Best PlacesSioux Falls, SD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Sioux Falls metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime read low across the board, which puts the choice down to which part suits you. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Maxpower2727, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Sioux Falls ranks 46th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It earns the spot by being affordable and steady rather than flashy: everyday costs run well below the national average, and crime is low. The trade is noise: the nearest large city and its jobs, flights, and culture are a drive away.
The best neighborhoods in the Sioux Falls metro
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
The best areas in Sioux Falls
The towns and districts of the Sioux Falls metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Tea & Lennox
It is quieter, schools score higher, and crime runs lower.
Harrisburg & Canton
More residents vote, though biking is worse.
Hartford
More households have young kids and incomes run higher.
Brandon & Luverne
Scores close to Hartford, except that prices have run up less here.
Dell Rapids
Local pay stretches further, though streets are more car-dependent.
Downtown Sioux Falls
Scores close to Dell Rapids, except that more homes sit empty here.
Sioux Falls shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 14% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Sioux Falls' strengths and weaknesses
Sioux Falls ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. A strong job market, what local pay buys, and short commutes carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Noise, distance from a big city, and tree cover hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Sioux Falls ranks high
- Local economyBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Short commute18.6 minutes each way, better than 94% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 93% of metro areas
Where Sioux Falls ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 11% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 18% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 35% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 35% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Sioux Falls
A household needs to earn about $86,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sioux Falls home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $90,163, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Sioux Falls' effective rate of 1.07%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Sioux Falls
Sioux Falls runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Sioux Falls.
Who works in Sioux Falls, and how
Work in Sioux Falls centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Sioux Falls
Sioux Falls has more restaurants and bars per resident than 85% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 91% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Sioux Falls and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Sioux Falls growing, and who is moving in?
Sioux Falls has grown about 21% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Rapid City, SD.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Sioux Falls go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Sioux Falls, month by month
Sioux Falls sees roughly 110 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 9. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31° | 19° | 9° |
| April | 62° | 47° | 34° |
| July | 88° | 75° | 62° |
| October | 65° | 50° | 38° |
Flying in and out of Sioux Falls
The nearest airport, Joe Foss Field, is about 4 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Eppley Airfield, about 160 miles away.
The best schools in and around Sioux Falls
Schools across Sioux Falls average a B−, better than 59% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Challenge Center - 51A+ · 80% proficient
- West Lyon Elementary SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
- Sonia Sotomayor Elementary - 65A · 70% proficient
Top middle schools
- West Lyon Junior High SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Brandon Valley Intermediate - 07A− · 54% proficient
- Memorial Middle School - 04A− · 54% proficient
Top high schools
- West Lyon High SchoolA+ · 86% proficient
- Brandon Valley High School - 01A · 68% proficient
- Baltic High School - 01A− · 60% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sioux Falls school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sioux Falls measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Sioux Falls against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Sioux Falls suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 94% of metro areas and 12% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 66% of metro areas and health care access beats 65%.
Common questions about living in Sioux Falls
Is Sioux Falls a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sioux Falls ranks 46th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on a strong job market, what local pay buys, and short commutes, and lowest on noise and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sioux Falls expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $316,631. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $90,163 median income, cost of living beats 94% of metro areas.
Is Sioux Falls safe?
Yes, Sioux Falls is safer than 70% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $327 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Sioux Falls?
July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 31 with lows near 9. That works out to about 110 pleasant days a year, more than 66% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Sioux Falls?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Tea & Lennox, Harrisburg & Canton, and Hartford. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Sioux Falls good for families?
Schools beat 59% of metro areas, crime safety beats 70%, and childcare runs $826 a month.
Is Sioux Falls good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 94% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 56% of metro areas. About 12% of workers already work from home.
Compare Sioux Falls with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sioux Falls. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sioux Falls represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Sioux Falls detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sioux Falls: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sioux Falls: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sioux Falls: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sioux Falls: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sioux Falls detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.