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Hello everyone, I am an active duty Soldier in the Army and I'm currently deployed in Afghanistan. I'm a Senior Medical NCO and have 17 1/2 years in the Army. When my tour ends at the beginning of next year, my family and I are moving to Sioux Falls for my last 2 years.
I have been reading through the forum and there seems to be some people very knowledgeable with Sioux Falls. I'm trying to find out if there is any place that I need to avoid, in regards to renting or buying a house ?? I've only been able to find limited information on the net and the time I get to look is limited as well. Any other helpful hints to make the move to Sioux Falls easier would be more than welcomed !!!
My wife and I are originally from Cincinnati and are HUGE Bengals fans (Please don't hold that against us) I love football in general. My wife works in dentistry and we have a little dude who will be 1 in October.
Thanks in advance and here's to hoping you all have a good day !!!
Hi G.I., I believe a member of our forum actually lives there so he will have plenty of info to offer you.
I live an hour away and go there on once in a while, but have never lived there. I'm not really aware of any actual "slum" areas of the city. There is an area that floods once in a while and as I understand it, they're trying to get that fixed. I can't tell you exactly where that is, but the Sx. Falls. member probably could.
It's a nice, clean town and although the people may not be as outgoing or friendly as the smaller towns, you'll feel welcome there. People do wave or say, "HI" to you when you pass. There is always something going on over there. In fact, they're having an Elton John concert there in Oct. The South Dakota Symphony has concerts there, they have nice parks, etc. It's a pretty up and coming city.
The unemployment rate right now is 2.3% there so there shouldn't be a problem with your wife finding work somewhere in the line of her field.
Just wanted to post with a bit of info and to welcome you to the forum AND to thank you for serving our country.
Hello everyone, I am an active duty Soldier in the Army and I'm currently deployed in Afghanistan. I'm a Senior Medical NCO and have 17 1/2 years in the Army. When my tour ends at the beginning of next year, my family and I are moving to Sioux Falls for my last 2 years.
I have been reading through the forum and there seems to be some people very knowledgeable with Sioux Falls. I'm trying to find out if there is any place that I need to avoid, in regards to renting or buying a house ?? I've only been able to find limited information on the net and the time I get to look is limited as well. Any other helpful hints to make the move to Sioux Falls easier would be more than welcomed !!!
My wife and I are originally from Cincinnati and are HUGE Bengals fans (Please don't hold that against us) I love football in general. My wife works in dentistry and we have a little dude who will be 1 in October.
Thanks in advance and here's to hoping you all have a good day !!!
The only place I can think to avoid is the area around the airport, the state penn, and the downtown district. There may be a few other areas you'd rather not live near, but those are the only ones I'm familiar with that you'd rather not live in. They're not entirely all bad, because most of Sioux Falls is
about as safe as you could imagine.
If I had to look somewhere for a house in SF, I would start on the south end of town. It gets newer the farther south you get, and just seems to get better the further you go. There's a new elementary school popping up in that area, so by the time your little viking (or bengal) is of age, it'll be right there!
Thanks for the information !!! My wife is planning a visit to Sioux Falls to see what is around there and where would be a good place to live. I'll tell her about the South side of the city and have her go from there. I'll be working downtown and I don't want to haveto monsterous of a drive in, so we will figure it out. Again, thanks for the information...
I would definitely not worry about a "monsterous drive" for your daily commute. No one in South Dakota has a long commute, unless they are driving to another town for work. "Rush hour" is about 30 minutes in the AM and PM, and I'm sure the congestion is a hundredth of what it was in Cincinnati, or any other actual city.
The southern part of the city is indeed newer and richer, but I, personally, would still try to stay north of 57th St. That is the county line, and it is annoying having to do county business in a small town 18 miles from Sioux Falls, rather than in the downtown that you will be working at.
If you prefer to live in a more established area of town, with houses that have character, as opposed to cookie cutters, I would look into the area between Kiwanis and Minnesota Avenues and between 18th st and 33rd st. This nice central location has you with 5 or 10 minutes of everything worthwhile in town. Your commute to downtown would be no more than 10 minutes, and probably closer to 5 if you were in the northeastern area of the rectangle I described. Also, there are actually mature trees there, unlike a lot of the newer developments.
The only areas to avoid living are around the state prison and a small area just west of downtown, and north of the rectangle i described (I'm guessing thats what the previous poster meant by the downtown district). And even that area is far from being a ghetto or too dangerous to drive through. I can never remember what they consider the boundaries to be, but I believe Minnesota ave to probably Summit Ave, and maybe from 9th st to 14th st. But again, this is not a dangerous ghetto. There are no prostitutes outside, or drug deals going down on the corners. You do get some drunks, but thats about it. I have walked around that area plenty during the day without incident. Might be a little sketchier at night, but even then you'd probably be fine 99% of the time. Actually, the city is getting into a big plan to fix up this "blighted" area.
Sioux Falls has reasonable housing costs too, so it is not as though you would have to live in a crappy neighborhood to afford a house. I recommend HomeVIEW â€Â¢ Sioux Falls, SD to get a feel for the market.
Overall, Sioux Falls is probably one of the safest towns of its size in the country. Very little crime occurs, and what does happen usually has the victim knowing the criminal. Being from a big city, and having done a a TOD in Afghanistan, you will have no problems.
As for football, we have 2 small (but pretty good) college teams, and 4 high school teams, and a arena team. Definitely nothing on the pro level, but it will get you by. Nice thing about no pro team here is that you won't get harrassed for wearing your bengals gear with pride. Sure, there are more vikings fans than anything else here, but you won't find the same dangerous fervor that you would in say Green Bay...
The medical field is pretty huge here too, so I'm sure your wife won't have a problem finding work.
Anything else you want to know, I can probably help you out with.
Both these people gave you the straight dope, Sarge. I live here as well. Don't worry about living south of 57th Street in Lincoln County. Canton is a pleasant 15 minute drive once a year, to pay your taxes and buy your license plates. Once there, at the courthouse, it takes about 3 minutes to do your business and be on your way.
We lived in the old McKennan Park district for over 30 years, and moved up here to a new place. I'm too old to continually fix and monkey around with an old house. Still miss the old neighborhood, and that will always be home to me. But not having a repair job forever looming over my head is a very pleasant feeling.
Thanks for doing that job over there, man. Hats off to ya.
The only area I would avoid is 9th-11th street between western and minnesota. Personlly, I would much rather live in the central part of town between 12th and 41st because your close to downtown, to the mall, to basically everything in sioux falls. Welcome
I would recommend considering some of the small towns around Sioux Falls such as Brandon, Tea, Harrisburg, Hartford, Lennox, Canton, and Dell Rapids. The first three are growing quite a bit and the latter four are growing steadily but have mature neighborhoods and have a small town feel with an easy drive to Sioux Falls. The schools are generally decent. I have heard good things about Brandon Valley schools.
Sioux Falls does not have ghetto areas that are found in large cities and depressed smaller cities. The city is clean for the most part and is safe. Common sense is the easiest way to avoid trouble. I would agree with SoDak11 that the crime occurs with the victim knowing the criminal.
I think that it is a good idea to move to an area south of 18th Street in Sioux Falls. There are neat older neighboorhoods south of 18th Street (McKennan Park area and areas near Sanford Hospital, University of Sioux Falls, and Augustana College have well-kept older houses with character) and the vast majority of the area is decent and newer areas are further south. The southern part of the city has affluent areas but also has reasonably-priced areas and is growing quite a bit. Anything west of I-29 is decent and mostly built in the 1970s or later. The west side is also growing. The eastern part of the city is also nice and mostly built in the 1960s and later. The eastern part of the city will experience a lot of retail growth in the near future on the fringes and will be a booming area in the next few years.
The areas near the State Penn, directly west of downtown, north of downtown, and northeast of downtown are the areas that are the least desireable areas to live in Sioux Falls and these areas are not bad compared to undesiriable areas in larger cities and depressed smaller cities.
If you live in Sioux Falls and live in Lincoln County, the trip to Canton is relaxing and painless one. It takes about 20 minutes. When one gets plates or registers to vote, the service is quick and friendly. I live in in Northern Lincoln County and go to Canton. It usually takes me 10-15 minutes in the court at the most to get my plates. Parking is not too hard to find in Canton. I have heard about people waiting in line for a long time if they lived in Minnehaha County and got their plates in Sioux Falls. Personally, I rather take the drive to Canton and get quick and friendly service as opposed to waiting in a very long line in Sioux Falls for license plates.
Sioux Falls is a very progressive and is friendly. Newcomers add to the flavor of the city and many newcomers and locals are good-natured people. Traffic is a complaint of the locals including me, but is not bad compared to larger cities and it is relatively easy to get around.
I would echo the southern part of town recommendation. In 1996 when I moved to SF I lived near 14th and Summit, in the older central part of town. Thanks to a drug house around the corner, there were a couple of "drive by shootings" and random gun shots during the 2 years I lived there. You want to stay away from that central part of town for sure. I left SF a few years ago and since then it has seen an increase in crime. But it's still far safer than some cities I've lived in.
Like Chris19 suggested, you might want to look into smaller bedroom towns near by. I would suggest Tea as it will soon become part of Sioux Falls anyway. When I moved to SF in 96 there was literally nothing south of 57th street. Now Lincoln county is one of the fastest growing counties in the US, no doubt due to the rapid expansion of southern Sioux Falls and Tea.
Traveler, welcome to the forum. We've been in need of a participating member from the Sx. Falls area.
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