I live near Vermillion, and chose the area as my retirement location for many, many reasons. I LOVE it here!
Vermillion is the perfect town. It is safe, walkable, economically healthy, friendly, diverse, affordable, and there are TONS of things to do.
The University Wellness Center (eg gym, pool and exercise center) is open to everyone who lives in Vermillion:
Wellness Center | USD Get a family pass and come have fun!
The newly renovated city swimming pool/aquatics center just opened last summer. It's fancy! You see kids walking and biking there all summer.
In fact, you see kids out and about town riding their bikes and walking everywhere. In fact, people of all ages all over town walk everywhere. It is a walkable town in the true old fashioned sense.
There are TONS of things for kids to do. The local kids robotics club just won a NATIONAL competition, competing with kids from huge cities all over the country. The public library is excellent, and has lots children's programming year round. Here's a link to their kids activities:
http://vermillionpubliclibrary.org/kids/ There is an arts center with lots of kids activities. There are 2 active museums with programs for children. The Tanagers (high school teams) are always in the news competing in basketball and other sports. There's boating and fishing and hiking around the Missouri and Vermillion rivers. Yes, people canoe and kayak on both rivers! (Be aware that the Missouri can be quite dangerous, though.) There's a group working on developing a long hiking trail from town to the river and across the bridge to Nebraska. The Sierra Club has an active local group. The local movie theater (run as a non-profit) brings in first run movies, and is newly renovated with very comfortable seating! Here's the link to the city Parks and Rec department:
http://www.vermillionparksandrec.com/ Here's a link to info about the Dakota Dome, the University sporting arena:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DakotaDome
The University brings in lots of sporting events, lectures, theater, films, music and etc. that community members can attend. If your family is into sports you can go to university level games all year round.
There's an excellent farmer's market, and a CSA.
Also, as mentioned earlier, it's an easy drive to both Sioux Falls and Sioux City for bigger city things to do. Lots of people in this area commute to work to both of these cities every day. Omaha is only a 2 hr drive. Minneapolis is only 4 - 5 hrs away (depending on where you're going.)
I wouldn't live in Yankton, if I were you. Yankton has the area big box shopping and has some interesting historic sections and some nice neighborhoods, but it's . . . definitely not the same quality community as Vermillion.
Here's the secret to finding housing in Vermillion: DON'T use the national real estate websites like Realtor, Zillow, and etc.
DO go directly to the websites for the local realtors to find both rentals and properties that are for sale. There's Maloney
http://www.realestatemaloney.com/ , Premier
http://www.premierrealestateltd.com/ , and Dakota
https://dakotarealty.com/ . I worked with Maloney, and they were great.
To find rental housing, take a look at the Facebook group called Vermillion, South Dakota Rentals:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/225116711262447/
There is a brand new neighborhood, called "Bliss Point", in which active building is occurring - you could plan and design your own new home and work with one of the local builders to create just what you want!
The only places in Vermillion to avoid for housing are the mobile home parks - some of them are pretty slummy. The one on the far west side (Westgate) isn't bad, though. And you probably want to avoid any rental right near the University to avoid student partying noise. And to be honest I looked at some rentals owned by Dakota Realty and was shocked by the condition, so maybe avoid that. There are several brand new townhouses that look nice. In fact, I think there has recently been overbuilding of apartments/townhouses in Vermillion recently, so prices aren't bad at all.
Well, there you have it! If you have any more questions, feel free to DM me.
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