North vs South - Relocating (Boise, Pocatello: real estate, homes, purchasing)

[The.Great.Oxen]

Hey there. Looking at Northern Idaho; Bonners on up the the border and South of Pocatello and East; South East corner. REALLY like the Inkom area personally when I drove through there last.

Besides "landscape" differences are there any other key things to consider when looking a those areas? Culture, living expenses, medical, crime, etc? Going to be leaving Texas here within a year and will be able to travel around and take a look at the area before committing to purchasing land, etc.

Just looking for solitude and to be "left-alone"; not a city person by any means and not worried about having to drive into town for a bit to get supplies if needed.

[nowhereman427]

Originally Posted by The.Great.Oxen

Hey there. Looking at Northern Idaho; Bonners on up the the border and South of Pocatello and East; South East corner. REALLY like the Inkom area personally when I drove through there last.

Besides "landscape" differences are there any other key things to consider when looking a those areas? Culture, living expenses, medical, crime, etc? Going to be leaving Texas here within a year and will be able to travel around and take a look at the area before committing to purchasing land, etc.

Just looking for solitude and to be "left-alone"; not a city person by any means and not worried about having to drive into town for a bit to get supplies if needed.

Lots of snow in N. Idaho and very expensive $$.

[NW Crow]

According to the best known survey on religious affiliation, less than 40% of adults in Bonners Ferry are religion-affiliated, with about 1 in 3 of those being LDS. Close to 70% in Pocatello with 80% LDS and a lot of the non-affiliated may be former or not active LDS. 90% religious affiliated in Preston and 90 plus % of that LDS. If it matters to you in your thinking about social or business context.

Tons of past threads can give north or south perspectives. Some comparisons out there, including recent ones. Browse or search to get more info than may get added here.

What homes and land cost is pretty different between regions with northern Idaho long higher and now much higher. But check real estate sites to get a feel for it. Of course there are ranges within regions based on perceived desirability of towns and distances to them. Water rights / availability / quality and soil quality should be carefully considered and ground cover will vary in desirability.

Inkom is a pretty good combo of small / quiet but close to city amenities. If you go with southeast, I agree that would be a top candidate.

[ejisme]

Lots of winter dark the further north you go too. You'll really notice the difference when you travel from Texas in the winter. Summer is the opposite, with lots of light late into the night. If you've only visited North Idaho in the spring/summer months, then your first winter will be a shock!! If you pick a piece of property on the east side of a mountain then you'll even get a bigger afternoon darkness effect. It's not as pronounced in southern Idaho. In NI you likely will have Mid-Nov to Feb full darkness at 3:30 - 4 PM and maybe lose another 1/2 hour on the east slope of a mountain. In the Boise area I get full darkness at about 4:30 or 5 PM as a comparison. Full morning light is about 8 AM in the Boise area. Add on another half hour to an hour up north (where the west side of a mountain will be darker in the mornings).

More snow/rain and cloud cover in NI fall, winter and spring. Lots of sun year-round in the Boise to Twin Falls areas (lots of small towns and isolated desert property in-between). Both areas get cold in the winter., with several nights below zero F. I assume the north is colder, but I haven't spent a lot of time up north in several years to really compare.

When you are doing property searches I'd suggest looking along HWY 20 in the south, say around Fairfield to Carey, ID. Pretty rural areas, with the two small towns (the turn-off to the Sun Valley/Hailey area about halfway in-between). Nice areas that will get more snow than down along I-84, but still get lots of winter sun. Other small towns to look around would be Hammett, Glens Ferry, Bliss, Hagerman, Bhul along old HWY 30 and mostly to the South or West of the HWY for more rural home-stead areas. Less snow along here than the HWY 20 towns or in NI.

Good Luck

Edit: If you're not dead-set on Idaho, I'd look around Dillon, MT and the greater Beaverhead valley area. Dillion is a nice small town, with lots of smaller towns in the area. It's a pretty area with big mountain ranges for views, but lots of rural valley property.

[volosong]

Originally Posted by ejisme

... In NI you likely will have Mid-Nov to Feb full darkness at 3:30 - 4 PM and maybe lose another 1/2 hour on the east slope of a mountain. In the Boise area I get full darkness at about 4:30 or 5 PM as a comparison. Full morning light is about 8 AM in the Boise area. Add on another half hour to an hour up north (where the west side of a mountain will be darker in the mornings).

Sorry, can't agree with you. From my experience living on the Rathdrum Prairie, (CdA area), in the dead of winter, it gets 'pitch black' around 4:15-4:30. According to https://www.sunrisesunsettime.org/no...e-december.htm, on the winter solstice, the sunset is at around 4:00 and dark about a half hour later. Sunrise is around 7:30, but it seems later because you will rarely see the sun in wintertime.

Remember, NID is in the Pacific time zone. The rest of Idaho, (south of Riggins on the 95), is Mountain time zone.

[banjomike]

I've mentioned this many times before on this forum.
There are no great social differences between north and south Idaho.
The greatest difference is the dark winters and the grey skies of winter.

I was born in SID and have lived here all my life. When I attended the U of Idaho in Moscow, it was my first experience living in NID.
The dark and overcast were the only things I found difficult to live with there, and I never became accustomed to either of them over time.

One was bad enough, but two made life for me very hard throughout the month of Febrary for the years I lived in Moscow. I always became severely depressed, and my depression really affected my grades.

But everything else in life there was as nice as could be. Moscow is a friendly, fun town, and the university was equally good. I loved the Palouse region almost as much as my home territory in the western Tetons for its very different beauty and grandeur.

[ejisme]

I guess I shouldn't have said full darkness, but more your are driving with headlights on. I'd also forgotten about the time zone differences. My Bad

[The.Great.Oxen]

Thanks for the responses; I actually wasn't aware that ID had 2 different time zones so that's something to keep in mind.

* I am not "dead-set" on ID per se, but its definitely in the top 3. I have considered MT but there are some areas in MT that I wanted to reside in that have skyrocketed in price.

* I have been looking a lot on land costs in the Northern-Idaho area and the South-East area as well.

* I was born and raised in WA but lived in Western WA for years, so didn't even think of being on the East side vs West side of mountains and how that would affect everything from darkness time, temperature, etc.

* I love snow, I want more snow and hate that I don't get snow LOL

* I am used to the 24/7 rain in Western WA we got for over 30 years so I can understand the Moscow area and time being spent there being somewhat depressing; oddly I am an odd soul... but no more into that

Appreciate everyone's input; i'll have to go digging into older threads.

For information sake; is there anywhere you would highly advise against? Can be anything from price, crime, etc etc.

[stealheadrun23]

For information sake; is there anywhere you would highly advise against? Can be anything from price, crime, etc etc.

Probably not a big concern coming from Texas, but stay away from most of SW Idaho if you don't like hot Summers.

[harrishawke]

Why has N. Idaho gotten so expensive lately? I mean crummy new construction homes start at 700k, and decent homes in CDA or Hayden are well into the millions. The local economy definitely doesn't support those kind of prices for the majority of professions.