Best PlacesChester, SD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Chester, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime both read low, and the nearest big city is a drive away. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Chester ranks 12,852nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
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The best neighborhoods in Chester
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
Chester's strengths and weaknesses
Where Chester ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 93% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 98% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 87% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 79% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 120 pleasant days a year, better than 80% of towns
Where Chester ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 30% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 13% of towns
- School gradeC+, better than only 46% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Chester
A household needs to earn about $81,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Chester home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $83,271, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.7% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-08-20 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Chester's effective rate of 0.77%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Chester
Chester runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Chester.
Who works in Chester, and how
Work in Chester centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Chester
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Chester.
What the weather is like in Chester, month by month
Chester sees roughly 120 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 25, with lows near 9. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 25° | 16° | 9° |
| April | 55° | 43° | 34° |
| July | 82° | 71° | 62° |
| October | 58° | 47° | 38° |
Flying in and out of Chester
The nearest airport, Joe Foss Field, is about 24 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Eppley Airfield, about 187 miles away.
The best schools in and around Chester
Schools across Chester average a C+, better than 46% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Colman Elementary - 03B− · 40% proficient
- Chester Elementary -02D+ · 21% proficient
Top middle schools
- Dell Rapids Middle School - 03A− · 55% proficient
- Chester Middle School - 03D · 21% proficient
- Colman-egan Jr. High - 02D · 21% proficient
Top high schools
- Dell Rapids High School - 01B+ · 55% proficient
- Chester High School - 01C+ · 40% proficient
- High Plains - 06D+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Chester school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Chester measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Chester against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Chester
Is Chester a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Chester ranks 12,852nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, low taxes, and clean air, and lowest on an overheated housing market and empty homes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Chester expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $308,096. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $83,271 median income, cost of living beats 63% of towns.
Is Chester safe?
Yes, Chester is safer than 79% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $241 per resident a year.
Compare Chester with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Chester. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Chester represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Chester detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Chester: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Chester: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Chester: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Chester: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Chester detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.