Rapid City, SD short-term rental market report (2026)
Pennington County, South Dakota. Rules, revenue, home values, demand, climate, reach and risk, each figure with its source.
- RulesModerate (3/5)
- 4-BR typical value$411K
- FEMA riskRelatively Low
- Demand drivers within 50 mi7
- People within 300 mi3.4 million
- ClimateSki-plus-summer
Everything STR HUB holds on Rapid City, 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 Rapid City?
| Rule | What we hold on file |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | City of Rapid City |
| Permit or licence | Registration under Rapid City Municipal Code §17.50.340, adopted by City Council vote (8-2) in December 2025; documentation of state Dept. of Health and Dept. of Revenue licensure/registration required. |
| Permit fee | $70 registration fee (some sources also cite a separate $150 residential / $300 commercial-zoned annual license fee — verify which applies at time of purchase, as the ordinance was very newly adopted). |
| Occupancy limit | 2 guests per bedroom, plus 2 additional guests per property. |
| Lodging and sales taxes | South Dakota state sales & use tax (4.2%) + state Tourism Tax (1.5%) + municipal sales tax + municipal gross receipts tax (~1%). |
Rules for Rapid City 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
Tightening. The rules we hold report a recent or pending change.
Rapid City adopted its first-ever short-term rental ordinance in December 2025 (effective 2026) — VERIFY exact effective date and enforcement status.
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 Pennington County
Zillow Home Value Index: county-wide typical values for Pennington 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
7 demand drivers sit within 50 miles of Rapid City. 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.
Parks and public lands
- Wind Cave National Park
- When
- Year-round; peaks June, July, August (by recreation-visit volume, 2025).
- Attendance
- 606,258 (NPS recreation visits, full calendar year 2025)
- STR angle
- Secondary Black Hills stop that adds to the broader Custer/Hot Springs SD cabin market rather than driving it alone.
- Custer State Park
- When
- Summer (Jun-Aug) is peak, aligned with the fall Buffalo Roundup event.
- STR angle
- Black Hills scenic drives and bison herds support a strong Black Hills cabin-rental market centered on Custer and Hill City.
- Source
- SD Game, Fish and Parks
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. 5 of 12 months have an average high between 60°F and 88°F, and 3 months average six inches or more of snow. Warmest month: July (average high 86°F). Coldest: February (average low 13°F).
- Jan39°21°Cold
- Feb33°13°ColdSnow
- Mar44°24°ColdSnow
- Apr53°32°CoolSnow
- May65°44°Comfortable
- Jun79°57°Comfortable
- Jul86°63°Comfortable
- Aug84°62°ComfortableEvent
- Sep77°54°Comfortable
- Oct57°37°Cool
- Nov48°29°Cool
- Dec39°21°Cold
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average high (°F) | 39 | 33 | 44 | 53 | 65 | 79 | 86 | 84 | 77 | 57 | 48 | 39 |
| Average low (°F) | 21 | 13 | 24 | 32 | 44 | 57 | 63 | 62 | 54 | 37 | 29 | 21 |
| Precipitation (in) | 0.6 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 2.0 | 3.4 | 2.1 | 1.8 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 2.1 | 0.6 | 0.8 |
| Snowfall (in) | 3.2 | 6.5 | 7.1 | 8.7 | 1.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 4.4 | 3.2 | 5.3 |
| Sunshine (hours a day) | 7.0 | 8.2 | 9.1 | 10.2 | 10.8 | 13.4 | 13.4 | 12.7 | 10.7 | 8.7 | 7.6 | 6.7 |
| 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 | 97.2 |
| Hail | Relatively High | 96.9 |
| Winter weather | Relatively High | 94.6 |
| River flooding | Relatively Moderate | 75.6 |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | 61.0 |
| Earthquake | Very Low | 56.9 |
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 Pennington 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 Rapid City 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 Rapid City'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 Rapid City on the map
Open Rapid City on the National STR Map to see it against its neighbours, switch overlays and run the deal calculator on your own assumptions.
Rapid City STR questions, answered from the data
Is Airbnb legal in Rapid City?
STR HUB rates Rapid City's short-term rental rules 3/5 (Moderate) 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: Registration under Rapid City Municipal Code §17.50.340, adopted by City Council vote (8-2) in December 2025; documentation of state Dept. of Health and Dept. of Revenue licensure/registration required. Rules change, so confirm current requirements with the local jurisdiction before you buy or list.
How much does a 4-bedroom home cost in Rapid City?
The typical 4-bedroom home in Pennington County is valued at $411,071 (Zillow Home Value Index), and the typical home of any size at $363,679, with all-home values up 1.9% over the past year. These are county-wide typical values, not list prices.
What brings visitors to Rapid City?
7 demand drivers sit within 50 miles of Rapid City, including Mount Rushmore National Memorial (1,905,649 published attendance), Sturgis Motorcycle Rally (617,000 published attendance) and Wind Cave National Park (606,258 published attendance). Attendance is shown only where a source publishes it, and each driver's source is linked in the report.
What natural hazards affect Rapid City?
FEMA's National Risk Index rates Pennington County "Relatively Low" overall, with a score of 78.6 out of 100 (a national percentile). The highest-scoring hazards we track there are wildfire and hail. It is a county-wide index, not an insurance quote or a flood-zone determination.
When is the weather best in Rapid City?
5 of 12 months have an average high between 60°F and 88°F (May, 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: sdpb.org).
- 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.
- Park visitation: National Park Service, NPS Visitor Use Statistics.
- 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 Pennington 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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