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Idaho's state income taxes are surprisingly high. 7.4% kicks in at a little over $20k for a married couple. Other taxes may be lower, and general cost of living and property prices are reasonable, but state income taxes are above average . . . better than California for sure, but not low by any means. Considering the redness of the legislature, I would have expected zero state income tax, or at a number below 5%.
My understanding is the sales tax is 6% in Idaho and they do charge that on food. Here they don't charge food tax but the sales tax here is 9%.
Anyplace is better than California since we pay more for less for everything from gasoline to housing and have the worst torn up roads that they keep creating new taxes and fees to nickel and dime us to banning plastic bags and having to pay for your own grocery bags when you go shopping. This place has turned into an extreme environmentalist over kill state. We can't burn fires in our fire places on "spare the air day"s. Can't mow the lawn, right now it is voluntary to use private car but they are recommending that we carpool or bicycle to work. They recommend that we not use electricity during peak hours. We are on water rationing or else face FINE $$$$ Every thing they threaten us with $$$ FINES. yOU must recycle and if you put wrong item in wrong can you can be fined. It has got to be ridiculous here. Can't do this can't do that. They push the electric hybrid vehicles on us and make more stringent smog laws that get tougher and tougher to pass older vehicles.
I don't know what the state income tax here in California but I am sure it is one of the highest just like everything else here. The worst thing is that it is getting more and more crowded here, more traffic, more people, more gridlock and to buy a house in San Francisco which I wouldn't do now anyway even if I could afford it is $800,000 for a fixer upper in a middle class neighborhood. $600,000 will get you in a ghetto high crime neighborhood. The same thing is happening to the SF bay area so people move out of SF into nearby suburbs so prices go up and roads are not maintained and we get gridlock. The government here uses funding for the roads on other things and misappropriate the funds so the consumer here ends up paying for more in some other way of fees or new taxes. Plus with all the corruption going on with PG&E and government here I am not surprised alot of the funds get used or pocketed. We have enough people here and taxes are high enough so there is no excuse for having roads full of potholes that damage our cars or claims of they don't have the funding.
But enough about the State of Chaos and their $$$ problems and budget deficits. I am curious about retiring to Idaho and buying and owning a home outright from the sale of my house here. I know Nevada and Wyoming both have no state income tax so I am also interested in those areas but only the rural areas not tract housing. As far as rural living goes seems to be that Montana is the most expensive..
But now I want to be someplace that has less government interference / corruption
No stupid gun registration and all of the extra fees we must pay here to own a firearm and still have to deal with high crime and criminals who have the guns.
Just looking for a safe quiet place to retire with little or no traffic and no tract housing.
Oh...and the whole skinhead thing is mostly a fabrication of the media these days...since the Aryan Nation guys were bankrupted and driven out in the mid-1990's. There are a few still around, but I mean a small handful...a LOT less than I saw in SoCal as a cop. Every so often 1-2 of them will make noise and garner 20x the media attention it should for the actual reality of the issue...but the media are convinced we have scary nazis in white sheets hiding behind every tree...and so they perpetuate the stereotype...
Thanks for that info. Seems to be that the media blows things up and to find out the truth you have to go to the people and see for yourself. I have heard but it was some time ago that Idaho was anti-government and had training camps for survivalists who wanted to overthrow the federal government but from the way things are coming to here maybe that's a good thing? i don't know. But if there are alot of retired cops living in Idaho does that in fact make it a "police state" this new term I keep hearing? Also militarization of police departments across the nation?
What attracts police to Idaho? I would think it's the hunting, Fishing and outdoor recreation? I think I am being mislead with all of these new terms I am hearing about.
I bet there are more skin heads in San Fran, the real racist kind, not just the type who shave a balding head, then you would see in Idaho in your lifetime.
Did you know the person who started the defunct compound in North Idaho was from California?
We did have a Nazi leader here but he moved his organization to Fallbrook, CA last time I heard which was a long time ago. I think his name was Metzger?
We got all the crazies here in SF. SF is the dumping ground for parolees from what used to be called the Dept. of corrections which is now called something like the Dept. or Rehab. Tons of homeless people and crazies walking the streets cussing at everyone asking for $$$. 5150.
Yes we got everything here some would say or call it diversity
We did have a Nazi leader here but he moved his organization to Fallbrook, CA last time I heard which was a long time ago. I think his name was Metzger?
We got all the crazies here in SF. SF is the dumping ground for parolees from what used to be called the Dept. of corrections which is now called something like the Dept. or Rehab. Tons of homeless people and crazies walking the streets cussing at everyone asking for $$$. 5150.
Yes we got everything here some would say or call it diversity
Metzger was the same guy who owned the "compound" here in Hayden, before they attacked someone, were prosecuted and bankrupted, and most of them moved back to California.
A LOT of retirees move to northern Idaho (the ones who prefer cold to heat most of the year). You can still buy a nice house for $160k in a nice suburb (I know because my kids just got a very nice house for $175k in a super nice neighborhood and could have bought a smaller/older house for $10-15k less), or for not much over $200-240k get some land and a small house.
I don't hear Idaho ever called a police state. I think you're getting bad information...or as you said, maybe they mean all the retired cops. But up here we don't see cops very often, and when we do they're usually responding to medical emergencies or accidents. And we support our police up here by and large.
We have strong gun rights, and a murder rate on par with some of the lower crime places in the world (just above France, Netherlands, Australia, lower than Canada, Belgium, and Finland, New Zealand, Scotland...Idaho is identical to Ireland at 1.3 per 100k population). And our violent crime rate is among the lowest in the USA (7th best in the nation). #1-#6 are Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Virginia, Wyoming, and Utah, respectively.
And people overblow the crime rate in the USA. In international survey of "do you feel safe walking alone at night where you live?" The USA ranked sort of middle...just behind Finland, Luxembourg, Japan, and the UK and better than Ireland, Belgium, France, Australia, Italy, and New Zealand. (FYI, best was Norway and Slovenia, worst was Greece and Chile). In actual violent crime per 100,000, the USA is much lower than many European countries (Scotland, Sweden, and England are over double our number, for example).
We did have a Nazi leader here but he moved his organization to Fallbrook, CA last time I heard which was a long time ago. I think his name was Metzger?
We got all the crazies here in SF. SF is the dumping ground for parolees from what used to be called the Dept. of corrections which is now called something like the Dept. or Rehab. Tons of homeless people and crazies walking the streets cussing at everyone asking for $$$. 5150.
Yes we got everything here some would say or call it diversity
You may be thinking of the Citadel, a proposed survivalist walled community that was to be built up on the top of a remote mountain. It was in the news for a while a couple of years ago. There's an old topic thread about it.
The project was extremely ludicrous from the first, and needless to say, never got off the ground. Most of us here believed it to be a big scam, especially after learning that there was a little bit of property that got a down payment put on it. The property was only 20 acres, not anywhere large enough to hold the number of people (2000 to 4000), and was accessible only by a very rough dirt logging road that is snowed in most of the year.
The guy who cooked it up was a convicted extortionist from Maryland. He obviously knew nothing at all about Idaho.
Metzger was the same guy who owned the "compound" here in Hayden, before they attacked someone, were prosecuted and bankrupted, and most of them moved back to California.
A LOT of retirees move to northern Idaho (the ones who prefer cold to heat most of the year). You can still buy a nice house for $160k in a nice suburb (I know because my kids just got a very nice house for $175k in a super nice neighborhood and could have bought a smaller/older house for $10-15k less), or for not much over $200-240k get some land and a small house.
I don't hear Idaho ever called a police state. I think you're getting bad information...or as you said, maybe they mean all the retired cops. But up here we don't see cops very often, and when we do they're usually responding to medical emergencies or accidents. And we support our police up here by and large.
We have strong gun rights, and a murder rate on par with some of the lower crime places in the world (just above France, Netherlands, Australia, lower than Canada, Belgium, and Finland, New Zealand, Scotland...Idaho is identical to Ireland at 1.3 per 100k population). And our violent crime rate is among the lowest in the USA (7th best in the nation). #1-#6 are Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Virginia, Wyoming, and Utah, respectively.
And people overblow the crime rate in the USA. In international survey of "do you feel safe walking alone at night where you live?" The USA ranked sort of middle...just behind Finland, Luxembourg, Japan, and the UK and better than Ireland, Belgium, France, Australia, Italy, and New Zealand. (FYI, best was Norway and Slovenia, worst was Greece and Chile). In actual violent crime per 100,000, the USA is much lower than many European countries (Scotland, Sweden, and England are over double our number, for example).
Though I am curious about Montana, Wyoming, and Nevada both of which have no income tax, private rural areas only no tract housing, I prefer cold over hot weather so northern Idaho sounds good. I believe Grangeville would be considered southern Idaho?
Though I am curious about Montana, Wyoming, and Nevada both of which have no income tax, private rural areas only no tract housing, I prefer cold over hot weather so northern Idaho sounds good. I believe Grangeville would be considered southern Idaho?
I really think you need to take a drive and come out to see things for yourself. it seems you want all the conveniences and stuff that's only in a city, but you're dreaming of a home in the country at the same time.
And you also seem to have a big hangup on tract housing. Housing tracts have always been a fact of life out here ever since the railroads began building them for their workers, and mining companies, logging companies did the same. Many of those houses remain, as the companies didn't stop building homes in the 1800s- they continued doing it until the early 50s or later.
Housing contractors have always followed any big development in the west. Tract homes are found around every dam site, big electrification or irrigation project, farm or ranch developments, everywhere. None are as big as what I think you envision.
Cold is the easiest thing of all to find. All 3 states you mentioned have cold climates.
It's not the scenery nor the location that determines one's quality of life here; it's the people. If all you have done is lived in a large population, you could easily find your dreams of isolation and quiet to become a nightmare of loneliness. I've seen many city folks who quickly come down with cabin fever who have done that, and will drive many miles just to walk around in malls or other places just to have people around them again. Silence and isolation can become very oppressive very fast if one isn't used to it.
While folks are superficially friendly out here, and are generally quick to help strangers, living in a small town or out in the country is different. It can take a long time, if ever, to become accepted in a small town as a stranger who moves in cold, with no family connections or any sense of a place's history and it's people.
Many small towns consist of people who have never seen much outside of their hometown all their lives. Life there is all they know and all they want to know. They're already doing just fine; they were fine before a stranger showed up to live, and just as fine after the stranger left and moved away. The smaller the town, the stronger the attitude. That's true anywhere, not just here, but it's strong here as there are so few people.
Come out for a month. Move around and look things over for yourself. That's truly the only way you will ever know just which state and the place within it is best for you.
Idaho has housing tracts, some to rival California's (ugh), but others are smallish (6 to 30 homes) and in the middle of rural areas. Best of both worlds!
I really think you need to take a drive and come out to see things for yourself. it seems you want all the conveniences and stuff that's only in a city, but you're dreaming of a home in the country at the same time.
And you also seem to have a big hangup on tract housing. Housing tracts have always been a fact of life out here ever since the railroads began building them for their workers, and mining companies, logging companies did the same. Many of those houses remain, as the companies didn't stop building homes in the 1800s- they continued doing it until the early 50s or later.
Housing contractors have always followed any big development in the west. Tract homes are found around every dam site, big electrification or irrigation project, farm or ranch developments, everywhere. None are as big as what I think you envision.
Cold is the easiest thing of all to find. All 3 states you mentioned have cold climates.
It's not the scenery nor the location that determines one's quality of life here; it's the people. If all you have done is lived in a large population, you could easily find your dreams of isolation and quiet to become a nightmare of loneliness. I've seen many city folks who quickly come down with cabin fever who have done that, and will drive many miles just to walk around in malls or other places just to have people around them again. Silence and isolation can become very oppressive very fast if one isn't used to it.
While folks are superficially friendly out here, and are generally quick to help strangers, living in a small town or out in the country is different. It can take a long time, if ever, to become accepted in a small town as a stranger who moves in cold, with no family connections or any sense of a place's history and it's people.
Many small towns consist of people who have never seen much outside of their hometown all their lives. Life there is all they know and all they want to know. They're already doing just fine; they were fine before a stranger showed up to live, and just as fine after the stranger left and moved away. The smaller the town, the stronger the attitude. That's true anywhere, not just here, but it's strong here as there are so few people.
Come out for a month. Move around and look things over for yourself. That's truly the only way you will ever know just which state and the place within it is best for you.
I agree and that is the plan to come out there. For now I just want to do some research first to learn the territory and names of all the different counties and type of geography of the land, locations of businesses, power companies, utilities get a better ideal of locations around surrounding areas etc.
I agree and that is the plan to come out there. For now I just want to do some research first to learn the territory and names of all the different counties and type of geography of the land, locations of businesses, power companies, utilities get a better ideal of locations around surrounding areas etc.
You won't ever get enough to know much by cruising the internet, especially when it comes to how and what life is like here and what life is not as well.
You might already know, for example, that Grangeville lies close by a big hill, but until you have driven White Bird, you have no idea of what difference that big hill makes. Or what kind of barrier a single hill can be. But once you actually do it, you will know everything, including something of why White Bird makes Grangeville the town it is and is not.
That's not even an extreme example. I could give others much more extreme, but you wouldn't understand them either. EVerything is still flat on a computer screen.
You still have plenty of time to make the drive. Come on out. This is the time of year when Old Mother Idaho is the prettiest girl of all. Since the tourist season is ending, its also the easiest time to make good hotel reservations. Bring a warm coat or sweater, though, because the evenings will become nippy now regularly. And bring your camera. Your neighbors won't believe you unless you do.
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i don't know. But if there are alot of retired cops living in Idaho does that in fact make it a "police state" this new term I keep hearing? Also militarization of police departments across the nation?
Tons of homeless people and crazies walking the streets cussing at everyone asking for $$$. 5150.
