Welcome to Reddit refugees and everyone else!
This community is intended for those living in South Dakota, but anyone is welcome.
Please feel free to post anything you think may be of interest for those in the area and if you have any suggestions/questions/concerns don’t hesitate to reach out!
I suppose the answer to that depends a lot on the individual and where you’re looking to settle within SD. For instance, are you an “outdoorsy” type? If so, while the warm season is relatively short in SD compared to many other places, during the late spring to early fall, SD is a beautiful state for outdoor recreation such as hiking, boating, camping, fishing, hunting, or simply sitting outside and gazing at stars.
Do you prefer large cities or a more rural environment? South Dakota is one of the least populated states in the US, so if you thrive on city night life then you may not like it here so much. Our two largest cities are Sioux Falls and Rapid City which are just under 200k and just over 75k in population, respectively. Most of the rest of the state is miles and miles of small towns or fields/ranches (depending on whether you’re in “east river” or “west river” which just indicates whether you are east or west of the Missouri river).
I personally like that rural aspect, as I grew up in rural farm land and even though I’m in my mid-40’s now and have lived in a couple of the largest cities in the country, I’m still a “small town boy” at heart. While I miss some of the conveniences of city life, I do not miss the constant noise, traffic, crime, people everywhere you turn. But that’s just me.
Depending on your political leanings, South Dakota may be difficult for you as it is very much a red state, but there are pockets of blue in the more populated areas.
Hopefully that helps a bit!
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Ok. I have not lived in Montana but I’ve been through it several times and my mother lived in western Montana for several years, so I’m somewhat familiar with it. Beautiful country.
SD has no state income tax, but they do tax EVERYTHING. Even food. There have been a couple of measures introduced to reduce or eliminate the food tax. The most recent of which was voted on just last month, if I’m not mistaken. But they have not passed. Obviously the exact tax rate would depend on where you ended up, but the state sales tax rate is 4.50% and then you’d have city/county taxes added to that which would depend on the area. Where I live, in Pierre, the combined sales tax rate is 6.5%.
For property taxes, the statewide maximum rate is $12 per thousand dollars of assessed value. But, South Dakota also allows additional levies for roads, snow removal, and buildings, as well as other taxing entities, so it’s kind of hard to figure ahead of time if you’re coming into a new area. But that will give you a general idea, anyway.
Vehicles are 4% sales tax rate, based on the assessed value of the vehicle. Registration costs are based on year and vehicle weight, but the range tends to be (very roughly) between approximately $50 and $75 per year, assuming your average full size pickup truck or smaller.
EDIT: There are no safety or emissions tests required, so registration is the only cost.
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Oh, you’re in Washington! Yeah, that’s actually my “home”. I was born there and didn’t leave until I was 17. When I was 17, I left (to Phoenix, AZ) and over the years I have lived in 7 different states. But I’ve returned to WA in between almost every out of state move. I last lived in WA in 2017.
At least at that time, almost all food was untaxed. They have some odd thing about anything that contains carbonated water. So soda/pop is taxed but bread, milk, eggs is untaxed. But all of it is at a higher rate than SD. There also doesn’t seem to be any “sin tax” in SD that I’ve noticed. Although to be fair, I haven’t done the math.
I was also buying a home in WA for 15 years and property taxes in WA are much higher than in SD (I don’t have actual figures at hand for WA but the place we sold when we left there was valued at less than the place we have now and the taxes were about the same). Gas was also quite a bit more expensive, as well as liquor and cigs. Registration on vehicles is cheaper here in SD than we we were paying in WA but also, with the lack of inspection requirements, that also makes the overall cost even lower. Although insurance does seem to be a bit higher. From what our agent has told us, that comes down to greater chances of hail and wildlife (hitting a deer on the highway is rather common here) damage chances here.
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