Thinking of moving to Deer Park, good or bad (Spokane: for sale, 2014)

[denimflyz]

Hello,
My husband and I are considering a move to Deer Park? Good or bad.
I am originally from Nebraska, we are semi-retired, so school system is not needed. I do however, own a seamstress and needlework shop here and would be moving this along with us. Is this area a good place to start a small business?
I am hesitant to move, one because of our age, we are in our late 50's, early 60's. We also have health issues.
We would like a more rural area for a home. Housing where we are is very pricey, average home is $200,000. Dumps are around $60,000.
We are getting tired of our area, husband had a friend move up around Deer Park. They love it. They are our age.
Any suggestions.
Is there anything to do there. I do handiwork and have my own line of rug hooking and needlepoint kits, and I teach these crafts.
Thank you for your consideration.

[denimflyz]

Hello folks.
I see 32 have viewed my post. How about some input? There must be someone out there who knows the area.
Please.....someone give some information. This would be a huge commitment for us as well as my business. I really do not want to take a leap of faith, we are too old to take chances.
Thank you.

[WendyK]

Personally, I like Deer Park overall. It's a widespread area with a core town just off Hwy 395 where most of the businesses, schools and other services are located. If you look at a zip code map for 99006 though, you'll see that it's a big area that includes parts of Spokane, Stevens and even Pend Oreille county. Lots of different scenery and wildlife. The views and terrain are very pretty.

You would probably want to live closest into the town if you're going to have a business. I have no idea how well a small business like that would do -- are you going to run it from your home or rent commercial space? Housing here is probably comparable to what you have there -- $200,000 doesn't buy much when you're looking at something with acreage, except possibly a mobile home on some land. You may be able to find an older home in the city limits area on a standard lot for less $$.

There is a chamber of commerce in Deer Park Home - Deer Park Chamber of Commerce - you may want to check that to see what type of businesses are already established in the area, or talk with someone who knows what the costs are for running a small business in town.

[PS90]

I live north of Deer Park, so I can't comment on things like community feel, etc, but I will make a few comments:

1) Deer Park is the "snow belt" of the Spokane area - in other words, both south and north of Deer Park are significantly warmer and get less snow. Just something to be aware of.

2) If you plan on running a small business, it would be best to establish it in Spokane and make the commute. I don't have any scientific evidence, but I would be willing to bet that a small niche business would be hard-pressed to succeed in Deer Park - there is just not enough of a client base. And again, I don't know the numbers, but I am sure that well over half of the residents of Deer Park commute to Spokane for work - it's only about a 20 minute drive to the Wandermere area.

3) You are going to be shocked in this area if you think a $200K home is "very pricey". You won't get anything remotely nice with any acreage for that price here. If you are looking for a decent, well-maintained house with 5-10 acres or more of land, I would be looking at closer to $250K and maybe even more like $300K+.

[devosays]

Hi Denimflyz, we recently transplanted to the Spokane/CDA area and have some inputs for you, however, we need to know much more about your situation

Does your husband work? Do you rely on foot traffic for your business, sounds so? What is your specific budget? How close to hospital do you need to be?

We were told by our realtor that Deer Park was a bit far to commute into the city so we just looked around their and south/southeast and towards town. You can get rural around there just about anywhere. The city is not our preferred local, we love small towns, but with charm and some retail within 15-20 minutes, so too far out is the actual town for us. We liked and loved a few places south between Deer Park and Nine Mile Falls off of Monroe, about halfway to the north edge of town, this may be too close to Spokane or too far from Deer Park for you, not sure.

If you are set on Deer Park, that is your choice and you must go where you want. We however, looked across the entire area and loved parts south of Spokane, and East of town the best. Settling on the East end because we have a few close amenities within 15 minutes of our house, but we are far enough away from it all to feel like we step away from everything when we enter our general community.

Good luck and ignore the naysayers, visit and spend 3 days looking around at houses. That is the only way you will get a feel for how the area suits your housing, lifestyle and small business needs. If your price range is $200k, we didn't find anything with acreage and a newer home for less than say $300k.

Good luck and let us know how it all comes out!

[mistyriver]

Deer Park is great horse country and also has a great home link program for home schoolers. I have a lot of friends in Deer Park (horse people) and most of them commute into Spokane for jobs.
My daughters part time nanny lives in DP and commutes to EWU for grad school as well as nannying. I know home schooled Deer Park kids who commute into Spokane to take classes at the community colleges.
Definitely not too far to commute from.

[denimflyz]

Hello everyone. Thank you for your feedback.
We are semi retired. My husband is 62, I am 57.
Both of us are disabled in some capacity. Husband was an over the road truck driver for many years, then in June 2014, he was loading cattle and a bull mauled him badly with a shattered right leg and closed head injury. His driving days are done. I have a totally fused spine,and I am also vision impaired a little, but I have been doing seamstress work and also own a needlepoint and embroidery shop along with the sewing business here in town.
We have no children or family so schools are not an issue. My husband had friends who are our age and they moved to Deer Park about 2 years ago. They love it.
Where we live now, in North Platte, Nebraska, it is about 25,000, and is getting too big for us. I was born and raised here, but I have lost both parents and have no family to hold me stationary. I am leary of a move, but I am not happy here either.
The friends who live in Deer Park said Spokane is crime riddled. Our community is saturated with drugs and gangs, at my business, I deal with a lot of this type of customer. This is one reason why I would like to move. I am also unsettled that I can get health care for both husband and myself. Husband has some dementia type symptoms from the mauling, so city driving is a little scary. I lived in Denver 20 some years ago, but I was in my late 20's, and I was young and could handle city driving.
Husband was planning on going out to Spokane in the spring to look things over. I guess I am afraid of making a leap of faith or going in totally blind, especially at our age.
Snow isn't an issue either. We get dumped on quite a bit, ice storms, so that doesn't bother us.
I will take up the suggestions of chamber of commerce, and see what I can come up with. Thank you for all of the input.
I will keep posted to all. Keep up with ideas.
Warm Regards
Denim

[Bluebarn]

Hi Denim,

Deer Park is a really nice little area, and I think it sounds like it would work well for you. Another area to consider might be Hayden, Idaho or even Coeur d'Alene or Post Falls. A lot of retirees move to North Idaho and love it here. I actually own my own yarn and fiber shop called Blue Barn Fiber, and 99% of it is online. It doesn't make a fortune, but it's enough to support my husband and myself. There is also a similar store to ours called Paradise Fibers in Spokane. It is huge and thriving. The good thing is that usually there is some overlap from knitters, spinners, fiber-enthusiasts, and rug hooking / needle point lovers. So I think you will have a decent market, should you decide to really go for it and start a business out here.

Deer Park is pretty rural, so it might be a bit more difficult to have a business like yours in there, but you'd probably have more success in Coeur d'Alene or Spokane. Or, you could even set up a shop within your home and also sell online, just so you have the best of both worlds. Here's a house for sale in Post Falls that could serve that sort of function: 120 E 4th Ave, Post Falls, ID 83854 | MLS #16-577 | Zillow . Post Falls is between Coeur d'Alene and Spokane, and is a great central area with the Log Cabin Spinners Guild monthly meetings.

If you like to go to fiber festivals as a vendor, you might have the same dilemma that my husband and I have -- there really aren't many vending opportunities out here. There is the annual Spin-In, and then a couple of very small gatherings in Spokane from time to time, but that's about it. I guess there is also Art on the Green in Coeur d'Alene every August, but that is not a fiber-only festival (it is a great place to sell your crafts though). If that doesn't bother you, then I think you could be really happy out here.

Good luck! Don't be afraid to take that leap of faith. This is a great area.

[TPC1323]

Originally Posted by PS90

1) Deer Park is the "snow belt" of the Spokane area - in other words, both south and north of Deer Park are significantly warmer and get less snow. Just something to be aware of.

Does this also mean that in the summer, Deer Park is always a bit cooler than areas North & South of it?

We just got back from a scouting trip driving all over the East side of the state and really like Deer Park, but wondering just how much more snow they get/how much colder it is in the winter. although, honestly escaping summer heat is my highest priority, so if Deer Park is a bit cooler in the summer than other places it might be the perfect location for us!

[PS90]

Originally Posted by TPC1323

Does this also mean that in the summer, Deer Park is always a bit cooler than areas North & South of it?

We just got back from a scouting trip driving all over the East side of the state and really like Deer Park, but wondering just how much more snow they get/how much colder it is in the winter. although, honestly escaping summer heat is my highest priority, so if Deer Park is a bit cooler in the summer than other places it might be the perfect location for us!

Well, I literally just drove back to Colville from Spokane on 395 about 2 hours ago. My truck's thermometer read 91 in Spokane, it dropped to 88 around Deer Park, and then was 92 in Colville. I would say that's fairly typical for that stretch of Eastern/NE Washington.

So yes, Deer Park seems to be just a little bit cooler than areas North and South. It's kinda nice now, but around February, I always find myself thinking (when I drive from Colville to Spokane) that I'm sure glad that I don't live in Deer Park, because they always seem to get stuck with that little bit extra snow that won't melt, when everywhere else's has already melted.