Californians My old buddy Bill and his wife Kym are just two in the parade of people I know who have packed it up and moved to Idaho. If somebody I know says, “We’ve decided to move out of California. We’re moving to...” I can finish the sentence for them: “Idaho.” They are moving to the Boise area, buying homes in suburb communities all within a few miles of each other. The community names are familiar to me now: Eagle, Star, Middleton, Caldwell, Nampa… As it so happens, my wife and I loaded up the truck and travel-trailer and headed out to Idaho two weeks ago for her niece’s wedding in the little town of Tetonia, on the eastern edge of Idaho. As we drove through Boise, we saw the boom first-hand as we travelled past miles of new-home subdivisions in various stages of completion and lots of earth-churning in preparation for more construction. “Ugg...,” said my wife. “There’s your California Dollar at work,” I said. As we drove on, my wife said, “It really is beautiful. This part of the state looks a little like the Sacramento Valley.” True, I thought. But I’m a committed Californian. As we rolled through tiny Tetonia, I said to my wife, “Well, I’ll bet the California Dollar hasn’t made it this far. Not much going on here. This is old-style Idaho.” 34
U P G R A D E D L I V I N G M AG A Z I N E S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1
I texted a selfie-photo of my wife and I to my buddy Tom, who lives in Geyserville, California. “Tetonia, Idaho is beautiful!” I said. Tom texted back, “Just wait for the 9 feet of snow in the winter.” Tom is a committed Californian. At the RV park, an energetic young guy, the new owner of the park as it turns out, after discovering we were from Chico, said, “I just met a guy from Chico a little while ago. He bought a piece of property over here.” He pointed vaguely to the south toward waving trees, creek banks, and big green fields. “It’s some land with a big red barn.” “From Chico?” I said. I thought to myself, “What would land and a barn sell for around here, maybe $300,000? $400,000? “Yeah, Chico, California,” said the young guy. “He got it for 1.2.” “Million?” said my wife and I together. “Yeah,” said the guy. “He snapped it up before anyone else knew it was for sale.” We are here to report that the California Dollar is moving across the west like a wildfire. Doug Love is Sales Manager at Century 21 in Chico. Email dougwlove@gmail.com. Call or text 530-680-0817. See an archive of columns at lovesrealstories.com.
