Best PlacesPine Ridge, SD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Pine Ridge, 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.
Pine Ridge ranks 46,107th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low property taxes by a wide margin, and crime is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Pine Ridge
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.
Pine Ridge's strengths and weaknesses
Where Pine Ridge ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 99% of towns
- Short commute12.4 minutes each way, better than 99% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 98% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 90% of towns
- QuietBetter than 88% of towns
Where Pine Ridge ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 1% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 4% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Pine Ridge
A household needs to earn about $14,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Pine Ridge home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $52,397, 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 Pine Ridge's effective rate of 0.04%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 2 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Pine Ridge
Pine Ridge 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 Pine Ridge.
Who works in Pine Ridge, and how
Work in Pine Ridge centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Pine Ridge
Pine Ridge has more restaurants and bars per resident than 75% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Pine Ridge and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Pine Ridge, month by month
Pine Ridge sees roughly 134 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 38, with lows near 11. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 38° | 24° | 11° |
| April | 63° | 45° | 30° |
| July | 93° | 75° | 58° |
| October | 66° | 47° | 32° |
Flying in and out of Pine Ridge
The nearest airport, Alliance Municipal, is about 69 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Denver International, about 245 miles away.
The best schools in and around Pine Ridge
Schools across Pine Ridge average a D, better than 4% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Wolf Creek School - 02F · 3% proficient
Top high schools
- Niobrara County High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
- Newcastle High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Lakota Tech High School - 10F · 10% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Pine Ridge school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Pine Ridge 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 Pine Ridge against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Pine Ridge
Is Pine Ridge a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Pine Ridge ranks 46,107th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low property taxes, short commutes, and low taxes, and lowest on crime and thin health care access. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Pine Ridge expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $60,300. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $52,397 median income, cost of living beats 8% of towns.
Is Pine Ridge safe?
Pine Ridge is safer than 1% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $1,241 per resident a year.
Compare Pine Ridge with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Pine Ridge. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Pine Ridge 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.
Pine Ridge detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Pine Ridge: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Pine Ridge: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Pine Ridge: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Pine Ridge: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Pine Ridge 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.