Cost of living in Rapid (Rapid City, Spearfish: apartments, to rent, car insurance)

[AZheat]

Just a few questions on Rapid and SD:

1. Cost of food? It's really spendy in Tucson.

2. Registration of vehicles. It's extremely expensive in AZ. What's it like in SD?

3. Cost of high speed internet and cable TV? Again, expensive in Tucson.

There have been a few posts on the low wages and high cost of living in Rapid. I live in Tucson. We have the very wealthy and then the struggling folks. Average pay for a clerical office job is maybe 10 bucks an hour if you're lucky. Wages are not keeping up with cost of living. An efficency or studio apt in a nice, relatively safe area of the city goes for about 500 -550 a month in Tucson.

Thanks for answers to my questions and any comments you might add about living in Rapid.

[Jammie]

You're in for a HUGE change. I have a friend who's in-laws live in AZ, as do several retirees from So. Dak. Many still keep a So. Dak. mailing addy for financial reasons.

License plates are about $38 a year if your vehicle is over 5 years old. It's a bit higher if your vehicle is within those first five years, but the most it would be is maybe double that 38.

You can get an internet, phone, and cable package in most areas of the state for about 102 a month plus tax. That package would include unlimited long distance and something like 80 channels on tv. DSL was the most popular here for a long time, but my area (eastern So. Dak) is now switching to fiber-optic, which is supposed to be better. My guess is that if Rapid hasn't already done that, it will soon be in progress.

Food~well, it's gone up here, too. Since the price of gas is so high, we end up having to pay for all the semis on the road delivering products. My guess is that our restaurants would be much cheaper then your area though. Two people can eat out modestly for $12 and can also have very nice dinners for $25 with tip included. This of course isn't the highest end restaurants, but you could both have a steak or a fish or chicken dinner in those price ranges.

We do have low wages here, but the cost of living is so much less then a lot of parts of the country.

You could check out the Rapid City Journal to see how rent compares. For 500 a month, you should be able to get a 1/1 rather then a studio. We don't really have "slum areas" with high crime so that won't be much of a concern. We do have crime, but it appears that most of the crime is between people who know each other rather then gang activity or random acts of violence.

[BusySocialWorker]

Our grocery bill for a two year old, hubby and I is about $100 per week give or take a bit.... We can eat out for around $30...

our plates cost about $40 per car (about 1/3 of what the cost was in Denver). Our car insurance is also very low - about $290 each 6 months for our two cars with full coverage - in Denver it was close to $160 per MONTH!

We rent a new home (until our house in Denver sells) - it is very small sq footage (but has an unfinished yard and deck) with 2 beds and 2 baths for $900 a month - they were asking $1200 per month but we knew the owner and got a deal.

Before we decided to rent a home rather then an apartment - the apartments we were looking at were around 600-700 per month, but they were 2 bedroom.

the homes we are looking at buying range from about $220,000 to $260,000 for a newer nice sized home.

Our cable bill is about $60 a month - we have DTV rather then local cable

Our phone and high speed internet together is about $73.00 a month (prairiewave) with our cell bills for two phones (alltel) being about $70 a month as well.

Also for compairison purposes - daycare here costs us $115.00 per week and in Denver it was $170 per week.

No state income tax is also nice.

You can search for the prairiewave (phone, internet, cable) web page - they have services and prices listed for you to compair and I think midcontinet and golden west also have web pages with these services and costs).

[Jammie]

I'm wondering if electricity isn't probably cheaper here then in many areas of the country. Whenever you see a comparison, we fare well for low cost of living. We have NWPS in the east part of the state, but West River has Black Hills Power Company. The last I knew, they were much lower then NWPS.

[AZheat]

Thank you both for your replies! Looks like cable, internet and mobile phone are about the same all over. Definately cheaper to own a vehicle in SD!! I noticed at the First Western Bank website that bank fees are cheaper. Geeeeez!

I will be getting the Rapid City Journal Sunday paper now and can watch the job market.

My pros and cons list is long on the pros side with only two cons which are winter and wind, but I'm from Minneysoda originally and can handle it.

Thanks again!

[BusySocialWorker]

Jammie - you are so right about SD's cost of living... For residental electiric for 2005 rates

SD rates as number 39 (1 most expensive 50 least) 7.77 cents per kilowatthour

AZ rates as number 23 at 8.86 cents per kilowatthour

SD info -

Black Hills power rates for 2007 are flat rate of 8.41 cents per kilowatthour along with an 8 dollar customer charge per bill (also the minimum charge)

For compairison - Otter tail in Eastern SD - rates for 2007 as follows -
Monthly minimum $ 5.80
up to 200 kwh - 7.579¢
up to 800 kwh - 6.453¢
Excess kwh - 5.129¢

[Jammie]

Originally Posted by BusySocialWorker

Jammie - you are so right about SD's cost of living... For residental electiric for 2005 rates

SD rates as number 39 (1 most expensive 50 least) 7.77 cents per kilowatthour

AZ rates as number 23 at 8.86 cents per kilowatthour

SD info -

Black Hills power rates for 2007 are flat rate of 8.41 cents per kilowatthour along with an 8 dollar customer charge per bill (also the minimum charge)

For compairison - Otter tail in Eastern SD - rates for 2007 as follows -
Monthly minimum $ 5.80
up to 200 kwh - 7.579¢
up to 800 kwh - 6.453¢
Excess kwh - 5.129¢

Hey, that's good info. Could you check to see what the rate and minimum is for Northwestern Public Service? In the past, they were higher then Black Hills Power, but that may have changed.

Az, yea the winters can be pretty rough up here, as you know. But since you're from Minn., you may find the winters in the Hills bearable. Eastern So. Dak. and Minn. generally have temps that dip down farther then the Hills area does.

[lubner]

Hi,

My husband and I are looking for a place to relocate to that has a low cost of living, beauty and friendly people. We moved to Coeur d'Alene from the SF Bay Area in California ten years ago and we see that this town is getting too crowded for our liking. So far, all that are writing from SD sound so nice. I am a legal secretary and my husband does front end work on cars, but is open to any type of job, warehouse, etc. Ideally, we would like a small town, a bit smaller than Rapid City, but the city seems so pretty. Are there any suggestions for alternative towns? Do you think there is work for secretarial/legal secretary? I appreciate any information residents will have about your state. thank you.

[DannyBanany]

Lubner-

There are many smaller town where clerical work is needed, and these towns are less than 30 minutes from Rapid City.

Check Out:
-Sturgis
-Spearfish
-Hill City
-Custer
-other Black Hills towns

I am sure that Rapid City is larger than Coeur d'Alene, but traffic is not so bad and it has a small town feel and look.... plus it's pretty!

[lubner]

Thanks for the info on surrounding cities, but I think we will check out Rapid City, I am so encouraged just by how friendly all of you are on this forum. I have been doing a lot of looking at various areas and I have yet to find a group as nice as all of you in SD. It's exactly what we are after, I think a visit out is in order. Plus, from what I can see the Black Hills are absolutely gorgeous! I am just a bit concerned about the winters, but I figure if we can tollerate it here, we can do the Rapid City winters.