Best PlacesPiedmont, SD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Piedmont, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Piedmont ranks 16,371st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low taxes by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Piedmont
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.
Piedmont's strengths and weaknesses
Where Piedmont ranks high
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 98% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 90% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 86% of towns
- Cheap childcare$569 a month, better than 83% of towns
- Short commute21.4 minutes each way, better than 82% of towns
Where Piedmont ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 20% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 26% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 28% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Piedmont
A household needs to earn about $92,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Piedmont home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $91,512; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Piedmont's effective rate of 0.91%, 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 Piedmont
Piedmont runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Piedmont.
Who works in Piedmont, and how
Work in Piedmont centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Piedmont
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Piedmont.
What the weather is like in Piedmont, month by month
Piedmont sees roughly 99 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 14. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39° | 26° | 14° |
| April | 60° | 44° | 31° |
| July | 90° | 75° | 60° |
| October | 65° | 48° | 35° |
Flying in and out of Piedmont
The nearest airport, Rapid City Regional, is about 19 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Denver International, about 309 miles away.
The best schools in and around Piedmont
Schools across Piedmont average a B−, better than 56% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Black Hawk Elementary - 03D− · 15% proficient
Top middle schools
- Newcastle Middle SchoolA− · 57% proficient
- Sturgis Williams Middle School - 02B · 45% proficient
- West Middle School - 37C− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Sturgis Brown High School - 01C− · 30% proficient
- Rapid City High School - 45F · 11% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Piedmont school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Piedmont 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 Piedmont against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Piedmont
Is Piedmont a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Piedmont ranks 16,371st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low taxes, state infrastructure, and fast internet, and lowest on distance from a big city and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Piedmont expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $347,184. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $91,512 median income, cost of living beats 78% of towns.
Is Piedmont safe?
Yes, Piedmont is safer than 59% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $382 per resident a year.
Compare Piedmont with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Piedmont. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Piedmont 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.
Piedmont detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Piedmont: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Piedmont: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Piedmont: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Piedmont: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Piedmont 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.