Journal · May 20, 2026
The Spokane Valley pencil-test — what a WA-to-ID move actually costs.
The pitch you usually hear about moving from Washington to North Idaho is "lower taxes, lower cost of living, better lifestyle." Two of those are true. One of them is, for a working-age Spokane Valley household, mostly false.
The Spokane Valley conversation is the one where being honest costs me a sale every couple of months — but it wins more than it loses, and either way it’s the right thing to do.
The pitch you usually hear about moving from Washington to North Idaho is some version of “lower taxes, lower cost of living, better lifestyle.” Two of those are true. One is, for a working-age Spokane Valley household, mostly false.
Here’s the math on a real scenario.
The setup
- Selling: $700K Spokane Valley house
- Buying: $750K Hayden house, comparable profile
- Household income: $200K, married filing jointly
- Two cars
What goes down moving to Idaho
Property tax. Spokane County effective rate runs about 0.83–0.93%. Kootenai with the homestead exemption applied is closer to 0.5%. On the same-value home, the saving is roughly $2,700 per year.
Real estate transfer tax (REET). Washington’s graduated REET hits the seller on the way out — about $8,400 to $10,500 on a $700K sale. Idaho has no transfer tax. That’s a one-time saving on the sale side, not on the Idaho buy, but the dollars are real.
Vehicle registration. Idaho is materially cheaper. Two cars at roughly $57–$69 each per year vs. Washington’s value-based fees: about $20 per month saved.
Homeowners insurance. Kootenai’s average premium runs slightly below Spokane County’s. Maybe $10 per month less, on a comparable $750K home outside the highest wildfire band.
What goes up
State income tax. This is the one most pitches gloss over. Washington has no state income tax. Idaho is a flat 5.3% (above the first $5,000 joint).
On a $200K joint household income, the new Idaho state income tax bill is roughly $9,800 per year — money that didn’t exist in your Spokane Valley budget.
The property tax savings of $2,700 don’t come close to covering $9,800.
The honest bottom line
Add it up:
- Property tax: $2,700 saved
- Vehicle registration + insurance: ~$400 saved
- Income tax: $9,800 new
- Net: about $6,700 worse per year, ongoing.
The math page works the same scenario in more detail and lands slightly worse than that — closer to $7,500/yr — after the full line-item accounting. Either way, the trajectory is the same. Spokane Valley to North Idaho is not a tax move for a working-age household.
So why do people do it anyway?
If you’re moving from Spokane Valley to North Idaho, you’re not moving for the math. You’re moving for:
- Lake access. Spokane Valley has Liberty Lake and the river. CDA has Lake Coeur d’Alene, Hayden Lake, and Lake Pend Oreille 45 minutes away.
- School district choice — CDA, Lakeland, Post Falls, the Coeur d’Alene Charter school, plus private options.
- A specific neighborhood feel — the lakefront walkability of CDA, the family-suburb pacing of Hayden, the acreage option further north.
- Non-tax cost of living. Groceries, contractor labor, and meals out have generally been meaningfully lower in CDA than in the Spokane metro through 2025–2026. Not a sure thing forever, but the gap is real now.
- The view out the window.
Those are real, and worth real money to plenty of buyers. Saying so honestly is more useful than pretending the income tax math works.
The exception: retirees and structured 1099 income
Social Security is exempt from Idaho income tax. If your retirement income is primarily Social Security plus modest pension, the income tax hit shrinks significantly and the property tax savings start showing up as a real win. Some 1099 / contractor structures can also optimize state-source income across the WA/ID line in ways that change the calculation.
Don’t make those decisions on what a blog post said. Talk to a CPA who’s worked both sides of the line.
The take
Get the real math on your own situation before you decide. The full breakdown of property tax, income tax, insurance, and closing costs across CA/WA/OR/TX origins lives on the math page, with sources, dates, and a worked example for each.
If after running the actual numbers the lifestyle still wins, great — that’s a clear-eyed move. If it doesn’t, you’ve saved yourself the cost of finding out the hard way.
We’ve helped Spokane Valley families on both sides of this decision. The ones who moved didn’t regret it. Neither did the ones who didn’t. Run the math first — then make the lifestyle decision with clear eyes.