Cost up, supply down: a look at local housing statistics in 2021

RAPID CITY, S.D. — It’s no secret that housing in Rapid City is difficult to find, and it can be expensive when you do.

The Black Hills Association of Realtors put out their 2021 housing statistics Tuesday to help the public quantify those costs.

The average price of an active residential listing in the Black Hills area rose 27.4% from 2020 to $418,610. In comparison, that average listing was $286,654 in 2015.

While prices went up, less listings were sold, with sales down 1.3% – or 30 listings – from the previous year.

A lack of housing backed up by the numbers; active residential listings were down 14% from 2020.

“You can sell your house, but where do you go from there?” Black Hills Association of Realtors 2022 President Stuart Martin says. “So that’s the problem…unless you have a place to go, our preexisting homes are not coming on the market.”

Martin says there’s no shortage of builders breaking ground in the area, but new construction isn’t the solution for affordable housing.

The lack of “pre-existing homes,” or those lower-priced starter homes, is pricing people out of the market.

“That’s where our problem with affordable housing is in our real estate market [is] the number of homes on the market. We do need those pre-existing homes to come on the market as well as new construction homes,” Martin adds.

Those interested in a particular property had no time to waste, the average days on market dropped 47% – from 30 days in 2020 to just 16 days in 2021. In 2015, the average days on market was 53, three times longer than it is in 2021.