Stoop & Kin

Moody County, South Dakota

What farmland and houses are worth here, from the public figures, and where to look next.

Farmland and its buildings in Moody County averaged $8,691 an acre in the 2022 Census of Agriculture: the most expensive of the 66 counties in South Dakota, 235% above the South Dakota average in the same census ($2,592).

In the 2017 census it was $5,820 an acre, so the average has risen 49% in five years.

Moody County in figures
Farmland and buildings, an acre, 2022 $8,691
The same, 2017 $5,820 +49%
Farms counted, 2022 413 (490 in 2017)
Average farm 523 acres
Share of the county that is farmland 65%
Median value of an owner-occupied home $226,500 ± $19,200

The farm figure is land and buildings together, averaged over every farm in the county, from the largest ranch to the smallest holding. It is for comparing one county with another, not a price for any parcel: a few acres with road frontage usually costs more an acre than the average, not less.

Source: USDA, 2022 Census of Agriculture, South Dakota county data, Table 8; Census Bureau, ACS 2020–2024, table B25077

Next door

The counties that share a border with Moody County, cheapest farmland first.

Neighbouring counties
countyFarmland an acre Median home
Brookings County $6,212 $264,600
Lake County $6,473 $247,600
Minnehaha County $8,346 $287,600

Buying land here: the South Dakota rules

Counties keep their own tax certificates, and since 2024 must auction tax-deed land within a year.

Each links to the South Dakota guide, where every fact cites the statute or agency page it came from.

The county research checklist

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