Idaho Travel Forum

My husband and I are originally from Alaska and transplanted to Texas four years ago. We are now wanting to head back to the North West and thinking of moving to Spokane or the Coeur d'Alene area?

We are really into the outdoors... snowboarding, hiking, biking, camping, fishing... all that good stuff. We are about to start a family, and my parents want to relocate with us. We are not really into night life too much, but enjoy going out every now and then and we also love local festivals and all that fun stuff.

What we're trying to get is more information about the areas. We really want to visit to help make up our minds, but don't know what parts of town to check out and such. We are not having much luck with realtors helping us, so I figure this is a good place to check!! We want to know about good parts of town and such!!

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!! "Thank you" in advance!!

Hi,
My wife was raised in Spokane and we resided there for 7 years a few years back. Spokane is a terrific place to raise a family. It tends to be a very conservative town which has a very low crime rate. The school systems are very good and have all the new technology.

The area abounds with fishing, hunting, skiing and just about any sport that you might want. Housing is very cheap compared to other parts of the state. The only bad thing that I can say about Spokane is there are very few good paying jobs.. Plus the winters tend to be cold.

Mike

Really, any location in Spokane is great. We prefer, although, the South Hill. The locals call it Pill Hill, since there are a lot of mansions which are owned by the doctors. There is an abundance of smaller brick homes with nice lots on the South Hill as well. There is also a very large park that boasts winter sledding and ice skating on the ponds. The park also has a large pool and picnic areas.

Spokane is now a major medical center for the area and they always seem to be enlarging the hospitals. The South Hill has always been more desirable to us because of all the trees and elegant homes. The prices of homes tend to be very low. The schools on the South Hill are also very good.
Mike

South Hill is really nice. Probably one of the best neighborhoods in town.
There's also the Garland District on the north side of the city that's very nice and probably a little cheaper than South Hill.
There's also the area along the Spokane River northwest of town. It's quite a drive in, but it's very, very nice out there.
You should probably live closer to where you work. Driving in Spokane isn't really that easy. Not really any freeways.
A lot of people in Spokane actually live in Idaho (Post Falls or Coeur d' Alene) and commute in because of the difference in taxes. This is why I-90 is such a bad drive through Spokane Valley.
The Spokane area is gorgeous though. It's kind of a merging of several regions. You have the beautiful, rolling wheat fields to the south, the Cascade-like mountain areas to the north and west. Lots of outdoor stuff close to the city.
I really the Downtown area too. There's a beautiful park area on the former World's Fair Site surrounding the falls (with the famous Radio Flyer slide and an adjacent carousel), a huge shopping mall, and lots of shops, restaurants and bars. Even if you're not really into nightlife, you'd definitely find lots to do in Downtown Spokane. And it's not overly crowded.
But, yeah, I would probably move there if I could actually find a job. The economy seems to be perpetually bad.
hth