Coeur d'Alene Real Estate - Come Live the Life Style - Christina Ethridge

30% of all sales are vacation-home buyers and investment home buyers. Sure that number has dropped from 33%, but it's still a very strong number.

Who are the buyers? Investment-home buyers in 2008 had a median age of 47, earned $85,000, and bought a home that was fairly close to their primary residence.

WSJ Article here

The thing is, the investors that are buying now are much more financially stronger than the bulk of investors that purchased 3-5 years ago. Today they are coming in with at least 30-35% down and all too often, cash for full purchase. They are also looking for serious deals, which has resulted in the buying of REO's and Short-Sales more frequently than a traditional re-sale.

This one is a bit near and dear to my heart - one of my boys wants to build cars as his career and he needs to start out with a full understanding of the workings - aka, mechanics! Neither his father or I know enough to get him beyond the basics so the idea of a Vo-Tech high school campus in the Coeur d'Alene area is very attractive to us.

COEUR d'ALENE -- The House Revenue and Tax Committee unanimously approved a bill Tuesday that would give cooperative service agencies created by school districts the ability to use plant facilities levies to pay for new buildings.

A 100-acre parcel on the Rathdrum Prairie has been secured for use as a professional-technical campus through a partnership of North Idaho College, the North Idaho Manufacturers Consortium, the city of Rathdrum and the owners of the land, the Meyer family of Rathdrum, who all signed an agreement in October outlining their intentions.

NIC is purchasing 40 acres to develop its professional-technical programs, and the Lakeland School District is purchasing 20 acres to use as the site for a future school.

The final 20 acres have been set aside for the Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls and Lakeland school districts to use to build a professional-technical high school.

Full article here.

Bank files action for $14.6 million against luxury home project on Lake Coeur d’Alene

The complaint filed by American Bank, based in Bozeman, Mont., centers on Black Rock North, a 1,100-acre tract that Chesrown and his investment companies envisioned as an extension of the original Black Rock luxury golf club at Rockford Bay.

Though construction crews built the second golf course, the demand for luxury homes to pay for the project has collapsed. No homes or lots have been sold and the Black Rock North Development group has defaulted. The plans included 206 homes and 325 condo units overlooking the lake.

The development company hasn’t made a payment this year and efforts to reach a loan restructuring agreement with American Bank have so far failed, said Chesrown’s lawyer, Barry Davidson, a Spokane attorney specializing in bankruptcy, receiverships and business restructurings.

Davidson emphasized that Black Rock North is separate from the adjoining Club at Black Rock, the area’s first exclusive waterfront golf retreat.

Interesting...

Article here

The Arbor Day Foundation has once again hailed Coeur d'Alene as a "Tree City" - this makes it the 25th consecutive year that Coeur d'Alene has been a Tree City.

The Tree City USA® program, sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters, provides direction, technical assistance, public attention, and national recognition for urban and community forestry programs in thousands of towns and cities that more than 120 million Americans call home.

Based on data from moving companies, California had the second highest population out-flow of any state in 2005, according to the report.

The report was published by the American Legislative Exchange Council and it showed that jobs are not just leaving the country, they are moving from state to state and the population is following.

Top 10 "Winners" - % of moves outbound

1. Oregon - 36.4%
   
2. Idaho - 38.1%
   
3. Delaware - 38.6%
   
4. North Carolina - 38.7%
   
5. Nevada - 39.9%
   
6. Arizona - 39.9%
   
7. South Carolina - 41.0%
   
8. Alabama - 41.2%
   
9. Tennessee - 42.0%
   
10. Kentucky - 44.7%

Top 10 "Losers" - % of moves outbound

1. North Dakota - 67.8%
2. Michigan - 63.9%
3. New Jersey - 60.4%
4. Indiana - 59.9%
5. New York - 59.8%
6. Illinois - 50.4%
7. Louisiana - 57.9%
8. Rhode Island - 57.0%
9. Pennsylvania - 56.0%
10. California - 55.7%