Looking to get to know Idaho (Boise, Idaho Falls: insurance, low crime, how much)

[amronjohnson]

We are retired and considering selling our home in Washington and moving to Idaho. Must haves for a location are: 1) within one hour drive to a good hospital; 2) rural area with a couple of acres but close to a small town.

We want to narrow down a couple of locations before we make a trip to start looking. We want a quiet place outside of a small town but not too far (1-2 hrs) from a larger city.

Boise? Coeur D'Alene? We don't need a lot of city life, night life, etc. My husband is an outdoors man and I'd like some shopping, movies, restaurants not too far. Grocery store near. Quiet life, low crime and not Washington State!

Any thoughts or suggestions?

thanks

[banjomike]

Before you become serious about moving and buying a place here, I suggest you begin spending some time here first.

You really need to spend some time living here and touring around before you make a big commitment to moving.
Idaho is a lot, lot more than only Coeur d'Alene or Boise. It's also one of the hottest states in the nation that many folks who want exactly what you want are looking over right now.

How many? I honestly don't know. A lot, from the growth I've seen in my own home town, which has nearly doubled in size in less than a decade.

Since you are so close by, you need to really check Idaho out as much as you can, even if it's only a day or two at a time.

Your wish list can still be filled here, I think, but you will have to hunt much harder to fill it than it would have taken 20 years ago.

[NW Crow]

Unless you say otherwise, I'll assume "good hospitals" are in cities over 100k population.

"Larger cities" are either that or bigger?

"Small town" can mean 500-1000 people to some 5-10k for others.

Always helpful defining these things, if you care to.

Not knowing these criteria or housing budget for you and guessing, I'll begin with these suggestions:

Bonners Ferry, Priest River, Spirit Lake, Rathdrum, St. Maries, Wallace, Plummer, Potlatch, Juliaetta / Kendrick, Midvale, Fruitland, Emmett, Shoshone, Hansen, Oakley, McCammon, Ririe and Ashton.

Near town size, distance to larger city, amount of snow, other criteria... pick some places to research, eliminate some, continue to others if the first ones fail for some reasons, fixing the failure in the next candidate.

[dcisive]

What I can tell you is due to personal experience with them and others I know who have dealt with them, the #1 hospital in the State of Idaho is without question St. Alphonse in Boise as it is the most highly capable for trauma and Cardio emergencies. 2nd would be the hospital in Idaho Falls for similar needs. Lastly but not lacking much is St. Lukes in Twin Falls who has been upgrading it's capabilities over the last 2 years as well. An honorable mention would certainly go to Madison Hospital in Rexburg. My wife had some really serious back surgery there and the folks there were amazing both in the level of performance as well as after surgery care. Other than those mentioned they are merely going to be basic levels of capabilities. Living in more remote areas is not as risky as it once was. A close friend of mine had a heart attack recently and was life flighted to the Twin Falls St. Lukes in just over 5 minutes, where a drive would be about 35 minutes. Quite remarkable. It saved his life to be sure.

[banjomike]

Ifeither one of you has some chronic bad health, you don't want to live an hour away from a hospital here.

Our winters can make that hour a full day or more before you can make the drive.

If you are planning this to be a retirement move, then you need to think about whether 2 acres is a necessity for your retirement. That may be too much to take care of easily, but not enough to do much farming with.
That's not to say that you couldn't farm on it, but that much land could become more trouble than pleasure for you.

These are only some of the reasons why I suggest coming over here a lot before you make a decision. Living in Washington gives you a lot of advantages in that; there have been lots of folks who have moved here without really knowing anything at all about life in Idaho and have had a very rough time adjusting.

We always hear much more from those coming in on this forum than from those who are leaving and going back to where they came from.

[NW Crow]

How much work on a couple acres will depend on land cover, climate, improvements, diligence, equipment, etc.

Might be about to get help with some things. Availability and price will vary.

Life flight insurance is an option but check on actual availability and all the details on approval protocol / using before purchasing.

[Syringaloid]

The Boise hospitals are by far the finest in the state and are nationally ranked. St. Alphonsus and St. Lukes.

[ejisme]

Finding 2 acres in a desirable location is getting harder to do. More info on what you are looking for would be helpful to point you in the right direction. Otherwise we might recommend the desert vs. trees, flat plains vs. Mt Vistas, harsher vs. milder winter weather, $$$$ vs. $$, etc. Do you just want 2 acres as a buffer from neighbors, or do you see yourself wanting chickens and goats, etc. There is a lot of topographical variability to Idaho, so knowing what you want will help us direct you to areas you should visit. Housing budget is important too. We might recommend 2 acres outside of Sun Valley, or 2 acres outside of Buhl, for example.

[amronjohnson]

Well, thanks to everyone for their responses. I guess I wasn't specific enough because we really don't know much about the various areas in Idaho and agree....we plan to take a trip and spend some time there before buying but were hoping to narrow down to a couple of areas.

We currently live in Enumclaw, WA, not too far from the mountains. We are in the Cascade foothills. We have five acres and are about 5 miles from the little town of Enumclaw, population about 12,000. It's a close knit little town with large grocery stores, breweries, little shops but not much more. That said, we are 30-45 minutes from major stores like Costco, and 40 minutes to an hour to hospitals.

Our property is on a private road, somewhat secluded and definitely private with all neighbors having at least 5 acres if not more between us. We know our neighbors and everyone kind of looks out for one another but keep to themselves and it's just quiet seclusion.

We do have four chickens and the property is set up for horses but we just have our chickens and the dog.

So, as much as we love it here and this is the perfect place for us....five acres is getting a bit much to maintain and Washington politics has pushed us straight out of our comfort zone.

We'd like to find something similar in Idaho. Somewhere with fairly moderate winters, warm summers are great. It really doesn't have to be a couple acres but the land really is a buffer and desire for privacy and peace and quiet so less land would be fine if the set up met those needs.

We are aware it's getting hard and a lot of people are making a run for Idaho and other states where sanity still exists and we may have waited too long but I thought it was worth looking into. We don't need to be right next to a hospital but just somewhere close because we are in our late 60s.

So, in order to come spend some time, we'd like to narrow the field somewhat. maybe try out a town or two. Budget wise would be dependent on what we get for our place but right now let's say we'd hope to spend 5 or 600k, thought that is very flexible. We could go a bit more or a bit less. We don't need to farm. We don't need a lot of animals. We just want privacy, peach and quiet, and still close enough to shop, go to the movies or bowl, hike, and enjoy outdoors.

I don't know if that helps or makes it worse but I appreciate the consideration from those of you who have lived there and are more familiar.

[Clark Fork Fantast]

If you're in Enumclaw, the easiest first step would be a long weekend road trip to North Idaho. It's about a 6 hour-drive from where you are (scenic route on Highway 2, and fast route on 90). I would go to Sandpoint first, and spend at least two days exploring the area on Highway 95 from Sandpoint to Bonners Ferry, and Highway 200 along Lake Pend Oreille from Sandpoint over to Clark Fork (Montana border) and back. Distances are really short, so you can accomplish that easily in two days, but if I were you I'd spend the entire weekend looking into the small towns around Sandpoint. But if you think you have gotten a sufficient impression of the area after 2 days, you could move on south on 95 past Coeur d'Alene (because that market is probably so hot right now that the peace and quiet you're looking for might be hard to come by!) and check out St. Maries. You could go out on Hwy 2 and come home on Hwy 90.

Rural properties in North Idaho are generally at least 5 acres. Within the city limits you can find smaller parcels. Your "quiet seclusion" matches many neighborhoods I'm familiar with--definitely our own in Clark Fork, 25 miles from Sandpoint.