Touring new and prospective residents around our beautiful city is one of the favorite parts of my career. Born and raised in the metro area, I have an innate bias, but how can you not be pretty dang proud of the impressive growth our city has seen in the past 20 years.
Sioux Falls has proven to be the land of opportunity for so many, and the Arc of Dreams is an absolute must on my community tours to illustrate that point in such a massive and spectacular way. The leap of faith dreamers take to make their dreams come true is what has made Sioux Falls what it is today.
Photo by Michael Woolheater Photography
Two of my clients, Tom and Karly Rychlik, relocated here from Denver to embrace our ample opportunity and open a CrossFit gym. They lived in a beautiful area of Denver filled with fabulous friends, they had great connections and jobs, but the opportunity for starting a business was getting harder each day because of the lighting speed of growth and lack of tax advantages.
The vibe had changed too. Karly told me recently that while they were in Sioux Falls on their home-shopping trip, they made several trips to the grocery store and were greeted there and nearly everywhere they went with friendly, smiling faces. When she returned home, she carried on the same “Sioux Falls Smiles” energy and was not met with the same reaction.
Their experience with their gym startup has been aligned with the same lovely Sioux Falls kindness and helpfulness. Tom shared with me that they had friends from Denver visit over the Labor Day holiday and their friends were smitten with Sioux Falls: The breweries, the restaurants, the sights — they loved it. Guys, they were from Denver, the home of breweries, restaurants and sights — that is a big high five, Sioux Falls.
To learn more about the CrossFit gym coming to Tea, click here and type “gym” in the message section.
The Rychliks are far from the only ones who come to Sioux Falls to seek their dream and quickly feel anything is possible here. The energy of opportunity of the Arc of Dreams always reminds me of 4-year-old Caden, a member of my extended family, who was watching a TV show that emphasized you can be anything you want to be. When his mom, Erin, saw him watching intently, she asked what he thought he’d want to be, and he responded — brimming with confidence — “Well, I am thinking I want to be a horse!”
When it comes to real estate, big dreams still can come true — even those you might think are out of reach.
Shifts in the real estate market and fears of the dreaded “R” word have not stopped opportunity-seekers looking to relocate. In fact, we personally have seen an upswing. Nor has it swayed the majority of those who already live here who have had a life change and need to move up, down or out.
While interest rates have stabilized to pre-pandemic levels, the latest projections expect rates to hover in the low to mid-5 percent range for a while and then likely drop to the high 4 percent range by next year.
One of my lender partners has a saying I love: “Marry your house. Date your rate.” It is so true. Home prices will continue to rise. According to the Realtor Association of the Sioux Empire, the Sioux Falls metro area has a more than 17 percent increase in home prices year over year. Waiting on a rate change will cost you thousands as home prices will continue to rise.
Our real estate market is currently in a state of deceleration, which means prices are still going up, or appreciating, just not at the white-hot levels we have seen since mid-2020. This has created opportunity for buyers to secure a home without the recent breakneck speed and competitive multiple offer situations, while also still allowing for fabulous equity payouts for sellers in our market. We have seen the normal seasonal shift that we could depend on pre-COVID that occurred right before school starts and Labor Day, when we experience lower-under-contract counts, but that is changing quickly.
Source: CoreLogic
Opportunity abounds on our sweet slice of heaven, and you can be anything you want to be here. Just take the leap. As always, I would love to be your Lifetime Home Support partner. If you want a comprehensive tour of our beautiful city, I have a great place to take you to. 🙂
