TobiasJones

Mead is popluar because it is beautiful. It is close enough to the city but has a country feel. (I just moved to mead) I look out my bedroom and living room windows and see trees not my neighbors houses. If you are looking at deer park you are looking at a more rural area. this means fewer services, longer drives and no man eating dear buy you could have coyotes. I would look east of rt.2, south of day mt. spokane rd and north of Doak rd. Most of this area is in the Mead schools (I don't believe that there is any wonderful public schools anymore) but I think mead overall is the best in the area. - Mon Sep 29 2008, 21:03

The south hill is the nicest area that spokane has to offer. Homes are old, small and overpriced but beautiful. Our freeway is in terrible shape and it is going to be a disaster if they close it to do repairs. Liberty lake is very nice but a long commute to downtown. You can't always get from the Y (main north south route where 395 and 2 split) to downtown in under 30 min. There are very nice places north of the Y and there is going to be a north south freeway that should be completed by 2050 (not kidding)

Latah Valley off 395 south is very nice if you like suburbia and is within 20 min from downtown. - Mon Sep 29 2008, 20:51

Spokane has some beautiful places to hike. The Centenial trail is a wonderful asset and one of the reasons I moved up here from San Diego a few months ago. It is fairly busy and has a lot of bikes on it. Riverside state park is great. There is a neighborhood off rifle club road that you could easily walk to the park from. My favorite is Mt. Spokane. There isn't a lot of housing close to the park and no stores close by. Dishman Hills is nice to but the north side of the park feels kinda far out of town to me and the south side is too close to the industrial wasteland that we call Spokane Valley. I looked at some homes on the east side of the park that were ok.

Latah Valley and Liberty lake are both very nice areas. Suburbia at its finest.

Mead has a great rural feel without having to drive forever to get someplace.

I would look closely at the South Hill. It is a very walkable area. Homes are overpriced, small and old but the neighborhoods are beautiful and manito park is very nice. - Mon Sep 29 2008, 20:39

I love all the positive energy you guys have. I really do. BethAnn hit it on the head. I have trust issues with Realtors. I have two friends in San Diego who I respect as inteligent people who recently got forclosed on and a third who is $200K upside down on her house. I expect that their agents also told them something about San Diego being special and all kinds of justifications for why homes were more expensive than they have been historically. They bought into it because San Diego IS a special, unique place with lots of great atributes. And now they are renters again. San Diegos median home price dropped from 525K at the peak to 390K currently. I realize that for a thousand different reasons Spokane is not the same as San Diego. I think that Spokane is different but not immune. I have realized with your help that forclosures will not be any more than a blip on Spokenes' real estate market. My agent in Spokane was a wonderful guy who was very laid back and low pressure. I thought that was a great thing at first. Now I realize if I could open the Supra lock boxes myself he would be entirely useless. I think he is a really nice person he just isn't offering me much of a service. I have found some of your comments very helpful and will probably call you when I find a house I want to make an offer on.

DON I am sorry if you feel like I am being disingenuous when asking for advice. I have been renting for the last 12 years as I followed my wife all over the world. I have been diligently saving and want a house for my family. I am sick of moving but I am just trying to take every precaution that I can to ensure their security. After seeing my co-workers go through the stress of losing their homes I would like to avoid that at all costs. It is my desire to take good care of my familly that is my motivation for all these questions.

Donna: Really! The NAR tagline of "Real Estate Always Goes Up!" and "Now is A Great Time To Buy" are so out dated. If you want me to think of you as anything other than a sleezy snake oil sales woman try a little more thoughtful answer. If I call you can you hook me up with a nothing down loan for the purchace of a house that will have instant equity? Then can I get a HELOC to buy another house as a rental? repeat repeat repeat until I am driving a Ferrari? If I don't "Get in while you can and start riding the equity wave and stop paying your landlords mortgage any longer!" will I be a looser forever? How would you like it if I made medical procedures sound like they were life or death if really I was just trying to pad my pockets. This is exactly the kind of marketing that I find offensive and why i feel I can't trust RE agents. I expect this is what my friends in San Diego got caught up in.
I think Spokane is a beautiful place. My wife just got out of the Navy and we could have moved anywhere in the world. We chose Spokane. I currently expect to retire here (I'm in my early 30s)
I have really apreciated your comments and advice.

WHY I AM GOING TO WAIT: Do you all really think I am missing out on something if I don't buy RIGHT NOW? I don't see anything in the economic forcast that would lead me to believe that prices are going to do anything except go down over the next 6 months. Inflation is up, unemployment is up (6.1% in Spokane in march vs average of 4.8% last year) lending standards are tightening and I believe will continue to tighten over the summer. FHA loans are going to be more expensive starting in July. I think at the price point I am looking at these things are hurting people and will effect their ability to buy a home or stay in their home in the near future. I think invintory will continue to increase and anyone who needs to sell their home will be forced to lower their price. I don't mean to insult anyone when I mentioned that I think home prices may fall. It is only ment as an observation based on market forces that make up the value of anything. I do expect values to increase here in the long term because it is such a beautiful place (and we will have a price explosion when California runs out of water!) I just think there are lots of things that are depressing peoples ability to buy a house and usually when you have an decrease in demand and an increase in supply something needs to change to achive equilibrium. I think in the next six months it has to be prices decreasing. I am actually worried that all the good houses will be bought early and if I wait till the end of summer only trash will be left. I will continue to check the public MLS and go to open houses and hope that my perfect home is out there. I do think that there are well priced homes now on the market but I just haven't seen them. I am realizing the limiits of how much infomation you can gather online. Sometimes you just have to drive down a street to decide if you would want to live there or not.

Thanks everybody. - Mon May 19 2008, 20:16

I DO, But I think some things you just need to see first hand. I Just moved to the area Sunday and have been driving from Fairchild AFB to Liberty Lake trying to get an idea of where I want to live. It looks like prices are falling on new construction in Colbert but I haven't been up there to see if it is worth the commute to downtown.

Good luck with the church! - Sat May 17 2008, 13:19