We’ve also perused Zillow for Rathdum and Post Falls. Opinions?
Both are nice towns, but both have huge growth and are sprawling all over the place. In a few years, they are going to swallow up what’s left of the Rathdrum Prairie and they will merge, the same way all the once-separate towns from LA to San Diego all merged together.
Post Falls is close to Interstate 90, so you get more growth, development, traffic and noise. The state has been rebuilding Highway 41 from PF to Rathdrum. It used to be a sleepy two-lane road, but now it’s a four lane highway most of the way. Construction continues. It still has red lights and only one railroad overcrossing.
The new neighborhoods are all cookie-cutter with identical homes on smallish lots.
The people are great. Very family oriented, strong religious values, many churches all over to choose from.
There are lots of options. If you like the suburban neighborhood style, they are good choices. If you want more country life, you can head further north, south or east. If you really want a smaller town with less hustle & bustle, go up to Sandpoint or further to Bonner’s Ferry. There’s great skiing in Sandpoint at Schweitzer. There is a bunch of smaller lakes heading north from Rathdrum to choose from, too. Twin Lakes, Spirit Lake or, to the west, Hauser Lake and Newman Lake. Dover on the Pend Oreille River just west of Sandpoint is gorgeous now. Like many areas, it was a huge lumber mill town, but all that is going and there are beautiful homes on the water. (My mom was born in Sandpoint and lived in Dover for a few months as an infant almost 100 years ago!).
Don’t forget about fires and smoke as they are regular occurrences in the great forests of the Northwest. Some years we don’t get hit, other years we can have weeks of smoke. Right now, there’s a stubborn 2,500 acre fire only 8 miles from us at the north end of Hayden Lake (the “Ridge Creek Fire”). It’s 16 miles due east of Rathdrum. It started on August 3. In the mornings, we are getting mild smoke smell, but the winds usually clean it up by mid-day. The winds have shifted from the east and there’s a brown plume blowing west from the fire toward Rathdrum right now. We have four 100 degree days coming up which is not good.
It all depends what you’re looking for, of course. What are your requirements and criteria?