Is new siding worth it? The real return on a siding job in South Dakota

A Sioux Falls homeowner on Reddit got a few siding quotes and summed up the whole feeling in two words: “because ouch.” Another said a neighbor’s LP job came in “around $35k. That seems insane to me.”

It’s a lot of money. So it’s fair to ask whether you get it back.

The honest answer: mostly, yes, but less than the national articles say. Here’s the real data for our part of the country.

What the numbers say for our region

Every year Remodeling magazine (now published by Zonda) runs the Cost vs Value report. It asks real estate agents in each market what a given project adds to a home’s resale value, then compares that to what the job costs.

South Dakota is in the report’s West North Central region, along with Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, Kansas and Missouri. Here’s how siding compares with the other projects people usually weigh it against:

A garage door and a front door get back more than they cost, but they’re $2,000 to $5,000 jobs. Among the big-ticket projects, siding is near the top of the list. It beats a kitchen refresh, a bath, windows and a roof.

Why our numbers run lower than the national ones

If you’ve read that siding “pays for itself,” you probably read the national figures. Here’s the same report, three ways:

Rapid City is the only South Dakota market in the report. Sioux Falls isn’t broken out.

Two things are going on. The job costs a little more in our region ($23,470 for fiber cement against $21,485 nationally). And homes cost less: Sioux Falls’ median owner-occupied home value was $332,600 in the 2024 Census estimate, against $360,600 nationally (Census Reporter). The same project is a bigger slice of a cheaper house, so it moves the sale price less.

Bottom line: in South Dakota, plan on siding getting most of its cost back at sale, not all of it. If somebody tells you it’s an investment that’ll make you money, they’re quoting a national number.

The return no chart shows

Cost vs Value measures one thing: what an agent thinks the house will sell for. It doesn’t count what failing siding costs you while you live there.

Cracked or warped siding lets water in behind it. In South Dakota that water freezes, pushes the gap wider and comes back the next thaw. Give it a few winters and you’re looking at:

• Rotted sheathing and framing, which turns a siding job into a carpentry job
• Mold in the wall cavity, usually found when someone opens the wall for something else
• An inspection report that hands the buyer a price cut, because nobody’s going to guess low on what’s behind bad siding

None of that’s in an ROI chart, but it’s the main reason most people re-side. In the 2025 NAR Remodeling Impact Report, the No. 1 reason homeowners gave for remodeling was upgrading worn-out materials (27%). Selling within two years came in at only 18% (NAR/NARI, 2025).

And it’s a lot of houses. About 31% of the homes in Sioux Falls were built before 1980 (Census ACS 2024, table B25034). Plenty of them still have the original siding, or the cheap vinyl that went on over it in the ’90s.

Hail changes the math

South Dakota had 232 major hail events in 2025, seventh in the nation. Just this September 1, the National Weather Service documented hail up to 2.75 inches across southeast South Dakota and northwest Iowa, and it posted a photo of torn-up siding near Pickstown (NWS Sioux Falls).

That matters for ROI in two ways:

1. Material choice pays off over time. Thin vinyl that cracks in a storm costs you the deductible and the hassle every few years. A tougher siding costs more once. Which siding holds up best out here goes through the options.
2. Insurance doesn’t always cover the whole house. One Sioux Falls homeowner said they were “only given the option to do 2 sides of my house by insurance.” If the old siding’s discontinued, you end up with two colors and a resale problem. If that’s where you are, our storm and hail repair page explains how the process usually goes.

When it’s worth it, and when it isn’t

Usually worth it:

• The siding’s cracked, warped, soft or missing pieces
• You’re staying five years or more, so you’ll actually use the energy and maintenance savings
• You’ve got hail damage and you’re paying a deductible either way
• It’s ugly enough that it’s dragging down the whole house (that’s real, it’s called curb appeal)

Probably not worth it:

• It’s sound and just dated, and you’re listing in the spring. Paint, a new front door and a power-wash will do more per dollar.
• You’d be borrowing at a high rate for a purely cosmetic change

Get more out of the job while the wall’s open

If you’re re-siding anyway, that’s the cheapest time you’ll ever have to add rigid foam insulation to the walls. The Department of Energy’s Building America program calls re-siding “an excellent opportunity to install continuous rigid insulation over the walls” (PNNL). We won’t quote you a percentage off your bill, because nobody honestly can without testing the house. But in a place where it hits 20 below, warmer walls are worth pricing.

One more thing: in Sioux Falls, re-siding needs a building permit and a licensed contractor (City of Sioux Falls). If a quote doesn’t mention the permit, ask.

Want to see the numbers for your house? We’ll measure it, price two or three materials side by side, and tell you straight if we think it can wait. Start on our siding page, or if you’re already leaning toward a new look, see the siding colors going up this year.