Are people still moving to South Dakota?
Yes, that's a good one.
All right.
Yeah.
You know, I'm not gonna let you off that easy.
Everybody.
This is Tristan Emond with mindful living Realty, a realtor right
here in rapid city, South Dakota.
Welcome back to my YouTube channel.
I talk everything about moving to rapid city.
And the wonderful things about rapid city and the black Hills.
Now it's been about two years since the start of the pandemic.
And after that time, there was all those reports about people moving away
from urban areas to more rural areas, such as South Dakota and during the
second half of 2020 and all of 2021.
That certainly was the case in November of 2020.
I did this video, why people are moving to South Dakota.
Now that it's 2022, and I've had the opportunity to help many families
move into the rapid city area and have spoken to them after they've
been here for a little while.
It's time for an update, why people are moving to South Dakota in 2022 by far,
the number one reason for people moving to South Dakota remains the same freedom.
South Dakota never had a statewide shutdown.
We've never had a statewide mask mandate nor have we had a statewide vaccine
mandate as a result, business and livelihood in rapid city has gone on.
We've had the benefit to do as we saw fit through the pandemic
for us and our families.
On top of that South Dakota is a really easy state to live in.
There aren't any over regulations on a lot of business or personal life.
It's easy to go buy and own a gun.
If you want to go do something, you go do it.
If you don't, you don't.
As long as you aren't being terribly noisy, rambunctious and
annoying, your neighbors, aren't gonna call you in the mentality in
South Dakota is live and let live.
And for your business owners, it's easy to set up and bring your business
here with no corporate income taxes and no government overregulation.
South Dakota has been named one of the top business friendly states in the nation.
I had one outta state client that was, that was selling his business.
And the goal was to move here before that business closed, which would save.
Thousands of dollars on taxes, clients that I've talked to after moving here
from outta state have talked about how they had the freedom to go walk down
the street and say hi to the neighbors, how even getting a straw in the drink
at the drive-through restaurant was amazing for them little things like this.
Make South Dakota a great place to be a great place to live region.
Number two space.
The state of South Dakota is about 77,000 square miles.
And in those square miles is about 880,000 people, which
is the 2019 population census.
So in comparison, the Denver, Colorado Metro area has about 3 million people in
about 8,500 square miles in South Dakota.
We have space now, rapid city on the west side of the state and Sioux falls
on the east side of the state, the two biggest cities, we have experienced
a huge growth in the past year to couple years, but you're still gonna
find single family homes on their own lot, even if it's a 0.20 acre,
lot in town, none of these homes that are right stacked next to each other.
We like our space and our yards here in south dakota.
As you get outside of the city, there are several divisions with some acreage.
So you have a little bit of space along with your home.
Now, these subdivisions, especially in the rapid city area
are very high demand right now.
So you gotta bring your money.
If you're interested in buying up some acreage in the black Hills
or around the rapid city area.
But even as rapid city grows, we still have the black Hills national forest,
which as a citizen, as a national forest is owned by the federal government.
So that's never gonna go away.
Yes.
There's homes in private property throughout the black Hills, but
for the most part, the black Hills national forest is always right there.
Ready for the public to enjoy reason.
Number three, outside and nature, wherever you're out in South
Dakota nature is an amazing thing.
We have agriculture as our number one economy in South Dakota.
We have some amazing parks on both sides of the state.
Plus we've got the Missouri river that runs through the middle of the state.
Which is great fishing and boating.
And over here in rapid city, you've got a city of parks where there's a bike
trail that goes right through the middle of town that follows rapid Creek where
there's park after park, after park.
And then you've also got the Hanson-Larsen Memorial park and
skyline wilderness area for hiking and biking in the center of town.
And then there's the black Hills with so many adventures to go on.
So many things to explore so many things to do in the black Hills to
enjoy nature and to get outside.
And on top of all, There's fresh mountain air with no pollution, no reason.
Cuatro cost of living.
Now, if you go at any cost of living calculator on online, just, just do Google
search for cost of living calculator.
And you put in any Metro area compared to rapid city.
You'll find that the cost of living in general is cheaper here in the
rapid city and South Dakota area.
Now, of course, this isn't gonna hold true for all of America.
There are other states and areas that may have a cheaper cost of living
than rapid city in South Dakota.
But if you're moving from metropolitan area, Chances are rapid city Sioux
falls and South Dakota will be cheaper cost of living for you and your family.
Let's add to that.
No state income taxes pay the federal IRS, and don't have to worry about
any other payments in South Dakota.
Now, of course, we have sales tax on about everything and we've got property
taxes are a little bit higher than some area, other areas, but as I've
been talking with other realtors in the Northern Midwest states, our property
taxes are really quite comparable.
To our neighbors, even our housing when compared to other metropolitan
areas is considerably cheaper.
Now our housing prices are going up dramatically.
They've gone up 28% since the beginning of 2020 to get into
about a thousand square foot.
Single level property might cost you around $200,000, but at least you're not
looking at half a million dollars just to get into a small house rental rates.
Aren't that much better looking at 900 to a thousand dollars
for a one bedroom apartment.
But from other areas I've talked.
That's the deal.
When you come to South Dakota, your dollar stretches just
a little bit further reason.
People are still moving to South Dakota.
Number five, no traffic.
According to the many people that I've talked with and driven around
rapid city, we have no traffic and this is the same for Sioux falls
in the smaller towns as well.
You can get from one side of rapid city to the other side of rapid city and under
a half an hour, if you're in the middle of rapid city, you can be anywhere in
15, 20 minutes and you can be walking down a black Hills trail all by your.
Within an hour easy, even in Sioux falls, which is bigger city, you
can be from one side of the other and half an hour, 45 minutes.
The busiest traffic jams we have are those times in the morning and the
afternoon before after school, after work, especially as people come from
Westside, rapid city through the gap to downtown and vice versa, but even
then you're waiting for one light and you're through the next one.
Except for when there's lots of construction going around, we have a
state animal in South Dakota during the summer, and that is the construction cone.
Now, for some reason last year, they decided to work on the three main
arteries through the middle of rapid city that went from west side to east side.
All at the same time, our six, eight lanes, Ten lanes
of traffic went down to three.
So now all of a sudden we had to go, everybody had to go
through these construction.
And that really bottled up the traffic.
But one day I was complaining about this to the world and mentioning that
I had to sit through three lights to get through this construction area.
And my brother-in-laws who were both have lived in Los Angeles before
sighed and said, that's not traffic.
You still have no idea what traffic is.
And when you're ready to go on a trip, you head out on a highway, you
go to nine 90 towards Sioux falls.
There's from Sioux falls for city.
You set the cruise coast control for 80, 80 miles.
And the main goal is just to make sure you don't fall asleep.
You don't spend hours of your day sitting in traffic in rapid city and
South Dakota, reason, number six, small town living with everything you need.
So with Sioux falls being about 200,000 people and rapid city
being 75 to 80,000 people.
Really, we don't have huge cities and all the rest of the cities in
South Dakota are under 30,000 people.
But whether you're living in rapid city or Sioux falls, you
have everything you need in town.
The big box stores are all there.
You've got your targets.
You've got your Walmarts, your Sams clubs, your department stores, everything that
you need to shop and enjoy town is there.
Plus you have all the chain, restaurants and amazing unique local restaurant.
You might not have the selection or shopping just used to, but you'll have
everything you need in town, including your grocery stores, hospitals, clinics,
fun things for kids to do little league.
All these other things will be in town without the constant
pressure of the huge city.
It's kind of tough for realtors in our area because it seems like
everybody knows three or four realtors.
They're not so small that everybody knows everybody, but it
can be stinking close sometimes.
But if you're interested in one of the smaller towns in South Dakota,
chances are not far from a bigger city.
That'll have everything you.
For instance in the rapid city area, you're only about an hour
away from Spearfish hot Springs and the towns of the black Hills.
Don't worry.
You'll still be able to get your Starbucks coffee or a better
local coffee in South Dakota.
All right.
Reason number seven, people are moving to South Dakota.
The people as I've been talking with my clients for the past couple years
about what they thought about moving to rapid city and what their experience.
The one thing that remains kind of the same, everybody kind of
said the same thing was this.
They're happy to be here because of the people, people are enjoying
having neighbors that'll come by and say hi, but yet not be there always
in their face, not be busy bodies.
They're enjoying the fact that you're walking down the bike path.
You can smile and say hi to someone they'll say hi back.
They'll love the fact that kids can take their bike, run around their neighborhood
and they don't have to worry about.
Getting mugged or the bike getting stolen.
I was talking with one client who said that they couldn't even go to
the mall because of all the shootings in crime, going on in the mall.
My teenage daughter ever since she's got her license, have been running to the mall
and target and Starbucks all by herself.
And she's never had a problem.
As long as you're not here to create problems.
The people of South Dakota are known to be friendly.
Helping you, giving you the shirt off to the back, it's cleaning off
your driveway, watching it over your, your animals as you got town.
All the things that neighborhood and community should be.
And that's what people are loving the most about rapid city and South Dakota.
So yes, people have discovered South Dakota and are still moving
to South Dakota, despite the wind, the cold and the winter, but South
Dakota, it isn't for everyone.
Make sure you check out this video.
Don't move here to see why South Dakota might not be the place for you.
Thank you for watching.
Have amazing day and remember.
Love where you live.