Lincoln or Union County (Sioux Falls, Rapid City: real estate, vehicle registration, low crime)

[goldenholden]

Hello, everybody!

My wife and I are looking for PEACE AND QUIET, LOW COST OF LIVING, and FRIENDLY PEOPLE in SOUTH DAKOTA (with those being our primary desires, and everthing else being secondary desires - weather, etc.), a state we've never been to... which county would be the best for those things - LINCOLN or UNION COUNTY?

And if you would be so kind as to maybe even go as far as to recommend a town or city (even though even the word city spooks us a bit, truth be told), it would be greatly appreciated.

thanks so much!

GH.

[Jammie]

Hi Golden, so glad to hear you're interested in the peaceful living of So. Dak. You have a huge choice of where you want to live if you're looking for smaller, quieter areas. Sioux Falls is our largest city with about 135,000 people. It's in Minnehaha county. I don't know where you live so I don't know if you consider that a large city. Rapid City is our second largest city and it's in Pennington Co. The Missouri River runs through the center of our state. Sioux FAlls is east river and Rapid is west river. The eastern half is flat farming land, but there are a lot of people who have moved to towns since farms have gotten larger. The prettiest part of the state is West River. It has the Badlands, the beautiful Black Hills, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, etc. The economy is better in eastern SD though. It doesn't sound like that's one of your concerns though. Will you be needing employment or are you retired? You have so much to chose from and if you can narrow things down a bit more, I'd be happy to try to help you. Lincoln or Union Co. would both be fine.

[goldenholden]

wow.. thanks for your time and energy, seriously... more info: i'm 45 and my wife 35, i'm in the film business (actor, director), she a fashion designer. we move around the world a bit, looking for new, cool places that will inform our art, so to speak... but our preference is for small town life, where we get to know the people well and make friends. then we usually try and shoot a film there using locals (low budget indies that i make with my acting money). and my wife's business is run thru a website, like mine, so it doesn't matter where we are really...

but like i said before, PEACE AND QUIET AND A LOW CRIME LEVEL are very very important. and also said low cost of living, because, since we now spend my own money on our films, well, we have to budget differently these days, and stretch things out more than before. (not complaining, as i love to direect far more than act).

ANYWAY, i wwould love to hear your choice for towns in LINCOLN AND UNION... ddid you see that PROGRESSIVE FARMING issue where Union County was listed as the 2nd best rural area to live in the states? that's what got us thinking about it.

and when i check the black hills area, it seems for ssome odd reason that thee crime is a little high there, believe it or not... well, higher than we expected to see there, at least (deadwood, spearfish...).

look forward to hearing back from you soon. feel free to write me directly at: larry@holdenautomotive.com. AS WELL AS ANYBODY ELSE THAT WOULD BE KIND ENOUGH TO HELP.

THANKS! LH.

[southdakotajobs]

I'm glad to hear that you read an article about our state, we seem to get very little press.
Lincoln county is the southern county of Sioux Falls, on the easter side of the state as Jammie mentioned in the previous post. It was listed in 2005 as the fastest growing county in the country!(per capita). With that growth in Sioux Falls (SF) real estate prices have increased rivaling cities larger cities in our area such a Omaha and DesMoines. Crime has also increased in last 5 years. Not that it compares to LA or NYC or even Minneapolis for that matter, but if you feel Rapid City, Spearfish etc. have a higher crime rate than you are comfortable with I guess you wouldn't like SF either.
I was born in Yankton (Yankton Co), which is beautifully set on the Missouri River in the south easter edge of South Dakota. They have lots of tourism due to the Lewis and Clark national park and large lake created by Gavins Point Dam. I spent every summer on the water, sailing, skiing, swimming, camping. The size of Yankton is about 14,000. It has most shopping that is needed, lots of recreation and beautiful landscapes, and is very rich in history.
I currently live in Huron SD which is in the central eastern portion of the state. I lived in Sioux Falls for 15 years, met my husband and moved east, where we lived in Baltimore, Boston, and Cininnati.
We moved home because, like you, we wanted a low crime rate, low cost of living, and a friendly place to raise our children.
Huron (Beadle Co.) has a low cost of living ($64,000 median home price, low ins. costs, vehicle registration cost me $40 and my drivers license was $8), very low crime rate (we had 2 teenagers break into a store to use the guys computer to check their email, it made the paper!), boasts the best pheasant hunting in the country (presidential hunt takes place here every year), and a regional airport with multiple flights daily.
If you would like more information on Huron, Yankton, or anyother city (town) in South Dakota visit www.(town (broken link) name)sd.com. ex. www.huronsd.com, www.yanktonsd.com.
If you have any other questions please ask or email me directly at sarah@huronjobs.com.
I hope you find the right place for you here in South Dakota!

[Jammie]

That was a good post, SDJobs. Another one of the benefits of SD is no state income tax. Things may have changed a bit since the 2000 census, but they base the national average for crime at something like 330. I don't know if there's a town in SD that is much more then half the national average for crime.

[southdakotajobs]

You are an impressive advocate of South Dakota. I'm so glad to see so many of us who appreciate our state and really enjoy living here. Where in the state do you live? I'm guessing west river?

[Jammie]

Hi and thank you for the compliment. I love West River, but actually I'm your neighbor to the south. We live in Mitchell. We've lived in this area our entire lives and love the calm, peaceful life of SD, BUT I'm beginning to hate the cold winters more each year.

[goldenholden]

thanks so much for your generous reply! i will write you from now on at your pwersonal email, as requested. thanks again! i'm going to look up huron right now!

Originally Posted by southdakotajobs

I'm glad to hear that you read an article about our state, we seem to get very little press.
Lincoln county is the southern county of Sioux Falls, on the easter side of the state as Jammie mentioned in the previous post. It was listed in 2005 as the fastest growing county in the country!(per capita). With that growth in Sioux Falls (SF) real estate prices have increased rivaling cities larger cities in our area such a Omaha and DesMoines. Crime has also increased in last 5 years. Not that it compares to LA or NYC or even Minneapolis for that matter, but if you feel Rapid City, Spearfish etc. have a higher crime rate than you are comfortable with I guess you wouldn't like SF either.
I was born in Yankton (Yankton Co), which is beautifully set on the Missouri River in the south easter edge of South Dakota. They have lots of tourism due to the Lewis and Clark national park and large lake created by Gavins Point Dam. I spent every summer on the water, sailing, skiing, swimming, camping. The size of Yankton is about 14,000. It has most shopping that is needed, lots of recreation and beautiful landscapes, and is very rich in history.
I currently live in Huron SD which is in the central eastern portion of the state. I lived in Sioux Falls for 15 years, met my husband and moved east, where we lived in Baltimore, Boston, and Cininnati.
We moved home because, like you, we wanted a low crime rate, low cost of living, and a friendly place to raise our children.
Huron (Beadle Co.) has a low cost of living ($64,000 median home price, low ins. costs, vehicle registration cost me $40 and my drivers license was $8), very low crime rate (we had 2 teenagers break into a store to use the guys computer to check their email, it made the paper!), boasts the best pheasant hunting in the country (presidential hunt takes place here every year), and a regional airport with multiple flights daily.
If you would like more information on Huron, Yankton, or anyother city (town) in South Dakota visit www.(town name)sd.com. ex. www.huronsd.com, www.yanktonsd.com.
If you have any other questions please ask or email me directly at sarah@huronjobs.com.
I hope you find the right place for you here in South Dakota!

[uncleharley]

You may want to check out Hot Springs in Fall River county [population 4300 or so]. It is located about 100 miles south of Spearfish in the south end of the Black Hills. The reason I mention it is that there have been a number of movies shot in the area and Hot Springs is beginning to attract some "artsy" people that could possibly help support or play a part in your business. The crime rate is not high enough to worry about. Shopping is limited by many standards unless you drive to Rapid City or Chadron, NB.

uh

[Jammie]

Hi Unclecharley, do you live out in the Hills area? We have gotten a few people who have been curious about the area and I'm not extremely familiar with it. It's so beautiful out there and we're heading out there next week for Deadwood's Kool Summer Nights.