Similar markets
The 4 tracked markets whose numbers sit closest to Deadwood's. Each links to its own report.
Closest by normalised distance across the figures both markets hold (typical 4BR value, revenue, occupancy, regulation rating, vacation-home share, tourism job share, 4+ bedroom share, amenity score, population within 300 miles, comfortable months and FEMA risk score). At most 2 of the 4 come from South Dakota, so the list is not just the neighbours. Similar numbers do not mean similar rules: check each market's regulation section.
See Deadwood on the map
Open Deadwood on the National STR Map to see it against its neighbours, switch overlays and run the deal calculator on your own assumptions.
Deadwood STR questions, answered from the data
Is Airbnb legal in Deadwood?
STR HUB rates Deadwood's short-term rental rules 5/5 (Very strict) on a scale from 1 (relaxed) to 5 (very strict). That rating was derived from the regulation text we hold and has not yet been reviewed by a person. Permit rule on file: Conditional Use Permit for a 'Vacation Home Establishment,' reviewed annually by the Deadwood Planning & Zoning Commission and Board; only allowed in Commercial and Commercial Highway zoning districts. Rules change, so confirm current requirements with the local jurisdiction before you buy or list.
How much does a 4-bedroom home cost in Deadwood?
The typical 4-bedroom home in Lawrence County is valued at $547,742 (Zillow Home Value Index), and the typical home of any size at $449,746, with all-home values down 0.7% over the past year. These are county-wide typical values, not list prices.
What brings visitors to Deadwood?
5 demand drivers sit within 50 miles of Deadwood, including Mount Rushmore National Memorial (1,905,649 published attendance), Sturgis Motorcycle Rally (617,000 published attendance) and Crazy Horse Memorial. Attendance is shown only where a source publishes it, and each driver's source is linked in the report.
What natural hazards affect Deadwood?
FEMA's National Risk Index rates Lawrence County "Relatively Low" overall, with a score of 49.3 out of 100 (a national percentile). The highest-scoring hazards we track there are wildfire and winter weather. It is a county-wide index, not an insurance quote or a flood-zone determination.
When is the weather best in Deadwood?
4 of 12 months have an average high between 60°F and 88°F (June, July, August and September). Ski-plus-summer climate: at least three months bring six inches or more of snowfall, and May to September is comfortable. These are 2019-2023 climate normals, not booking data.
Sources and method
- Regulation summary and strictness rating: STR Agent HUB regulation research (official source: cityofdeadwood.com).
- Home values: Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), county level. Data provided by Zillow Group.
- Housing, employment and population figures: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates, 2018-2022.
- Natural hazard risk: FEMA National Risk Index, county level.
- Amenity counts: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
- Climate normals: Open-Meteo Historical Weather API (CC BY 4.0), 2019-2023 averages.
- Demand drivers: each entry links its own published source in the list above.
Figures come from the STR HUB national dataset dated September 21, 2026 and this page is regenerated whenever that dataset is rebuilt. County-level figures describe Lawrence County as a whole, not one street or neighbourhood. The Opportunity Score (0-100) is a screening heuristic that weighs revenue (35%), regulatory climate (25%), tourism employment (15%), nearby amenities (15%) and large-home supply (10%) relative to the other tracked markets.
Confirm before you act. Short-term rental rules change. Confirm current requirements with the jurisdiction, and work with a licensed local agent who knows which properties can legally operate. This report is screening data, not investment, legal or tax advice.
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