Retiring Female in CDA? Your Thoughts Please (Boise, Ketchum: transplants, living)

[NW Crow]

Test visit but even after maybe rent the first year. Then pick your best spot based on your local experience... or move on far easier.

[kttam186290]

Originally Posted by movedintime

100% correct.

My experience also, the weather does vary, but after the years of -20 winters and a few summers when it never got above 70, and only for a couple weeks then back to winter, all I could dream of and including my friends was getting out of there before retirement age. Beautiful area, but better left for the young.

...and, there's not much for the young either, unless you don't mind stocking shelves at Costco or taking orders at a restaurant?

The few government (state/county/city/forestry) jobs available don't pay very much and are given to relatives of the people who work within the system. There are jobs in medical but they tend to contract and expand with the economy. There are a lot of small-to-medium sized businesses around the area, but they don't pay very well and generally don't offer good benefits.

Public school teacher pay is abysmal compared to other states like Oregon, Washington and California. I don't see that changing as long as the same radicals keep getting elected in Boise.

Spokane, Washington is nearby (wages are better in Washington state) and you can find employment there if you're lucky, but you have to remember that Spokane people take care of each other first, and you can't blame them for that because they don't have a duty to employ everyone who decides to plop down in North Idaho.

And -- as you mentioned -- despite having a climate that does not favor the physical health and well-being of retirees, the economy in North Idaho almost exclusively caters to people who arrive from other states with generous pensions and retirement funds.

Everyone else gets left on the outside looking in, it seems.

[wiseguy15]

By all means you should retire to CDA provided you have the right perspective. I moved here in early September last year, from Denver, so I have survived my first winter and the transition to a new place so here is my attempt to address your concerns.


As far as snow removal goes I, too, recommend you have a snowblower and take care of your own space rather than rely on a service/person. Plus the fact that you will be retiring means you can stay home if needed if the weather is particularly bad. Some posted comments about removing snow from your roof, I don't think that is too important unless you have a flat roof. Of course a roof rake would be a good tool to have to reduce the possibility of ice dams but this is another thing you can do yourself. And of course shoveling is not bad exercise, may save you from paying for a gym membership This year we had 50% more snow than normal but it was very manageable; it did differ from Colorado a bit because it didn't seem to melt between storms. Of course the average high temps were colder this winter also which prevented some melting but the lack of sunshine was probably the bigger factor preventing melting. Some complain about the gray in the winter, I found that by staying busy and active I just got used to it and it did not bother me. On the plus side of winter here, the temps don't swing by such huge amounts as they did in CO so most days one can get out and enjoy winter activities comfortably.


I have found the community to be very friendly and lots of things to do. Of course this assumes you are friendly and move up here wanting to get out and do things, that attitude will be true of wherever you decide to move to. I love the size of CDA, not too big and yet big enough that we have most everything we need here and that keeps people here rather than running over to Spokane for everything. But it is nice having a large city nearby, especially for the airport. There are a lot of things going on in CDA so never a dull moment, even the nearby Casinos bring in some good entertainment.


I haven't experienced the loss of power yet though I have been told it can happen often. I am outside town on acreage so I would expect some outages but if you are in town I would think outages would be minimal. I did bring my generator with me and the house I bought is wired for it so I am prepared as I believe most should be who live outside of town.


Two weekends ago I was in Phoenix visiting family and it made me miss the cold and gray of CDA even though it was warm down there. With all the greenery and scenery here I would take CDA over the dull, lifeless landscape of Arizona anytime. Good luck with your decision and feel free to PM me with any specific issues/questions.

[kttam186290]

Originally Posted by wiseguy15

...I would take CDA over the dull, lifeless landscape of Arizona anytime. Good luck with your decision and feel free to PM me with any specific issues/questions.

"Dull" and "lifeless" huh?

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Originally Posted by kttam186290

"Dull" and "lifeless" huh?

I too think Arizona is beautiful. I love the desert. There is lots to recommend Arizona, but unless you get up into the mountains, the weather is far too hot for me.

Hot weather isn't much of a deterrent to a person whose lifestyle is indoors. Air conditioning works just fine. I'm not an indoor person, so I will leave Arizona to others. (including a lot of retirees from my area who summer here and winter there)

[Sandpointian]

Originally Posted by suaz

I am a single female planning on retiring and moving from AZ to CDA. I can't take the heat any more, and am looking for four seasons.

Would the winters be too much for me do you think?
I would want to hire someone for snow removal. What do you do when there are power outages?
Are people friendly? Is it an easy community to make new friends?

I would love to get your thoughts. I fell in love with CDA when I visited last year. I was there in October but have not visited during the winter.

Some thoughts

1. Winter lasts from mid November to mid-March. It is a true four months. Not much sun, though when it comes out it is glorious.
2. Depending on the year, the month before and after may stretch winter to six months.
3. During these six months, if not dark, cold or snowy, it will likely be rainy.
4. The snow is not Colorado or Tahoe snow. CDA is at 2188', not 5000-8000 of the Rockies and Sierras. One warmish day and the streets are slush.
5. If you live in town and have a good roof, you might need to hire a perfect to shovel your roof once a year, or once every few years. If you live out of town on rural land, you need to get an old 4 x 4 and get it fitted to be your snow plow vehicle. You might even want to get a small dozer. If rural, you would want a way to store these guys--carport.
6. Power outage: stub for a generator, build a pad and encase the generator. But that is for if you are out of town. In town, I am not sure if it is worth it? Probably a decent one you can get at Costco and use once every seven years is fine.

7. Like Sandpoint, you will get more of the life if you can get a boat for June-Sept.
8. If you can rent over a winter, you will get that first hand experience of all this.

S.

[Idaho54]

I moved from Phoenix to CDA to retire. Was there three years. Loved the weather, thought the winters were mild and beautiful.

Summer is great. Lots of hiking and lakes, rivers, etc.

The rest of the year? Not much to do. No bookstores, no record stores, one theater (which I didn't like). Very few restaurants. Lots of burgers and pancakes. Some 'fancy resort' restaurants if you're into that sort of thing (I'm not, I prefer a good ethnic restaurant).

I found people nice but not friendly. It's small town and small town means family only. It's very hard to make friends there.

Cost of living was great, although housing prices have gone up quite a bit. If you're thinking 'well, I can drive to Spokane to go shopping' it's kind of a long drive. And Spokane... well, it's a pit. I didn't go there once my last year in town.

[CAHntr]

Originally Posted by 509

I lived in Coeur d'Alene as a single male in my twenties in the late 70's. I suspect that was easier than a single female in retirement.

...

We lived and retired in eastern Washington with a much, much milder climate than CDA. My wife refuses to live there from November though April due to cloudy weather. She moves to Arizona during that time. I go down in January and come back in late March. I would definitely skip December up here, but that is our busy season for the business.

...

I'm curious about the general location in Eastern WA and any differences you would care to share. The wife and I are strongly considering retiring in Idaho in about 7 years and this kind of information helps a lot.

[509]

The milder weather in eastern Washington stretches from Clarkston through Walla Walla into Tri-Cities and Yakima and then up to Wenatchee and Chelan.

Summers I would rather be in Wenatchee. Winters are nicer in Clarkston, Walla Walla and Tri-Cities.

Worst weather period is from Thanksgiving through Presidents Day on average. The weather during that time is as bad as Seattle (which ties Maine for the worst cloudy weather in the nation). Outside those dates the weather improves dramatically as the sun angle is high enough to burn off the fog plus the storms out of the Gulf of Alaska lose strength and do not cross the Cascades.

I grew up and lived in California for about 15 years. That arc of towns are the only places that I would even consider living in the Northwest. Those winters in Arizona are great!!

If your set on retiring in Idaho consider Lewiston, Boise area, up to around Twin Falls. Idaho is a real state run by real people. Washington on the other hand is totally run by the Corporations and the 1%. Advantages to both, lots of different cultural differences between north and south in Idaho and east and west in Washington.

[Cnynrat]

There are a few independent bookstores in CDA now, and at least one record store. I don't know what they are like as I do most of my book shopping on Amazon. Perhaps it was different when Idaho54 lived there.

I don't think you'd need to go to Spokane for shopping other than perhaps for a few specialty items. CDA has good grocery stores, Costco, Home Depot and Lowes, and many of the other big box chains have outlets there. Living in outside Sandpoint we shop in CDA once every month or two. The only shopping we do in Spokane is an occasional trip to Trader Joe's, a favorite from when we lived in CA.

If you do need to shop in Spokane, I think many of the shopping spots are in Spokane Valley, which is in between Spokane and CDA. Downtown Spokane seems a bit drab and run down, but hey, you aren't thinking about living there!

The restaurant scene in CDA reflects the reality that it's a relatively small city surrounded by a mainly rural area, and the local economy has a primary focus on tourism. You can find most popular ethnic cuisines, but the depth of choices is limited. There are a fair number of reasonably good American spots, and a few very nice restaurants if you seek them out. If you want big city type choices when in comes to dining out you should think about moving to a larger city. To the extent CDA has shortcomings in this area I think it's typical of it's size, not something unique about CDA. Most people would consider my wife and I to be "foodies," and we don't have trouble finding interesting spots to eat in CDA when we are down there, which admittedly is not even a weekly event. We don't tend to dine out a whole lot - we both enjoy cooking at home.

Dave