Homes on the parkLiving on the park.
- Homes178 in the district
- Owners89 percent owner-occupied
- LotsAbout 7,400 square feet
- Median sale$344,600 citywide, Sept 2026
The district
One boulevard, 178 homes.
The McKennan Park Historic District is the park, the houses that face it, and the 21st Street boulevard, the city's only one left. Listed on the National Register in 1984. Two thirds of the houses went up between 1910 and 1929, for bank presidents, judges and physicians, by the city's best architects: Georgian, Tudor and Dutch Colonial Revival, Prairie School, Mediterranean, most in stucco.
The listing is an honor, not a rulebook. It places no restrictions on a private owner using private money.
By the numbers
| Homes | 178 residential parcels: 169 single-family, 7 two-family |
|---|---|
| Owners | 89 percent owner-occupied |
| Lots | Typically 7,400 square feet on a 50-foot frontage |
| Streets | 21st Street has 51 of the homes; 1st Avenue 36; 5th Avenue 23; Phillips 20 |
| ZIP | 57105 |
City of Sioux Falls GIS, October 2026.
Seven houses to look for
Landmarks of the district.
Private homes, photographed for the 1983 National Register survey. Please look from the sidewalk.
The district's oldest building, Italianate, home of Mayor Burre Lien. A later owner turned the front door to the boulevard; the hitching post is still on 2nd Avenue.
Robert Perkins's early commission for his brother Edwin, the physician at Helen McKennan's deathbed and a founder of the hospital.
Perkins and McWayne. Stucco and red tile; the nomination's rare Sioux Falls Mediterranean example.
A bank president's Tudor Revival, among the finest in the city.
Leonard Boyce. Tudor Revival facing the park's east side.
Lieutenant Governor Sioux K. Grigsby's home 1928 to 1976, across from the site of his father's house inside the park.
Harold Spitznagel. Flemish-bond Georgian Revival with oversized quoins and an eyebrow window.
What it costs
The numbers that exist.
| Median sale | $344,600 citywide, September 2026. District homes are larger and older than the median and sell above it; an agent can pull the comparables |
|---|---|
| Property tax | About 13.7 mills owner-occupied. File the owner-occupied form with the county by March 15 |
| Income tax | None in South Dakota |
| Boulevard | Homes on 21st pay a small assessment for the planted median, since 1915 |
Out the front door
What comes with the house.
- Free concerts every summer Monday, a free pool, eight lit tennis courts, a rink in winter.
- A paved loop under the elms; garlands on the boulevard from November to spring.
- The Friends of McKennan Park: the June rummage sale, the August potluck, a say in the park's plans.
- Downtown twelve blocks north. Avera McKennan Hospital at the northeast corner.
The investment case
The numbers, not the pitch.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency publishes a house price index for the ZIP code, the county and the metro. The Census Bureau publishes the tract. The city publishes every parcel. Put together, they say one thing: this is the scarcest housing in a city that has grown 10.9 percent since 2020 with the lowest unemployment of any large metro in the country.
Price appreciation, by geography
Federal Housing Finance Agency house price indexes, built from repeat sales of the same homes. ZIP and county series are annual through 2025; metro, state and national are quarterly through the second quarter of 2026. All-transactions, not seasonally adjusted.
| Area | 5 yr | 10 yr | 15 yr | 20 yr | 25 yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZIP 57105, the park's ZIP | +43.6% | +89.7% | +108.8% | +120.8% | +166.4% |
| ZIP 57104, downtown and north | +55.1% | +104.3% | +134.0% | +142.0% | +192.0% |
| ZIP 57103, east side | +46.6% | +86.0% | +104.4% | +116.1% | +156.6% |
| ZIP 57106, southwest | +42.9% | +79.3% | +98.6% | +106.2% | +144.8% |
| ZIP 57108, south, newest | +38.2% | +66.2% | +80.3% | +85.5% | +118.2% |
| Minnehaha County | +45.5% | +84.5% | +104.5% | +115.9% | +158.4% |
| Sioux Falls metro | +36.3% | +87.7% | +120.6% | +128.4% | +179.3% |
| South Dakota | +41.1% | +90.2% | +124.0% | +137.3% | +204.3% |
| United States | +41.3% | +93.3% | +132.9% | +93.5% | +186.0% |
The pattern that matters is the 20-year column. The country gained 93 percent because it fell by a quarter in 2007 to 2011. The park's ZIP gained 121 percent because it did not: its annual index has never posted a down decade since the series began in 1977. The old central neighborhoods, 57104 and 57105, have outgrown the newer south side, 57108, on every horizon.
The district against the city
Census tract 16, which holds the district and the blocks around it, against the City of Sioux Falls. American Community Survey 2019 to 2023.
| Home value | $310,300 median, against $271,400 citywide |
|---|---|
| Income | $108,867 median household, against $74,714 |
| Owners | 82% of occupied homes owner-occupied, against 60%; 89% inside the district line |
| Vacancy | 0.9%, against 4.9% |
| Built | Median 1938, against 1992 |
| Rent burden | 16.7% of income, against 25.7% |
Why it holds
- Supply is fixed. 178 homes, nine in ten owner-occupied, inside a line drawn in 1984. Nothing new can be built facing the park.
- Demand is not. The city grew 10.9% from 2020 to 2025, about 2% a year, and Lincoln County on its south edge grew 18.4%, the fastest in the state. July 2026 unemployment was 1.9%, the lowest of 113 large metros.
- The carry is light. No state income tax. Property tax on a $350,000 owner-occupied home runs about $4,570 a year, a 1.31% effective rate. Housing costs index at 76 against a national 100.
- Historic districts carry a premium. A peer-reviewed study of Texas cities found historic designation associated with values 5 to 20 percent higher, with spillover to neighboring homes (Leichenko, Coulson and Listokin, Urban Studies 38, 2001). The listing here costs an owner nothing.
- The market is tight, not frothy. September 2026 citywide: 219 closings, median $344,600, 81 days on market, 3.8 months of supply with inventory down 25.7% on the year, sellers getting 97.3% of list.
Read it honestly
- FHFA indexes track repeat sales of homes with conforming mortgages; the ZIP and county series are developmental and annual. The district has too few sales in any year for a price series of its own.
- Tract 16 is larger than the district: about 1,400 homes to the district's 178. The district itself sits above the tract on ownership and age.
- Ten years of 6 to 7 percent compounding is a record, not a promise. The metro index dipped in 2008 to 2011; the ZIP's annual index flattened to +0.2 percent in 2025.
- Older houses carry older systems. Budget for the roof, the knob-and-tube that may remain, and the 1920s sewer lateral.
Sources: Federal Housing Finance Agency, House Price Index master file and annual ZIP5 and county developmental indexes, October 2026; U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 five-year, tract 46099001600; City of Sioux Falls GIS; REALTOR Association of the Sioux Empire via SiouxFalls.Business, October 8, 2026; Bureau of Labor Statistics; C2ER cost of living index Q3 2025.
Around the park
Everything within a mile.
Distances are straight lines from the center of the park. Schools are the assigned attendance areas from the city's GIS.
Schools
| Elementary | Susan B. Anthony, 2000 S. Dakota Ave., 0.4 mi, the assigned school |
|---|---|
| Middle | Patrick Henry, 2200 S. 5th Ave., 0.5 mi, the assigned school |
| High | Lincoln, 2900 S. Cliff Ave., 1.0 mi, the assigned school |
| Catholic | St. Mary Elementary, 2000 S. 4th Ave., 0.3 mi; O'Gorman High School, 2.3 mi |
| District | Sioux Falls School District 49-5: 44 schools, about 23,900 students, $343 million budget for 2027 with seven added elementary teachers |
| Colleges | Augustana University, 0.7 mi, 2,548 students, a record; University of Sioux Falls, 0.8 mi; USD Sanford School of Medicine moving fully to Sioux Falls |
Health care
| Avera McKennan | 0.6 mi. 572-bed hospital at the park's northeast corner, founded by the same 1906 will; a $245 million expansion adds 158 beds |
|---|---|
| Sanford USD | 1.1 mi. 545-bed medical center and Sanford Children's Hospital, headquarters of a 60,000-employee system |
| Two systems | Both headquartered in town; health care is the one cost category where Sioux Falls runs above the national average, at 106 |
Food
| Food co-op | Co-op Natural Foods, 410 W. 18th St., 0.6 mi, the member-owned grocery |
|---|---|
| Downtown grocer | Pomegranate Market at Cherapa Place, 1.3 mi, natural foods |
| Farmers market | Falls Park Farmers Market, Saturdays May to October, 42 vendors in 2026; winter market twice a month |
| Restaurants | Downtown's Phillips Avenue and the Minnesota Avenue corridor two blocks west; the Burger Battle every January |
Getting around
| Downtown | 1.0 mi north: Phillips Avenue, the Washington Pavilion, the downtown library at 200 N. Dakota Ave., 1.3 mi |
|---|---|
| Falls Park | 1.8 mi. The 19-mile Big Sioux River greenway loop runs past it; 36 miles of paved trail in the city |
| Bus | Sioux Area Metro on Minnesota Avenue, $1.50 a ride, free on summer Fridays; On Demand citywide |
| Airport | 3.4 mi. 1.5 million passengers in 2025, nonstops to Denver, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, Atlanta and Minneapolis; 12-gate concourse due 2027 |
| Arena | Denny Sanford Premier Center, 2.5 mi; Summit League basketball every March |
And the park
Twenty acres across the street: a 1926 band shell with free concerts every summer Monday, a free wading pool, eight lit tennis courts, a playground, horseshoes, a winter rink, and the formal gardens the Friends keep planted.
For sale
A handful a year.
Nine in ten homes are owner-occupied, so few list. Draw the district on the portals: 21st to 26th Street, Phillips to 5th Avenue.
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