Spokane Washington or North Idaho

F

FALFire

New member
Does anyone here live in the Spokane or Coeur d' Alene areas?

Wife and I are considering relocating to that area in the near future but I have no idea of what we are in for. Things like taxes, I understand there is a state wage tax and sales tax in Idaho. Is Washington State tax equal to or less than the Idaho system? What areas might be better suited for jobs vs the other?

How about winter road travel? Road conditions when the snow season hits, are the roads in the outlaying areas maintained, or are we on our own?

My wife and I really like the areas up around Chewelah, Cusick and Newport. Could anyone tell me what the general population is like along with the hunting and access. We are getting real tired of all the liberals here on the wetside and looking to buy up a few acres to retire on.

Any suggestions or ideas would help, what are your experiences.

Muchas Gracious /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
FALFire,
Although I donot live in Spokane I went to college there, and worked for the Forest service out of Newport for 3 seasons. As far as taxes go, from what I have gathered, they are less in Washington when you consider the Idaho state income tax. But I am no expert. As far as Newport and Cusick go the economy is really struggling up there, you would most likely commute to Spokane for work,40 miles.
In my opinion, You would be better off moving to Idaho, just because the hunting is just that much better. Longer seasons, more either sex type hunts, the use of baiting and hounds, and most important no West side liberalls jamming their agenda down your throat.
Matt
 
FALFIRE: i'm over 100 miles west of where you are talking about, but you said that any suggestions would be helpful.

in general, the spokane area (elevation, i believe, is 2300 to 2400 feet) gets more severe winters than the columbia basin. several lakes there are known for ice fishing, whereas central basin lakes might not freeze over (or not thick enough).

look up "accuweather.com" and type in "newport, wa". scroll down the left side of the page to the brown-colored area, and click on "past year." the screen that pops up will show you both long-term temperature averages (for spokane, though, not newport) as well as day-to-day temperatures for the past year.

newspaper web sites: browsing web sites such as the spokesman-review in spokane, may give you snippets of useful info now and then.

any web/traffic cameras you can find in the spokane area might be a bit useful.

phoning chamber of commerce offices may be worthwhile, although chambers are going to tell you about all good things and nothing adverse. small-town chambers may be manned only part-time.

i realize this is not a heck of a lot of info for you, but hopefully every little bit helps.
 
I was born and raised in Coeur d'Alene (have lived in Boise for the last 6 years), so I think I can give some insight.
First off, for the winter, the snow around Coeur d'Alene isn't really bad, especially in the last 12 years. The last good snow was in the winter of 92. The bad news first - a "normal" winter like 92 you will see about 25-30 degree temps average, and about 3-4 feet of snow over the whole winter, wich sounds worse than it is - it melts away several times over the season. Lately, it has been a few inches, then melts and repeats again. Not really too bad, some ice to deal with when traveling (they are good about sanding/de-icing the roads). By outlying areas, it just depends on where you are...some get plowed earlier than others, and if it continues to snow they will only plow the main roads to keep them open. If you have a vehicle that handles well in snow with good tires, then there isn't really too much of a problem. The snow gets MUCH worse the farther north that you progress, i.e Cusik/Newport/Preist River.
The deer season around Newport/Preist Lake is the month of November and is awesome hunting - there are deer all over the place - and it is either sex for white tails (bucks only on Mulies). Access is really good since most of the land is USFS. The brush is really thick, so any clearcuts, logging roads, skidder trails, etc are where you will usually get them. Lots of lakes for fishing and waterfowling. This is pretty much the norm for North Idaho. Elk seem harder to find around the Preist lake area, but some are there as well as turkeys, moose and black bear, and if you go far enough north you may see caribou, wolves and grizzlys. If you bought your own parcel of land (like 20 acres or more) you could have your own hunting paradise.

Economics: I do not know what you do for a living, but you may want to try to locate a job first, and find a couple of cost of living calulators online to compare with where you are now. You may end up working in Spokane or the Spokane valley, so commute time (especially in snow), and fuel costs may be a consideration.
I really can't answer the question about taxes between WA/ID. Sure WA doesn't have income tax, but what are the property taxes? cost to hunt?, etc. Not having the liberal coast rule the rest of the state is a huge bonus IMHO.

A good idea would to be make a trip over to check it out in late January/February with the wife so she can see what it is like in the winter.
Good Luck on your choice.
 
Thank's guy's for the info. The winter snow could be a concern so we would keep it closer towards Spokane just to reduce the travel time to work places. Plus being over there it's not as far as a drive to hunt as it is on the west side.

I have been looking at some Idaho properties and really would prefer living in Idaho for various reasons. However, professional license contraints may prevent us from moving too deep into Idaho.

I do like the backwoods type living there much more than all the traffic and A**h***S around the Seattle Tacoma area. Having a nice 20 acres seems like a fantasy right now but I'm sure we could pull it off. It would be nice to set up my trap thrower just off the back deck. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Anyone else with any ideas or advice???
 
Back
Top