insiders know ...

[december 2024 roommates]

SO, roomiematch.com's Sioux Falls roommate rundown:

Sioux Falls is synonymous with the Black Hills. The Badlands. And national parks, monuments, grasslands, and forests!

It's absolutely stunning outdoors! As far as the eye can see! Along with no state income tax, low property taxes, and a stunningly low cost of living.

The Great Outdoors isn't hard to find here. In more urban roommate cities, it's all about finding and maintaining that fresh air outside access. Here, the access is undeniable. It's kinda hard to escape.

In terms of outdoor fun, the only thing South Dakota lacks is an ocean. Everything else is here, expected summer fun and snowy sporting opportunity . . . along with world class fly fishing! You can catch your way through several species of South Dakota trout swimming in several famous creeks and streams.

As the largest city in South Dakota, and the only urban center between Minneapolis and Denver, the Great Outdoors is in every direction. And you won't have to go very far.

Because anything remotely urban other than Sioux Falls is several hundred miles away. On a highway. And it's more than just fresh air. It'll be downright windy.

Sioux Falls is a conservative-leaning Country Western city, but one of the chilly ones. Just chilly (actually freezing cold) meteorologically, never interpersonally. Dakotans have a reputation for being friendlier than most, and you probably ought return the favor.

You and your roommates should strive to get along with each other! And your neighbors!

Especially during heavy snowfall.

You could get stuck and need a horse.

The rest of the Sioux Falls roommate lowdown:

• Sioux Falls is in eastern South Dakota, near the Iowa-Minnesota border. It's South Dakota's largest city, with about 200,000 residents.
• frequent weather changes, humid warm summers with thunderstorms, while winters often bring brutal cold and heavy snowfall
• home of the University of Sioux Falls, University of South Dakota's Sanford School of Medicine, Stewart School, South Dakota Public Universities and Research Center, and the South Dakota School for the Deaf
• Food processing has been historically economically important, still largely is, but overtaken by health services, then the financial sector. In part due to a lack of a state corporate income tax, Sioux Falls has become a politically conservative center for the banking and credit card industries.
• Sioux Falls sports a lot of golf courses per capita.
• There's a trolley downtown, and some buses during the day. Other than that, you and your roommates will mostly need a car. However, it's unlikely you'll have any trouble with traffic jams or parking!

After you're settled down, you and your roommates should experience Sioux Falls':

• Falls Park: Multiple waterfalls flowing over multi-tiered Sioux quartzite. Meditative beauty brought about by thousands of gallons of rushing water.
• Center for Western Studies: > 37,000 volumes on the American West, associated with Augustana University.
• Great Plains Zoo: Celebrating the critically endangered Black Rhino, especially during Rhinopalooza. You and your roommates could also schedule a private cart tour and/or up-close encounter with a zoo educator.
• Butterfly House & Aquarium: "Experience the ocean and rainforest in land-locked South Dakota." Home of the Dakota's only insectarium, where you can be surrounded by over 800 types of butterflies.
• Sioux Falls Arts & Culture Directory (SFAC): Hub for local artists. You and your roommates could list your artistic work on their site, then attend their events. Lots of receptions, pop up galleries, and open mics.

Here's the city of Sioux Falls' official .gov for resident services, from utilities to recycling to libraries.

Notes

1.   The non-traditional roommate rent average for this city we've experienced over the last 3 years. We can't predict future rental availability, because we're neither in control of any rental market nor psychic, sorry!

But in most cities most of the time, the recent and relatively recent past are the best predictors.


2.   This idea came from smartasset.com's ranking of what a roommate saves you in 50 cities. They ranked where roommates will save you the most money, based on the average cost of a 1BR as opposed to a 2BR ÷ 2. Unsurprisingly, the more expensive the city, the more you can save, but the savings are significant in all larger metros. So we got the data for the rest of our cities from Zumper too.

This is really the minimum you could save, as you could live with more than one roommate, split more services, share food or other supplies, etc. More sharing tends to lead to more savings too, as per our roommate roadmap.

As per the rest of the description at the top of this page, we're calling this "traditional" roommate rent.


3.   From zumper.com.


4.   Directly quoted from the Trust for Public Land's parkland rating system.

"The ParkScore index awards each city up to 100 points for acreage based on the average of two equally weighted measures: median park size and parkland as a percentage of city area. Factoring park acreage into each city’s ParkScore rating helps account for the importance of larger “destination parks” that serve many users who live farther than ten minutes’ walking distance."

While each city's rundown already includes their individual ParkScore, nature lovers might like to see all roommate cities ranked for parkland.


5.   Directly quoted from Walk Score's Cities and Neighborhoods Ranking. They've ranked "more than 2,800 cities and over 10,000 neighborhoods so you can find a walkable home or apartment."

While each city's rundown already includes their individual Walk Score, dedicated pedestrians might like to see all roommate cities ranked for walkability.


6.   From various lists here on our own best roommate cities.