Best PlacesOlsonville, SD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Olsonville, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Olsonville ranks 47,618th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low taxes by a wide margin, and crime is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Olsonville
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.
Olsonville's strengths and weaknesses
Where Olsonville ranks high
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 98% of towns
- QuietBetter than 94% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 90% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 85% of towns
- Cheap childcare$569 a month, better than 83% of towns
Where Olsonville ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 2% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 2% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 4% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Olsonville
A household needs to earn about $25,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Olsonville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $46,569, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 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 Olsonville's effective rate of 0.68%, 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 Olsonville
Olsonville runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Olsonville.
Who works in Olsonville, and how
Work in Olsonville centers on agriculture & forestry and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Olsonville
Olsonville has more restaurants and bars per resident than 98% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Olsonville and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Olsonville, month by month
Olsonville sees roughly 106 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 12. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, August, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39° | 24° | 12° |
| April | 64° | 47° | 31° |
| July | 93° | 76° | 61° |
| October | 68° | 49° | 35° |
Flying in and out of Olsonville
The nearest airport, Pierre Regional, is about 93 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Eppley Airfield, about 269 miles away.
The best schools in and around Olsonville
Schools across Olsonville average a B, better than 71% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Akron Westfield Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
Top middle schools
- Akron Westfield Middle SchoolA+ · 77% proficient
- Newcastle Middle SchoolA− · 57% proficient
Top high schools
- Akron Westfield Senior High SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Newcastle High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Olsonville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Olsonville 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 Olsonville against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Olsonville
Is Olsonville a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Olsonville ranks 47,618th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low taxes, quiet, and state infrastructure, and lowest on crime and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Olsonville expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $95,993. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $46,569 median income, cost of living beats 8% of towns.
Is Olsonville safe?
Olsonville is safer than 0% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $1,266 per resident a year.
Compare Olsonville with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Olsonville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Olsonville 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.
Olsonville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Olsonville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Olsonville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Olsonville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Olsonville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Olsonville 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.