I see South Dakota has wonderfully priced homes, but can't find anything about the cost of living there. I am wondering about the cost of electric, propane, gasoline, etc. I am looking towards the area around Aberdeen, SD-- but not IN Aberdeen.

-- Ruth (WA) (dntwnna@yahoo.com), January 06, 2002

Answers

Try these two links: http://www.state.sd.us and http://www.naco.org/counties/counties/county.cfm?id=46013

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 06, 2002.

Money magazine has a cost of living comparator on their website.

http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/costofliving/costofliving.html

You can input your income where you now live and it will calculate how much you need to earn at your new location to maintain the same standard of living. It even allows you to do the reverse (is $50,000 there really a raise from $40,000 here?). You can also factor in owning versus renting on either end. Give it a try. It sounds like it could be just what you want. I hope this helps.

-- Gary in Indiana (gk6854@aol.com), January 06, 2002.

I would not count on those links too much. We lived in Rapid City, and yes it looked CHEAP, but in fact it was REASONABLE. It was the little things that made the difference, like the price of water, it cost more than our electric does now. I would look for pointers from those who are there now. Another thing food was pricey there, nothing is grown (at least on the west side) there

-- mark (toymeister@hotmail.com), January 06, 2002.

Water conditions around Aberdeen much better than Rapid. Lots of good ground water, reasonable rates, and electric, propane and gas prices are probably typical for midwest. When you get away from Aberdeen several miles real estate prices drop dramatically.

bill

-- bill (billwalter32@hotmail.com), January 06, 2002.

Thanks for your responses... but does anybody have NUMBERS?? I am in Washington state now, so I don't know what typical rates are for propane and electric, gallon of milk and gallon of gas. I'm looking at the Leola area.

-- Ruth (WA) (dntwnna@yahoo.com), January 07, 2002.

I can't tell you about SD, but I can tell you WY is no longer cheap to live in. When gas prices were dropping like rocks a month ago, they stayed the same in WY. Our neighbor state to the north, MT, who's taxes are $0.20/gal higher than ours, is selling gas for $1.19/gal. Milk is $3.39-4.39/gal; propane is $0.58/lb; electricity is still 0.06/kwh (thank you). Taxes on vehicles is still high (1.5% of MSRP reduced by 16% per yr for 8 yrs); property tax is cheaper than surrounding states.

Cost of doing biz in this state is higher than it was two years ago and double what it was five years ago.

-- matt johnson (wyo_cowboy_us@yahoo.com), January 07, 2002.

Ruth, 20 miles east of Aberdeen, SD here! So you want to go to the German country of Leola? Just a little SD humor. But oh my! You will be able to get all the kuchen you want (you have to know what Kuchen is if you are going to move to Leola!) A lot of the people in that area are decendants of Germans from Russia. My great grandparents went further north into ND, but here I am in Groton, SD. Our Water is from a rural water system, and unfortunately we have the one that is a little spendy. Water is $50.00 per 2000 gallons and goes up $4 per 1000 gallons after that. However, Leola would be on a different system (if you would be lucky enough to get on that) called WEB water and that cost is about half of what I quoted for our water. Electricity varies but is generally around 6 cents per kwh. Usually there are incentives for dual heat systems which get you down to 2 cents per kwh for electric heating purposes. #2 heating fuel oil is 98 cents per gallon delivered with a 5 % discount if you pay in five days. Gasoline is currently $1.15 per gallon for regular. I am not sure what propane cost is. We only have a small tank for a heater in the basement and have only filled it once a couple of years ago. When we get propane for our gas grill we pay about $6.50 for a small tank. I don't know how many gallons those tanks are. Real estate taxes in Brown County for us are $670 for 59 acres with a four bedroom farm home built in the 1920s and a dairy barn, hog barn, grainery (used for a garage), brooder house, chicken coop and a separate two stall garage. Oh, I forgot the outhouse too! Hard to tell with wages. I am not sure what to compare them to. There is good fishing, hunting, and people in South Dakota. Oh and milk is about $2.89 - $3.29 a gallon depending on the brand you buy. The big stores in Aberdeen sell their store brand for less on sale. Smaller towns are more expensive because of the location I suppose. Our grocery store here is part of one owned by a store in Aberdeen so we don't suffer too much. A lot of people just go shopping in Aberdeen but I don't think a person saves a whole lot because you have to pay for the gas to get there. Our rule is that if it is $2.00 cheaper in Aberdeen and we have the extra time, then off to Aberdeen we go to buy it. Most often we shop in Groton.

-- JoAnn in SD (floosie_61@yahoo.com), January 07, 2002.

Well we live 21 miles southeast of Aberdeen near the small town of Stratford. We have our house up for sale right now. It is a old farmhouse we have remodeled. It has 4 bedrooms and 1 1/2 bath. We have a barn with fenced in pasture and an old grainery we use as a chicken coop and storage. We just planted over 400 trees, rasberries, and apples. If you want anymore info just let me know. Tracy

-- Tracy (slance@nvc.net), January 07, 2002.