What Percentage of New CDA/Post Falls residents are Programmers from California? (Boise: for sale)

[harrishawke]

It's got to be a lot...Now that major Silicon Valley companies are allowing their developers to work 100% from home, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that they would gladly trade in their 3 Million dollar shack to a lakefront property in Coeur d'Alene.

[banjomike]

The North Idaho panhandle has always had trouble connecting to the internet. The terrain is so hilly and broken up by mountain ranges that reliable satellite links are either costly or impossible.

The population density has always made optical cable hookups in such terrain too costly to be profitable in the past.

But this is now changing in some places. C d'A is close enough to Spokane, a much larger city, and has grown to the size that makes it profitable to lay cable.
So it's quite possible a developer who owns a million-dollar shack could afford to buy a home in C d'A. The housing prices in C d'A are astronomically high, though, and even though they're so high, there's a real shortage of available homes in C d'A.

So your scenario is plausible, but is limited. I'm pretty sure a California developer with the money to spend on a house may not be willing to take whatever he can for an available new house when the only houses that are slow to sell all have some problems. And not all developers own homes in California.

These problems don't exist to the same degree outside the panhandle. The panhandle itself is actually quite small compared to the rest of the state, where the terrain is less challenging.

Though the scenery in the panhandle is undeniably beautiful, it is not unique. It can be found in other areas throughout the state. And living in the panhandle has always been a lifestyle that appeals the most for retirees and folks who want to live in a more socially isolated area that has a lot of physical isolation surrounding everyone.

That isolation can be easily found in the other 2/3 of the state too. But for the young, who are in their prime as developers, city living may have more appeal, where there is greater ability to mingle with others who are the same age and have the same social interests.

All this is why Boise has exploded in population. All of our other cities are growing fast now, but they're all still lagging behind Boise in growth, and now the shortage of available homes for sale is common all over the state.

Boise became the state's high-tech center because it had some major home-grown high-tech facilities Idahoans built first. Local investment made it happen, not Boise's scenic surroundings. The same is true with Idaho Falls and Twin Falls; the locals all made the first investments there, and those investments all attracted larger industries in other states.


So, to answer your question: I am sure the panhandle will keep on growing, but I tend to doubt it will ever become Idaho's major branch of Silicon Valley. Boise is already there, and I tend to think that it will remain as the leader for a long time to come.

But this is only conjecture, and I've quite often been wrong in my predictions. Technology is changing so fast that I tend to think any region's willingness to grow could be the main factor in its growth.

The panhandle is much more than C d'A alone.
But the region is more dependent on C d'A as its leading city than the rest of the state. All our other areas have less dependency on their large cities, possibly because there are more of them.

There are still a lot of regions here who don't want growth. That makes it easier for the places that are eager for it to grow. But Idaho's climate has always been its greatest limiter.

This is a high, dry, cold state to live in, far too rugged to habitate most of it, and far too wild to ever allow lots of roads, railways, and other means of mass transit possible.
Those obstacles have always been met in the past by a community's desire to grow. When a city here wants to grow, it will always find a way. And while the growth may be slower in one city than another, it always comes eventually.

And that makes predictions of which city will grow or not pretty hard to determine.

About the only thing I'm sure of is the entire state will continue to grow for a long, long time to come. The rate of growth may slow down, but since Idaho is still mostly empty, I'm sure it will continue.

[harrishawke]

Good observation, but you really don't need fiber connections to work from home. In fact, since you can pull all the code locally and push them to the Repository when your finished, I'm pretty sure I could do all that with a DSL connection.

[elousv]

917 down and 817 up just now in CDA with TDS.

[pnwguy2]

I think this an important story. Working from home was a “thing” well before the pandemic. Now, it just becomes more entrenched. The tech made it possible, Covid made it inevitable. How this will change society is not completely known but many jobs will be permanently changed here in the 2020’s. This could cause major changes, especially in the larger metros, slowing office construction and spreading more population to smaller cities. I have no crystal ball but I see major cities slowing in the next couple of decades for this reason. Perhaps some smaller metros will gain on the other side. This could be a major sea change in population patterns like has never been seen before.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by harrishawke

Good observation, but you really don't need fiber connections to work from home. In fact, since you can pull all the code locally and push them to the Repository when your finished, I'm pretty sure I could do all that with a DSL connection.

Of course.
But that doesn't mean many other programmers would want to live there or put up with the hassles.
Internet speed is only one problem. There are lots of others that affect quality of life.

But there are always lots of potential benefits in a new place too.
It's all a balance of the wants and needs in any person's life, and anything that can be said to be good or bad can be found anywhere, in all our states.

I'm sure some people are willing to make a life-changing move solely to find work in another state, but I doubt many people want just a new job when they move.

Most folks' lives have many more wants and needs than just working.

it all shifts and changes as a person ages, too. Stuff that is totally important to a 30-year old can be totally un-important by the time the same person turns 50.

[harrishawke]

Let's be honest, the main reason why many people are moving to Idaho is because it's one of the few spots in the country that are still being run well. Unlike Seattle and Portland, the schools are better, and their isn't nearly as much homeless or drug problems. The PNW statistically has lower crime then the rest of the country, and people don't want to raise families in areas were the homicide rates are at all time highs. The prospect of living in an area that has all the benefits of high quality of life (and non of the drawbacks of big cities), is desirable.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by harrishawke

Let's be honest, the main reason why many people are moving to Idaho is because it's one of the few spots in the country that are still being run well. Unlike Seattle and Portland, the schools are better, and their isn't nearly as much homeless or drug problems. The PNW statistically has lower crime then the rest of the country, and people don't want to raise families in areas were the homicide rates are at all time highs. The prospect of living in an area that has all the benefits of high quality of life (and non of the drawbacks of big cities), is desirable.

Yup. This is undeniably true and a pretty good list of reasons why folks have always moved here.

As it is everywhere, there's nothing static in your list. Any of those things can change pretty quickly and could become better or worse.
Idaho goes through periods of stability and instability, just like all the other states. But our moderately conservative center has always been so large that Idaho doesn't go to extremes as often as some other states do. The center helps keep things fairly stable.

[Heron31]

Originally Posted by harrishawke

Let's be honest, the main reason why many people are moving to Idaho is because it's one of the few spots in the country that are still being run well.

I've only been in north Idaho a few years (and this is my first city-data post!), but I guess that depends on what you mean by "run well."

Originally Posted by harrishawke

Unlike Seattle and Portland, the schools are better...

Can't really speak to that, but I do know the schools are not that well funded.

Originally Posted by harrishawke

and their isn't nearly as much homeless or drug problems.

No, not much homeless, but that's likely because they'd freeze in the winters. A quick google search shows there are indeed drug problems, or at least they're increasing.

Originally Posted by harrishawke

The PNW statistically has lower crime then the rest of the country..

Population density really helps here. Idaho is 7th lowest of all 50 states.

Originally Posted by harrishawke

The prospect of living in an area that has all the benefits of high quality of life (and non of the drawbacks of big cities), is desirable.

Again, depends on what one thinks make up a "high quality of life." Outside of CDA, one might have to travel a ways for certain amenities or top-notch hospitals. Of course it's great if you want space, isolation, serenity, nature, hunting, fishing, and all that. I wonder, though, how many who move here bail out after a snowy winter when the sun rises at 7:30 and sets again at 4:00 pm!