Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Hello, just joined the forums looking for opinions on Hot Springs S.D. We drove through the town about a month ago on our way back home (southeast Kansas) from Montana. My husband & I liked the town, seemed right up our alley what little we saw driving around. We both love quaint old towns with a lot of history. We are retired & looking for a little different climate. I hate the heat & humidity & he hates cold weather ha. However it seems he's hating the heat & humidity more each summer down here. I happen to have been born/raised in northern MT so ive always hated the heat/humidity in the 35+yrs living in Missouri & Kansas. He's born/raised in Missouri so used to it, but he just seems to suffer more with the heat the older he gets. We have also been studying up on best states to live for retirees on a fixed income & S.D always near top of list. That said, the schools & anything child-rearing isn't important to us, what is important to me is whether or not I can have my animals, city ordinances, real-estate prices, those types of things. I saw on a website that Hot Springs allows I think it was 6 chickens in town? I didn't really understand the disclosures (if there are any)i.e. how many feet between properties ect, or does the yard have to be at least 2 acres,..i just need to know if we have to look for acreage in the country or is the town lenient with pets. I know most towns have some type of rule regarding pets, like only 3 per household limit, so basically id love to find out what kind of rules Hot Springs has. Real Estate prices or anything ever available? From what ive seen on sites like Zillow & realtor, it appears most every home in the price range we'd be looking is not any newer than the 50's, most older than that- yikes. As neat as it would be to live in a historic old house in a historic old town, I don't think it would be wise with the problems old homes usually have & our limited budget. Thanks in advance for any & all information, moving may be a pipe dream at our age but we'd really like to
Currently we live on about 2 1/2 acres on the outskirts of a small town, technically within city limits but far enough outside town that we're in the country, privacy & nobody knows how many animals I have. I always tell myself to be satisfied, I have the best setup possible for my pets but i'm still wanting to move someplace cooler {sigh}
For Ordinance info and other specific information, try the phone number on the bottom of this website. Hot Springs, SD - Southern Gateway of the Black Hills
I retired to Hot Springs from Wisconsin about 5 yrs ago for the same reason you are considering a move. Namely, I couldn't handle the humidity any longer. I have not been disappointed in the climate since I moved here.
I know of no restrictions on pets and most lots in town are considerably less than 2 acres. You don't mention what kind of pets you have or how many, so I am not sure why this is a concern. You also don't mention what price range you are in for housing, however you should have plenty to choose from near $150,000 and up.
Hi uncleharley & thanks for responding. Thanks for the info. I will check out the ordinances.
Unfortunately, our price range will be under the $150,000, or at least not over that.
As for pets, I currently have 16 miniature (bantam) chickens, they are my pets, they'll be living out their natural lives hopefully with me. The thing about chickens is they don't live very long, & my oldest 10 are nearing the age when their going to start dropping so for example If the ordinance in town is 6, i'm quite sure i'll be down to that by the time we would ever get a move complete. I also won't be replacing them, so I would hate to have to pass up the perfect place due to the chickens. Also have 1 cat & 2 dogs. Cat is 17 so his days are numbered too im afraid. Oldest dog same thing
We plan on making another trip up there in a few months, stay a few days & really explore the town, maybe talk to a realtor just to see if this area is doable for us.
As mentioned, I have looked a bit on different real estate sites & see that there's quite a few new lots/ subdivisions around if one wanted to build. Many of them have HOA's & that's not something we're interested in doing anymore. If we put up something new, it would be small & low-cost, possibly even modular, but not single-wide mobile home.
My husband likes to be right in town with little maintenance, but I prefer a couple acres & some space/privacy. We have had a wonderful life & done the best of both worlds over the years, and really we're both pretty flexible given the right situation
You may have a hard time finding something in that budget that is not an older home in need of a lot of repair. No matter where you are in the Black Hills, $150K is the low end, and while not impossible to find something livable in that budget, it's definitely a challenge. New modulars are generally going to cost you close to three-quarters of that for a stripped down model to get even to the property. That's not including lot, utilities, excavation, driveway, etc. (We are looking at this route, so I have a lot of information). Many places also have rules about modulars (modular v manufactured home - which is the cheaper way to go, but more places are disallowing them). Best bet is to connect with a good realtor and be realistic with them about what you need.
You may have a hard time finding something in that budget that is not an older home in need of a lot of repair. No matter where you are in the Black Hills, $150K is the low end, and while not impossible to find something livable in that budget, it's definitely a challenge. New modulars are generally going to cost you close to three-quarters of that for a stripped down model to get even to the property. That's not including lot, utilities, excavation, driveway, etc. (We are looking at this route, so I have a lot of information). Many places also have rules about modulars (modular v manufactured home - which is the cheaper way to go, but more places are disallowing them). Best bet is to connect with a good realtor and be realistic with them about what you need.
Thank you for the info. We're coming to the conclusion that we wont find anything suitable in our price range in this area. We are definitely going to check with a realtor when we visit & look around a bit. Perhaps there are locations close by but not right in the Black Hills vicinity which are nice. Of course we'd like to have the beautiful views but I'd be happy anywhere in the western half of S.D. If you have learned of such a place please let me know, all ideas are more than welcome
Milleflower, if uncleharley's suggestion of Edgemont interests you, you might find this $29,800 house to be an excellent deal (here it is on Google Street View, as it looked three years ago). At the very least it would be worth making an inquiry. I am in no way associated with the seller. My only link to Edgemont is when I tricked my father out of moving us there in 1974, when I was 13.
Update: Here is a $78,000 house in the northeast part of Hot Springs. Here it is on Google Street View.
If you single click on the larger photographs after you click the above craigslist links it will increase them to an even larger size. Then use the right arrow embedded along the right edge of each photo to proceed through all of the photos.
Hello, we recently returned from Hot Springs S.D.! We enjoyed our visit immensely. The highlight of my hubby’s visit was seeing the mammoth dig site, very fun & interesting. The scenery around there is truly breathtaking, (my favorite part) we took the iron mountain road (saw Mt Rushmore even though we’ve been AT Mt Rushmore many times, we hadn’t seen it this way before), drove through Custer park, saw some buffalo, deer, donkeys. Animals + scenery is right up my alley. Walked downtown & really enjoyed it. Disappointed that a lot of those quaint little shops that we thought we saw when we briefly drove through earlier this year, are not even open for business. We had a nice visit with the owner of one we DID find open though, talked a bit about the dynamics of the town, very sweet lady. It is indeed a nice town, but coming away after exploring it, have to say it probably wouldn’t be ideal for us, although I would give up (most) conveniences to live in the beauty surrounding the town in a heartbeat! Very expensive housing for what you get, its baffling how much more you get for your money in our area of the U.S. compared to there, but I get the old saying; location location location ha. Guess we’re somewhat spoiled too, by the huge, clean , fully stocked grocery stores we’ve been lucky to have lived near. We stopped in to one of the grocery stores there, I think Sonnys or something,.. My husband picked up some chocolate syrup for our ice cream we’d purchased at DQ, got to the rv, he couldn’t squeeze anything out of the bottle, contents were hard as a brick! Opened the cap & what was down in there looked like petrified wood, hard as cement, light brown, unidentifiable! Promptly disposed of, then I wondered about the 3 quarts of milk we bought, but it was fine. That’s certainly not something that would impair my opinion of Hot Springs however. Folks must drive up to Rapid, which is not a problem, I'm no stranger to that,- my childhood hometown in Montana doesn't have many options for shopping so we drove 50 miles to next town for groceries & toiletries. As long as we could get milk & bread to tide us over we’d be fine. We went to the shopco too, mostly empty shelves & what was there looked like it had been there awhile. We drove out to Edgemont as per other suggestions, not impressed. Is it on a reservation? No interest in living on one. The best part of going to Edgemont though was the drive, breathtakingly beautiful the first half or so, in fact I think we drove every direction out of Hot Springs at some point, all equally beautiful. Funny story, we had seen online a couple of properties which we were interested in looking at, both on around 5 acres outside town. I had not written down addresses. One day we drove up the direction of the wild horse sanctuary, & as we’re driving along, I saw an off-road sign that read ‘Pine Shadows’, I recognized that name, but couldn’t place where, one of the properties maybe?. So we turned & drove up the road a ways & then I saw a sign reading ‘Jenny’ something… that sounded familiar too, turned on that road, although calling it a ‘road’ is a stretch. More like a graveled cow path up this super steep hill, so unbearably washboard that I thought it was going to shake our teeth out! We have a super-duty pickup, & couldn’t get up the hill, had to coast backwards & get a run at it. Absolute worst road we’ve ever been on. I was bent on seeing this property though, & we found it. Unfortunately as is usually the case, it looked way better in the pictures, (magnificent view however) I can see where whoever started this project, bailed after pouring the foundation. We couldn’t figure out how one could make it work even if the price was right, plus the stench of ragweed up in there about choked us to death. The amazing thing is, on up that road & all along it actually, are gorgeous homes! What do these people drive? All my 70 year old husband could envision is if something happened health-wise, what would you do for help & more importantly, how would you get there, in the wintertime especially, on those roads! I’m only assuming but I imagine one is hard-pressed to get phone,cable or internet in that neck of the woods either.
Needless to say, folks who are able & fortunate enough to live around Hot Springs are just that, fortunate. Seeing that beauty day in & day out is something that would never get old.
My mother's friend lives up in hot springs and was trying to sway me to the area, however, due to lack of amenities and work, I definitely could not live there either......for this reason, i am considering rapid city, among other US cities with beautiful scenery and things to do...
Hello, just joined the forums looking for opinions on Hot Springs S.D. We drove through the town about a month ago on our way back home (southeast Kansas) from Montana. My husband & I liked the town, seemed right up our alley what little we saw driving around. We both love quaint old towns with a lot of history. We are retired & looking for a little different climate. I hate the heat & humidity & he hates cold weather ha. However it seems he's hating the heat & humidity more each summer down here. I happen to have been born/raised in northern MT so ive always hated the heat/humidity in the 35+yrs living in Missouri & Kansas. We have also been studying up on best states to live for retirees on a fixed income & S.D always near top of list.
Currently we live on about 2 1/2 acres on the outskirts of a small town, technically within city limits but far enough outside town that we're in the country, privacy & nobody knows how many animals I have. I always tell myself to be satisfied, I have the best setup possible for my pets but i'm still wanting to move someplace cooler {sigh}
Hi Milleflower,
I am also looking for another quiet type place. I'm also on a fixed budget. Right now i live close to Springfield Missouri and am tired of all the crime. I just want to live in a area where a person can breathe.
It would be nice to live on at least a couple of acres. I would have to have a person be able to accept payments because my credit is shot due to my husband blowing money. I am looking to get out of that soon.
I dont know how expensive the land is there. Is there any reasonable priced small acreage around?
I have not been there, but it seemed to me if you and your husband liked it, coming from the area that I'm in, then i probably would too.
Have you looked into dome homes? People are still not really into it, but they are really nice. My parents had one and i loved it myself. Plus they can stand up to most anything.
And ideas or information on what could help me?
How are the people up there? I miss friendly little towns.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
looking for opinions on Hot Springs S.D. We drove through the town about a month ago on our way back home (southeast Kansas) from Montana. My husband & I liked the town, seemed right up our alley what little we saw driving around. We both love quaint old towns with a lot of history. We are retired & looking for a little different climate. I hate the heat & humidity & he hates cold weather ha. However it seems he's hating the heat & humidity more each summer down here. I happen to have been born/raised in northern MT so ive always hated the heat/humidity in the 35+yrs living in Missouri & Kansas. He's born/raised in Missouri so used to it, but he just seems to suffer more with the heat the older he gets. We have also been studying up on best states to live for retirees on a fixed income & S.D always near top of list. That said, the schools & anything child-rearing isn't important to us, what is important to me is whether or not I can have my animals, city ordinances, real-estate prices, those types of things. I saw on a website that Hot Springs allows I think it was 6 chickens in town? I didn't really understand the disclosures (if there are any)i.e. how many feet between properties ect, or does the yard have to be at least 2 acres,..i just need to know if we have to look for acreage in the country or is the town lenient with pets. I know most towns have some type of rule regarding pets, like only 3 per household limit, so basically id love to find out what kind of rules Hot Springs has. Real Estate prices or anything ever available? From what ive seen on sites like Zillow & realtor, it appears most every home in the price range we'd be looking is not any newer than the 50's, most older than that- yikes. As neat as it would be to live in a historic old house in a historic old town, I don't think it would be wise with the problems old homes usually have & our limited budget. Thanks in advance for any & all information, moving may be a pipe dream at our age but we'd really like to
so for example If the ordinance in town is 6, i'm quite sure i'll be down to that by the time we would ever get a move complete. I also won't be replacing them, so I would hate to have to pass up the perfect place due to the chickens. Also have 1 cat & 2 dogs. Cat is 17 so his days are numbered too im afraid. Oldest dog same thing
House in Edgemont
! Promptly disposed of, then I wondered about the 3 quarts of milk we bought, but it was fine. That’s certainly not something that would impair my opinion of Hot Springs however. Folks must drive up to Rapid, which is not a problem, I'm no stranger to that,- my childhood hometown in Montana doesn't have many options for shopping so we drove 50 miles to next town for groceries & toiletries. As long as we could get milk & bread to tide us over we’d be fine. We went to the shopco too, mostly empty shelves & what was there looked like it had been there awhile. We drove out to Edgemont as per other suggestions, not impressed. Is it on a reservation? No interest in living on one. The best part of going to Edgemont though was the drive, breathtakingly beautiful the first half or so, in fact I think we drove every direction out of Hot Springs at some point, all equally beautiful. Funny story, we had seen online a couple of properties which we were interested in looking at, both on around 5 acres outside town. I had not written down addresses. One day we drove up the direction of the wild horse sanctuary, & as we’re driving along, I saw an off-road sign that read ‘Pine Shadows’, I recognized that name, but couldn’t place where, one of the properties maybe?. So we turned & drove up the road a ways & then I saw a sign reading ‘Jenny’ something… that sounded familiar too, turned on that road, although calling it a ‘road’ is a stretch. More like a graveled cow path up this super steep hill, so unbearably washboard that I thought it was going to shake our teeth out! We have a super-duty pickup, & couldn’t get up the hill, had to coast backwards & get a run at it. Absolute worst road we’ve ever been on. I was bent on seeing this property though, & we found it. Unfortunately as is usually the case, it looked way better in the pictures, (magnificent view however)
I can see where whoever started this project, bailed after pouring the foundation. We couldn’t figure out how one could make it work even if the price was right
, plus the stench of ragweed up in there about choked us to death. The amazing thing is, on up that road & all along it actually, are gorgeous homes!
What do these people drive? All my 70 year old husband could envision is if something happened health-wise, what would you do for help & more importantly, how would you get there, in the wintertime especially, on those roads! I’m only assuming but I imagine one is hard-pressed to get phone,cable or internet in that neck of the woods either. 
