Hi Helen:

Thank you for your question. I am a real estate agent in Rapid City. I can't speak with facts about Sioux Falls, but I can address things in Rapid City.

We have been enjoying a steady, stable market here in Rapid City and the Black Hills. Home prices have continued to rise for the past 3 years. I ran a report on residential homes sold for the past 3 years, and we have been averaging around 3% growth per year. This has continued even though the number of sales has been down and days on market has extended by 10 days in the past year. In the past 30 days, there have been 547 total new listings and 213 listings sold (commercial and residential - MLS wide) . So things are definitely moving right along. New homes and residential developments are being built all over the place.

New retail developments are also under way. Cabela's is working on getting a new building up, and a new retail center with big names like Bed, Bath, and Beyond and a bigger Scheels Sporting Goods is also in process.

Ellsworth Air Force Base, located just to the east of Rapid City, has recently acquired a finace center contract, which will bring in some 700 jobs when the phases are complete.

With the above happenings, and the Black Hills attracting second home buyers and retirement buyers, I believe we should continue to see a stable market for some time.

If you would like more detailed stats, I can get those to you. In the meantime...good luck!

Tristan

Wed Mar 19 2008, 15:16