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Whether it’s agriculture, tourism or energy, a look at the industries that shape Idaho’s economy and how they are affected by state policies.

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March 25, 2013

Low Inventory Continues To Drive Up Treasure Valley Home Prices

Spring marks the start of the busy season for home-buying and selling. In the Treasure Valley, the housing market mirrors national trends. The story is one of few homes for sale, and high demand. Mike Turner, an agent with Front Street Brokers in Boise, will tell you: the local housing market was competitive last spring, and [...]

March 20, 2013

Supervalu Sale Of Albertsons Stores Expected To Close Thursday

Boise’s hometown grocery store is expected to be back under one umbrella Thursday at midnight, according to an Albertsons LLC spokesperson. Supervalu’s sale of Albertsons stores to Cerberus Capital Management will reunite the brands that were split in 2006. In January, Supervalu announced it was selling all Albertsons, Acme, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s and Star Market stores [...]

February 14, 2013

How Investor-Buyers Shaped One Boise Housing Development Hit Hard In The Downturn

A "For Rent" sign stood in front of a home in Charter Pointe last week.

It’s clear that residential real estate investors played a role in the boom and bust in Idaho’s housing market. Realtors tell stories of receiving call after call from out-of-state speculators attracted by Idaho’s high growth rate and low cost of housing. Yesterday, we reported on a southwest Boise subdivision called Charter Pointe that’s still reeling [...]

February 13, 2013

Boise’s Housing Bust Leaves Unlikely Victims In A Neighborhood That Saw The Worst

Ryan, Scott and Tara Arellano, at home in their kitchen

Homeowners, credit intact, still making their monthly mortgage payments. They’re not who we think of first when we think of the damage brought on by the housing crisis. But in a sprawling, master-planned southwest Boise subdivision called Charter Pointe, they’re a group that has struggled. More than most cities, Boise felt the brunt of the [...]

February 4, 2013

Why Idaho’s Fast Foreclosure Process Pays Off For The State’s Housing Market

Housing markets show more signs of revival in states like Idaho, where homes move through foreclosure quickly.

This morning, NPR’s Morning Edition took a look at Florida’s slowest-in-the-nation foreclosure process. The state’s foreclosure rate recently surpassed Nevada’s to become the highest in the country. Many say Florida’s long legal process is to blame. In Idaho, by contrast, the foreclosure process is unusually short. That’s according to RealtyTrac vice president Daren Blomquist. He [...]

January 31, 2013

“Worst Place To Buy” Ranking Is Fine News For Boise Homeowners

Housing data provider RealtyTrac is out with new numbers that show Boise is one of the worst places to buy a foreclosure. That’s not a bad thing. “Certainly from the perspective of homeowners in that market, it’s a good thing to be on that worst list,” says RealtyTrac vice president Daren Blomquist. “Really what that [...]

January 24, 2013

Boise Cascade To Start Selling Its Stock Again

Freshly cut lumber awaits the dry kilns at an Idaho Forest Group mill.

Molly Messick / StateImpact Idaho The Idaho Statesman reports Boise Cascade LLC plans to go public after nine years as a privately-held company. Eighty percent of Boise Cascade is held by Madison Dearborn Partners, a Chicago private-equity firm. The status change will make money for Madison Dearborn, spokesman John Sahlberg said.

January 23, 2013

Idaho’s Business Personal Property Tax By The Numbers

All the drawers, shelving, and buckets that hold sweets at Powell's Candy Shoppe in Boise are taxed annually.

Over the next few days, StateImpact Idaho will roll out radio features, an interactive map, and county-by-county data on Idaho’s business personal property tax. Why? The tax has long been loathed by some businesses and their lobbyists. The Legislature is under increasing pressure to decide how and when to repeal the tax during the current [...]

January 16, 2013

Idaho’s Construction Industry Slogs Through Slow Growth

Earlier this week Stateline wrote about signs of the construction industry turnaround. Their opening scene: downtown Boise. “The corner of 8th and Main streets in downtown Boise, Idaho, was jokingly called “the hole” because it had been vacant since a 1987 fire there. No more. Construction began last summer on a new $60-million building that’s [...]

Idaho Commerce Department Touts Attendance At Las Vegas Gun Show

Ammunition designed and manufactured by PNW Arms, a company that relocated from the Seattle suburbs to Potlatch, Idaho in 2011.

The Idaho Department of Commerce and 24 Idaho businesses are attending the Shooting Hunting Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show and Conference taking place in Las Vegas through Friday. The trade show is billed as “the largest and most comprehensive trade show for all professionals involved with the shooting sports, hunting and law enforcement industries.” It’s owned [...]

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