Sandpoint and Sagle, What's it like? (Ponderay, Kootenai: real estate, rent, houses)

[MrCarGuy]

As you can see I've been pondering around the ID Area for a bit, I'll be visiting sometime in Coeur D'Alene, But the Sandpoint area has also caught my eye. What's it like living there? More so, How about Sagle? I like what I can rent in Sagle, 5 Acres, 3 Bd 2ba to try it out. Any Grocery stores, gas stations in Sagle, or is it all in Sandpoint? Couldnt find much. Any info/photos are much appreciated. Thank you.

MCG

[Sage of Sagle]

Sagle is completely rural. Only services are a smattering of locations along 95 around Sagle Conoco. A couple eateries, Sagle Post Office, Java Bear (espresso), Honda (cycle/atv) dealer, auto repair, boat repair, body shop, etc.

Basically for everything more than a quick mini-mart trip we "go to town" (i.e. Sandpoint). Sandpoint, while it only has 6800 residents, serves (along with Ponderay, and to a much lesser degree Kootenai) as our "center of commerce" for about 15,000 people living around this area between Sandpoint, Sagle, Dover, all the lake rim from Sunnyside to Hope, Pack River and Selle Valley, etc.

Some people love to live "in town". I don't. I don't think what the town offers justifies the statist governmental excesses and double the property tax for what you get here in the county area. They get my money in the tax base from my shopping there heavily as it is. Don't get me wrong, I'm not hammering the town for bad people...it's just a bunch of busybodies spending the taxpayers' money and doing it rather poorly IMO.

[MrCarGuy]

Originally Posted by Sage of Sagle

Sagle is completely rural. Only services are a smattering of locations along 95 around Sagle Conoco. A couple eateries, Sagle Post Office, Java Bear (espresso), Honda (cycle/atv) dealer, auto repair, boat repair, body shop, etc.

Basically for everything more than a quick mini-mart trip we "go to town" (i.e. Sandpoint). Sandpoint, while it only has 6800 residents, serves (along with Ponderay, and to a much lesser degree Kootenai) as our "center of commerce" for about 15,000 people living around this area between Sandpoint, Sagle, Dover, all the lake rim from Sunnyside to Hope, Pack River and Selle Valley, etc.

Some people love to live "in town". I don't. I don't think what the town offers justifies the statist governmental excesses and double the property tax for what you get here in the county area. They get my money in the tax base from my shopping there heavily as it is. Don't get me wrong, I'm not hammering the town for bad people...it's just a bunch of busybodies spending the taxpayers' money and doing it rather poorly IMO.

Yeah Im pretty sick of Government and Taxes myself. I think I'd much rather take an ''inconvinience'' of a 10 minute drive to get something rather then having it around the corner and paying 2x the property Taxes. I'm trying to get away from taxes and overspending with everything else I'm looking do leave behind.

[Sage of Sagle]

One thing you must be ready to deal with in the county area is dirt roads, or at least the majority of roads being dirt, or at best hard pack and chip sealed. So if you come property shopping, be VERY AWARE of water runoff or low spots in the roads since in the spring that's an issue. Then again, that's a good rule of thumb anyhow...since we've seen home building pads that looked good in the fall and in the springtime had several springs bubbling up water directly where a house would have gone.

If you're really set on having paved roads to your house (and there are some BIG pluses to that, no doubt about it) be ready to look in a more limited run of areas. For example, in the west Dufort Valley @ Mays Road there is a meadow with houses and paved roads to every lot. Also just west of there is a development called Copper Ridge with 5 acre lots, shared well/septic, and paved roads to every lot. And up Mays Road, MOST of the sites have paved road to their lots. You'll find this to be true in several areas around here. For me, I don't mind gravel road since I maintain it and I keep it smooth so I could drive even a very low-chinned sports car on my road April-October. But if I bought something seriously ground scraping...well...I probably wouldn't drive that in Bonner County anyhow. It's one reason American classic are popular here...they almost all have great ground clearance compared to European exotics.

[MrCarGuy]

Originally Posted by Sage of Sagle

One thing you must be ready to deal with in the county area is dirt roads, or at least the majority of roads being dirt, or at best hard pack and chip sealed. So if you come property shopping, be VERY AWARE of water runoff or low spots in the roads since in the spring that's an issue. Then again, that's a good rule of thumb anyhow...since we've seen home building pads that looked good in the fall and in the springtime had several springs bubbling up water directly where a house would have gone.

If you're really set on having paved roads to your house (and there are some BIG pluses to that, no doubt about it) be ready to look in a more limited run of areas. For example, in the west Dufort Valley @ Mays Road there is a meadow with houses and paved roads to every lot. Also just west of there is a development called Copper Ridge with 5 acre lots, shared well/septic, and paved roads to every lot. And up Mays Road, MOST of the sites have paved road to their lots. You'll find this to be true in several areas around here. For me, I don't mind gravel road since I maintain it and I keep it smooth so I could drive even a very low-chinned sports car on my road April-October. But if I bought something seriously ground scraping...well...I probably wouldn't drive that in Bonner County anyhow. It's one reason American classic are popular here...they almost all have great ground clearance compared to European exotics.

How are prices in Copper Ridge?

[Sage of Sagle]

I seem to recall in 2007 they were asking about $150K for a 5 acre lot. I bet they're down to well under $100K now.

[MrCarGuy]

Sounds good to me. Would I be allowed to shoot on my land? If I have neighbors they're welcome to ride on my land, As I seem to recall a lot of people ride horses in ID.

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Sandpoint Idaho real estate: Comments on NNA Copper Ridge Rd., Lot 1Sagle

[Sage of Sagle]

Originally Posted by MrCarGuy

Sounds good to me. Would I be allowed to shoot on my land? If I have neighbors they're welcome to ride on my land, As I seem to recall a lot of people ride horses in ID.

The simple answer is yes, you can shoot on your land. The better answer is that with only 5 acres it gets a bit iffy. If you have a hillside or you can use a skiploader to make a dirt hill backstop and set up pistol targets with no residence directly downrange, then great. But you wouldn't be shooting any long guns in that situation if you had any sense.

We have a lot of hillside on our back acreage, with a very good backstop for rifle rounds, but even for us I'm not real comfortable shooting trap or skeet here since the open space on our acreage would point "downrange" for that type of shooting too close to our neighbors.

So if you're looking to have your own range, I'd look for hillside or at least enough topographical variety to have a safe backstop.

[MrCarGuy]

Originally Posted by Sage of Sagle

The simple answer is yes, you can shoot on your land. The better answer is that with only 5 acres it gets a bit iffy. If you have a hillside or you can use a skiploader to make a dirt hill backstop and set up pistol targets with no residence directly downrange, then great. But you wouldn't be shooting any long guns in that situation if you had any sense.

We have a lot of hillside on our back acreage, with a very good backstop for rifle rounds, but even for us I'm not real comfortable shooting trap or skeet here since the open space on our acreage would point "downrange" for that type of shooting too close to our neighbors.

So if you're looking to have your own range, I'd look for hillside or at least enough topographical variety to have a safe backstop.

Sounds good to me. What would you say is a suitable amount of Acreage for rifles? Largest being shot, Probably .300 Winchester Magnum