Coeur D'Alene - Affordable Towns within Commuting Distance (Post Falls, Hayden: for sale, condos)

[gonga]

My husband has been offered a job in Coeur D'Alene. We would like to keep housing costs to 200,000 or under. Are there towns within commuting distance where we would be able to find a condo or house within our budget? Many thanks for the help.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Houses in Post Falls are considerable less expensive and it is an easy commute and plenty of shopping and other life necessities available. I don't think you can find anything under $200,000 except a mobile home and that might possible not be finance-able. Or maybe a fixer-upper, but if a fixer-upper is in really bad shape, then it is a bit difficult to finance that, too.


You would have much better luck if you could raise your price to $250,000.


Actually for $250,000 you could probably find a house in Coeur d'Alene as long as you can make due with an older house that only has one bathroom.


Rathdrum is a bit cheaper than Post Falls. The commute is much longer and much more time consuming. Shopping is quite adequate for day to day living, but you would be going into Coeur d'Alene or Post Falls for bigger shopping


I took a quick look and did see two different condos in Post Falls for under $200,000. In CDA, there are mobile homes that look to be in good shape.

[volosong]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

Rathdrum is a bit cheaper than Post Falls. The commute is much longer and much more time consuming. Shopping is quite adequate for day to day living, but you would be going into Coeur d'Alene or Post Falls for bigger shopping.

Personally, I wouldn't call the commute between Rathdrum and CdA "much longer and much more time consuming". You are right about the shopping though.

I live in Rathdrum and seem to get back to Hayden/CdA multiple times a week. For filling up with gasoline at Costco, and the obligatory stop at Black Sheep next door. My gym is in Hayden as well as my favorite bicycle shop. My church is in Dalton Gardens and the car wash, (with a monthly subscription), is right across the street from the supermarket I patronize. Don't get south of the freeway often, other than stopping at Staples for those needs.

The drive for me, and I pretty much keep to the maximum speed limit or just under, is between ten and fifteen minutes. Going across the empty prairie, I see the commute as peaceful, serene, and not tiresome at all. Maybe that is because I just love looking at our mountains. I know long-time locals complain about the traffic on 95, but the only time it bugs me is when the slow-moving, loaded semi-trucks run in both lanes. Next to impossible to get around them.

Post Falls has nothing for me and the only time I go there is when I need to hop on the freeway headed west. The latest word is that construction on highway 41 is due to commence next summer. That will take it to a four-lane highway and will aid greatly in moving traffic. (Correction: I do go to PF several times in the winter because there is an indoor shooting range across the street from WallyWorld.)

From what I'm seeing, the cost differential of housing between PF and Rathdrum is quickly disappearing. I wouldn't be surprised in the least that I'll still be alive when the only way you can tell you went from one city to the other was because you crossed Hayden Avenue.

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p.s. Off topic, but worth passing on to those driving on the prairie. Be aware that the Rathdrum police heavily patrol Lancaster Road between 41 and Meyers Road. This is the same street where KTEC is located. It is a fast, wide-open road surrounded by farmland, (except for the schools), but only has a 35 MPH speed limit. The police "hide" in the trees and you won't see them until you are almost upon them. Usually one of their white Explorers. Keep to 35 on that road, it is very, very easy to want to go faster. It is an unusual week when I don't see them there at least once during the week. (And I thank them for patrolling. People drive too fast on that road.)

[Shaner]

Originally Posted by DCCougar

That really reduces the possibilities. Check out zillow.com. You can put in your price, number of bedrooms, etc. and see what's there.....

please don't tell people to use Zillow. Biggest headache of my job. LOL Idaho is a non-disclosure state, so a good chunk of Zillows info is wrong because it is 3rd and 4th party. Having a huge fiasco with them now regarding wrong info and false advertising.

Use realtor.com in Idaho, it is always right =)

[happygrrrl]

What about Wallace? I think it’s around 40 miles north of CdA off I-90. That might be a stretch in winter, but it’s a cute town and I’ve looked up houses for sale in that area. They seem reasonable. But, I live in WA so I’m sure a local could say more.

[banjomike]

Wallace is a superfund site.

[redwood66]

Originally Posted by happygrrrl

What about Wallace? I think it’s around 40 miles north of CdA off I-90. That might be a stretch in winter, but it’s a cute town and I’ve looked up houses for sale in that area. They seem reasonable. But, I live in WA so I’m sure a local could say more.

Wallace can be a difficult commute in the winter. A relative of a coworker was killed in an accident on one of the big turns on black ice a few years ago.

[happygrrrl]

Originally Posted by banjomike

Wallace is a superfund site.

Well, so is Butte, MT, and a lot of other places. Not too many “pure” places anywhere, I would think.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by happygrrrl

Well, so is Butte, MT, and a lot of other places. Not too many “pure” places anywhere, I would think.

"Pure" is relative, and choosing Butte as a comparison is extreme. Superfund sites are rare, but most of them in the west are to be found in old mining towns, and Butte's copper mines were the largest in the nation, so their contamination was the worst of all. I doubt Wallace can be compared to Butte, nor can any other similar site to Wallace in the mountain west.

Since I don't live there, I don't keep careful tabs on what's been done with the superfund over the years. The cleanup has progressed, and that's the limit of my knowledge about it.

Another fact is Wallace is far from being an abandoned ghost town. There are lots of folks who live there and love their little city.

But since ignorance is never a good thing when a person is thinking of such a life-changing event as moving to a new state, I believed the superfund should be mentioned.

I don't mean to discourage or encourage anyone to move to Idaho. Really a lot of the folks who visit the forum know very little about my home state.

I just want to inform folks as best I can about what's here (or not) to help them make an informed decision.

[nm9stheham]

FWIW..... There is a small super-fund site 4-5 miles from my house but you would never know it. The testing of local groundwater has given vague, inconclusive results for decades, and there are no phalanxes of abandoned houses there, so the term 'super-fund' can be misleading. In a thread about Island Park, someone mentioned ongoing ground water problems to me, but my research of the matter showed up nothing extraordinary. I kinda felt that the mention of it without perspective was a disservice to the area for the casual reader of this site who did not examine the matter it like I did.



Since there is so much variation in the meaning of 'super-fund site', IMHO mentioning it would be better if there was some supporting perspective of how long, the specifics of the site, is the clean-up finished, etc,, or at least with a statement like "I don't know if it is any real issue here or not". Love Canal NY is one thing.... but many super-fund sites are not anything like that.