Into the Sunset

“Starter home” can mean a lot of things. Maybe you’re starting with something small. Or it’s an older house in need of some upgrades. Maybe it means you’re starting at the most affordable option on the market. Or it’s simply the first home you ever buy.

Whatever the case, they aren’t always easy to find, especially in such a popular place to live like Coeur d’Alene. The new construction in the area tends to be outside the city limits, and anything near downtown comes with its own premium price tag.

Thankfully, there aren’t many bad places to live in Coeur d’Alene, and you can still find (a few) affordable options in the heart of the city.

Consider the area just north of Best Avenue and east of Fourth Street. You can’t get any more centrally located — the Fourth Street exit to Interstate 90 can be reached by car in less than two minutes, and reaching downtown will only take a couple minutes more.

The food trucks on Best Avenue are real close too. You can probably walk to them, and with that exercise, you can then order double the food.

The area always brings back memories of my childhood, as I had a few friends who lived in the area, and I also attended nearby Borah Elementary. That probably doesn’t matter to you readers out there, but it allows me to make another reference to the great Videonics rental store that existed where the nearby Subway and Panda Express now sit.

Even with its proximity to I-90 and the food-centric stretch of Appleway, there’s still that classic neighborhood feel once you move north from Best by even half a block. The area also includes Sunset Park, a 5-acre green space located at 1355 E. Best Ave. It includes playground equipment, a basketball court and two softball fields. Borah Elementary also sits a block or so south of Best Avenue, or you can push north a bit to reach another green space, North Pines Park, just off Lunceford Lane.

Now, onto this “affordable” talk, keeping in mind of course that affordable means different things to different buyers. For Coeur d’Alene anyway, affordability starts around this neighborhood’s price range.

Two recent homes currently listed as pending come in around the $225,000 range. One is a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with just under 1,000 square feet (it also comes with an extra lot). The other is a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with 2,200 square feet. Both homes were up there in age.

A nearby active listing is a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with 1,400 square feet built in 2008 listed for $289,000. Looking at what’s sold in the last couple years in the area, you see quite a bit in this same range, with a few smaller homes selling around the $200,000 mark.

For what it’s worth, Realtor.com lists the median sales price in the neighborhood (classified as Bestlands) at just under $230,000, with the market raising modestly-but-consistently over the past few years.

Whether the neighborhood works for you depends on your personal needs, but at the very least, your kids would be attending the best elementary school in North Idaho — Borah Elementary. Did I mention I went to school there?

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Let us know about more standout neighborhoods and developments that we may feature in an upcoming Neighborhood of the Week. Contact Tyler Wilson at twilson@cdapress.com.

Real Estate Agents, take advantage of Neighborhood of the Week by sending in your suggestions for featured areas, including sites outside the normal confines of Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and Hayden.