Most expensive zip codes in Idaho? (Boise, Eagle: real estate, lawyers, vacation home)

[jja100]

I am just wondering where the most expensive areas are in Idaho. So far from my minimal research I have found Ketchum/Sun Valley to be the most expensive. Are there any other places that the locals know of?

[pw72]

From a zip code perspective, you found it.

However, there are smaller pockets of wealth to be found all over ID. They tend to live individually, without wealthy neighbors around them.

[Syringaloid]

I would include the zip or zips that cover the expensive homes in the various Boise Foothills neighborhoods, the North End, and Eagle.

[EJRuek]

Sandpoint, ID.

[jja100]

Originally Posted by EJRuek

Sandpoint, ID.

I was looking at Sandpoint, Idaho through Google's street view and it seemed like it was an old small town. Why is this place so expensive??

The only wealth from my small research that I saw up there was Schweitzer Mountain and the Idaho Club. Is Sandpoint expensive because of these two areas driving up the price?

[EJRuek]

Developed and under development: the entire lake front (miles upon miles), Syringa Heights, Baldy Mountain road, Bayview, Lakeshore Drive, Dover Bay, Shadow Mountain, Schweitzer, Ponder Point, Garfield Bay, Sunnyside....... The town areas with gated communities, again near or on the lake. Gas prices, food prices, and real estate are all high, jobs are scarce, and its been tailored for retirees by real estate concerns like Sotherbys. Then there's Hope. Cheaper living is in Clark Fork and Priest River, but both of those are working their way in the same direction.

[jja100]

Bah! I hate it when they make communities entirely for retirees. So when you go to Sandpoint... do you see any young people or is the place a "geriatric" society?

[EJRuek]

Oh, yes. It's just that real estate focuses on retirees or as vacation homes for the well-heeled. We have a middle class (teachers, utility service, UPS drivers, Fedex drivers, postal workers, bank managers, and the like), we have lawyers and doctors, and, of course, the serving class (wait staff, clerks, secretaries). But the folks to whom Sandpoint advertises and aims to sell to are those who come to play in the sun and snow and those who wish to retire here, especially snow birds who have a winter home in Arizona or other warm climes. There's a saying here: If you come to Sandpoint, be sure to bring your own job with you. I add to that: Also be sure to have a solid bank account while you get yourself and your business established, else you'll be working very hard for next to nothing to get enough money to relocate to more lucrative pastures.

[Sandpointian]

Originally Posted by pw72

From a zip code perspective, you found it.

However, there are smaller pockets of wealth to be found all over ID. They tend to live individually, without wealthy neighbors around them.

Thank goodness. Our mix is a dying form of urbanity.

S.

[Sandpointian]

Originally Posted by jja100

Bah! I hate it when they make communities entirely for retirees. So when you go to Sandpoint... do you see any young people or is the place a "geriatric" society?

We are not Florida nor an over-55 community! Our retirees are a mixed lot, shoveling their driveway, chopping wood, fishing, skiing. Hardly geriatric. Hell, I'd size many of them against the flat-dwelling 40-something city slickers I have seen who panic at the sight of a good snow.

S.