Green Real Estate in Idaho

So… interesting air quality news in the Treasure Valley this past week. The Treasure Valley Air Quality Board Council submitted a proposal last year to the Idaho Legislature (which was approved) to modify the requirements for vehicle emissions testing. Currently, as I understand it, all vehicles are required to be tested annually to ensure that their emissions are not negatively impacting the air quality here in the Treasure Valley. Since the valley here is essentially a huge bowl, we have been known to experience inversions with poor air quality when the weather conditions are right and the air stagnates.

Currently, or previously as the case may be, vehicles were tested annually at a fee of between $10 and $15 (depending on testing station). Vehicles that did not pass their test were required to be serviced and re-tested in order to maintain their registration. I say this with some certainty, but am unable to say for sure as I can find no information about this on the
emissiontest.org website, and of all the vehicles that I have ever owned, none have ever failed the test. Apparently, maintaining vehicles in good working order appears to do wonders for ensuring that they run with some degree of cleanliness. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for other drivers here in the greater Boise area. I’m sure that many of you have been stuck behind the old clunker blowing blue smoke out the tailpipe, or the weekend warrior’s version of a monster truck that belches smokes constantly. Choking on fumes in traffic, it was always at least a small (ok, very small) consolation to know that hopefully those vehicles would fail their emissions test and get some service at SOME point. Well, with the new regs on the books, that may not be the case, at least not quite.

From 1984 to present, all vehicles manufactured on or after 1965 were to be tested annually. The new law states that all new vehicles for the first four years will be exempt along with hybrids and cars older than 1981. All vehicles that do require testing (built between ‘81 & 2006) will be tested every other year. Call me crazy, but if you’re going to exempt cars from testing, doesn’t it make more sense to exempt vehicles early in their lives when they’re the most likely to be running well with minimal maintenance? The first 5, 10, 15, or even 20 years make more sense to my keen unscientific mind for a pool of vehicles to be exempted. But everything built before 1981??

Taken from the Ada County Air Quality Board’s own website:

Over half of all vehicular pollution comes from only 10% of the vehicles. By identifying the dirtiest vehicles and getting them fixed the emissions testing program has been able to reduce vehicular pollution by about 18%.

Only time will tell if this shift in testing younger vehicles, every other year will have a negative impact on the air quality. But call me crazy, it doesn’t seem like a brilliant idea to this driver. The other kicker in parting… unless you drive an older vehicle, you won’t even save any money. Annual testing can be had for $10/year, bi-annual testing will be capped at $20 and as testing stations will now no longer test 15 years worth of vehicles and those that are tested only come by every other year, I would expect that it will be much harder to find sweet deals on pricing.

Continuing the trend of accolades over the past several years Boise once again lands in the top 10 list for the best places to live according to Yahoo Finance and US News. See the complete listing at the following link. http://xrl.in/2fup

While Boise has not escaped unscathed in these trying economic times, it has fared better than many. Jobs and housing will be key to any recovery and despite recent layoffs at several large employers in the Treasure Valley we continue to attract new business (both large and small) to further diversify and expand our economic base. The high quality of life and affordable cost of living continue to draw individuals, families, and investors from around the country to the city of trees.

All the more reason to move to the City of Trees! According to Yahoo Finance, Boise took the # 3 spot based on our combination of highly educated work force already in place and low cost of living/high quality of life. Over the past few years Boise has received many accolades as a fantastic place to live and work, frequently ranking in the top ten in many national publications. While not immune to the economic downturn, many employees that have taken leave of our high tech employers (Micron, HP) and remained in the Treasure Valley going into business for themselves.

For those of you that may not check out the article (it’s not that long, but I understand you may not click), we were beaten out of the top spot by Buenos Aires, Argentina & Winnipeg Canada. Check out the news for yourself, http://xrl.in/27d5.

You may not have heard, but now there is even more money available to first time home buyers, up to $7000 (seven thousand dollars) actually and the beauty of this new money is that it can be used at the time of purchase to put towards your down payment. As with everything in life and home buying, there are rules, restrictions, and qualifying that have to be addressed. The good news however is that if you’re a first time home buyer and you meet the qualification for the $8000 (eight thousand dollar) tax credit you’re well on your way.

This is a very new program and has enormous potential to help even more first time home buyers (FTHB) achieve their goals of home ownership. Coming up with thousands of dollars in closing costs and down payment is difficult at any time, today is no exception. The good news is that rates are at historic lows, prices are down, and inventory abounds in most price points here in the Treasure Valley. Rates are not likely to go much lower and when the FED begins curtailing their involvement in the purchase of mortgage backed securities rates will almost certainly rise later this year.

If you’re thinking about purchasing your first home, I’m here to help. Give me a call at your convenience and we can get started putting together a plan to get you into your new home in time to take advantage of all the fantastic incentives available to you. In fact, feel free to try out the new Google connection widget, top right of every page on this site. Just enter your name and your phone number and click connect.