N. Idaho housing prices..CRAZY!

[Sage of Sagle]

Originally Posted by FreeMarketSlave

I have been thinking and not saying much, but something wasn't really quite right with my stay. I keep saying i want to totally get away from civilization, but? If you go where you don't see anybody and don't hear the noise of civilization for very long, it's like a void? Maybe my problem was the wife wasn't there, i don't know. You get out there with no, to little contact...and you better stay real busy. You would have to learn to stay real busy and entertain yourself, and like yourself, because nothing changes in the woods and hasn't for many a century(fire excluded). Whether we like it or not, we are social beings and if you go from the city to a total void in interaction, it is real weird and takes some adjusting. In three weeks all i saw was a relative that come to say hi, we went to town but being out there in the woods was really solitary. Talk about losing contact. Weird..a restless...weird.
Going from the world at your finger tips to a world of seclusion is a real change.
Anyway...

I'm a bit confused by your post. Are you saying that you experienced some sort of surreal sensory deprivation because you were out in the forest? How far out were you?

We're on acreage, about a mile down a dirt road from the local paved road, and in our area there are only 6 families spreading out over about 150 acres. We see our neighbors here and there, but we're up in Sandpoint about 5-10x a week for sports, shopping, etc. And it's nice to go home to our quiet place in the woods. So I guess I'm missing the big negative of being out in the woods. And I was raised in coastal south OC (CA) so I was pretty used to noisy crowded areas....this area is such a wonderful change.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by Sage of Sagle

Well, sort of, but not really. Here's why...

Here in North Idaho, what we're seeing is that the tightening of money by the banks (fewer loan programs, tougher qualifying, etc) and a tougher job market with fears of recession are keeping some people away from the housing market, sure. But since so many homes here are still "a deal" compared to other metro areas of the USA, interest remains high.

Our house, IN this down market, just appraised for $125K higher than last year, and that was from an appraiser who is known to be very pessimistic/tough. What we're seeing from friends of ours is that their homes for sale are still getting NEAR their asking price, but the days-on-market has gone from 10-30 to 50-100 to GET the higher price. So only the people who MUST sell their homes are dropping prices dramatically. Other people are just choosing to pull their homes off the market if they're not in a must-sell situation.

Looking at the homes that are moving best around here...it looks like homes where people in places like SoCal can still get out with enough equity are still doing so, and coming here but spending less. So if you sell a house in Corona for $380K (that maybe was "worth" $475K a year ago) but you only owe $300K, you can still come to North Idaho and put 25% down on $320K worth of home.

...at least that seems to be the haps from my anecdotal experiences from friends and neighbors up here...if someone has access to the MLS to pull data to the contrary, I'm all ears....

Here is a link here:

Intermountain Multiple Listing Service, Inc.: IMLS Statistical Reports - Static

You can pull down which county you are looking for, and then run the PDF report for the month or quarter you want.

HTH.

[FreeMarketSlave]

I was down in the valley, next valley left of sagle. A little NE of Spirit lake. Their house is out in the middle of a section. You see no one. Other than watching an hour of news at night, you better have something in mind to do. We logged for that something to do. No internet, although you could get it, and i would have to if i was there very long. Unless someone came to see you on purpose, you would never see anyone. It was a shock compared to my usual routine. We went to town 4 times in three weeks. Paid the electric bill across the street from the honda dealer there in Sagle, then went to eat at the hoot owl in sandpoint. Was i close by?

[Sage of Sagle]

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, it appears there is no data for Bonner County (reports generate fine, but every line has $0 value).

[Sage of Sagle]

Originally Posted by FreeMarketSlave

I was down in the valley, next valley left of sagle. A little NE of Spirit lake. Their house is out in the middle of a section. You see no one. Other than watching an hour of news at night, you better have something in mind to do. We logged for that something to do. No internet, although you could get it, and i would have to if i was there very long. Unless someone came to see you on purpose, you would never see anyone. It was a shock compared to my usual routine. We went to town 4 times in three weeks. Paid the electric bill across the street from the honda dealer there in Sagle, then went to eat at the hoot owl in sandpoint. Was i close by?

Yeah, 4x in 3 weeks and no internet at the house would drive me nuts...with several kids in sports in Sandpoint, it seems like we're in town TOO often, and I look forward to getting back to the quiet of our place in Sagle. We're about 4 miles west of 95, so pretty close to Mays Honda, yes.

[hokler]

I was thinknig the opposite. Im moving from the Phoenix area to CDA. You can get a 3,500ft home on over an acre with lake views. For what my homes worth here.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by Sage of Sagle

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, it appears there is no data for Bonner County (reports generate fine, but every line has $0 value).

Hmm, that is strange. I didn't know what county you were in. The original link was set at Ada County, which has its stats.

[Torrie]

Originally Posted by magellan

Hmm, that is strange. I didn't know what county you were in. The original link was set at Ada County, which has its stats.

It's not showing Bonner County because they're not a part of the Intermountain Multiple Listing Service. Bonner County would be in a different MLS system. Ada county is the Boise Metro area. Intermountain Multiple Listings does not go that far north, that's why it doesn't show any statistics.