Lake Preston, SD population, income and ZIP codes

Lake Preston city is a very small community in South Dakota, with 539 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #142 of 485 ranked by population — larger than 70% of them. The median age here is 50 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Lake Preston city earn a median of $60,917 a year, 22.4% below the national figure of $78,538 and 7% below the $65,500 median for the 79 South Dakota cities we cover. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 13.7% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Lake Preston city is valued at $139,100, 54.2% below the national figure and 28% below the $192,800 peer median, while median gross rent runs $533 a month, 62.1% below the national figure, or roughly $6,396 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 10.5% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 2.3×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so purchase prices are unusually low against local pay, the pattern in places where supply is plentiful and wage growth has been flat. 66.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

A median age of 50 puts Lake Preston city well into retirement-weighted territory, which pulls median household income down even where household wealth is high, because retirement draws are counted differently from wages. With 539 residents, a handful of survey responses moves every median on this page. Compare Lake Preston city against its county rather than against national figures.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.