Silver Valley 'a hidden treasure'

By CHANSE WATSON

Managing Editor

It may seem like a no-brainer to those of us who live here that Shoshone County is a great place to escape for a vacation getaway.

Those who do not live in this area, though, may not even be aware our little slice of North Idaho exists.

Helping change that is frequent flyer program and credit card web service, RewardExpert, who recently released a ranking of the “Best Places to Invest in a Winter Vacation Home” by region.

Coming just behind Grand County/Moab, Utah, for the top spot in the Mountain West region is, you guessed it — Shoshone County/Silver Valley, Idaho.

Receiving an overall score of 99.95 (Grand County received 99.98), the place we call home was highly recommended by the website.

Their explanation for the ranking said:

“…Northern Idaho’s Silver Valley is a hidden treasure, an ideal area to purchase a vacation property with easy access to Alpine ski areas without the sticker shock you’ll experience in other Rocky Mountain ski resort towns, like Sun Valley, Idaho, or Park City, Utah. The median price of a home in Shoshone County is only $129,500, which while low, reflects an increase of over 10 percent in the last year. Silver Valley is located directly on Interstate 90, which makes getting around, in and out of town, a simple matter.”

RewardExpert explains their rankings are based on 14 metrics broken down into four categories: real estate and economy, attractions and amenities, transportation infrastructure, and hazards to property and person. They analyzed 2,291 U.S. counties and then broke them down into six different regions: Northeast, South Atlantic, Midwest, South Central, Mountain West and Pacific West. The state of Idaho (and Shoshone County) was included in the Mountain West region. This region also included counties in Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming.

Placing third behind Shoshone County with a score of 87.87 is La Plata County/Durango, Colo. In terms of other counties in the state of Idaho that made the rankings list, Shoshone beat out Lemhi (10th with 36.25), Idaho (11th with 35.83) and Kootenai (19th with 17.92).

To view the full rankings lists from every region, visit www.rewardexpert.com.