Since 1977, the Idaho Foundation for Parks and Lands has stewarded the iconic open space

It’s hard to imagine a gift of land that might be more meaningful and significant in Ketchum/Sun Valley, Idaho. The iconic Reinheimer Ranch, with more than 110 acres of open space and pasture lands, greets visitors as they approach Ketchum on both sides of state Highway 75. The pastures are often occupied by draft horses and wildlife—foxes, coyotes and elk in particular.

The late Eleanor Reinheimer gifted the property to the Idaho Foundation for Parks and Lands in 1977. Eleanor and her husband, Howard, who hailed from New York, began visiting the Wood River Valley in the late 1930s, when Union Pacific Railroad and its Chairman Averell Harriman were just beginning to promote the area to Hollywood celebrities and New Yorkers.

The Reinheimers purchased the ranch in 1941; they often spent the entire summers in the quiet haven, especially after World War II, says Doug Bradshaw, the trustee designated by the Reinheimer Family to oversee the original 6-acre ranch house and barn property.

“They loved the Western culture,” Bradshaw says. “It became a unique and wonderful experience for them.” When Eleanor Reinheimer donated the property to the Foundation following her death in 1976, she specified in her will that she wanted the 110-acre property to be maintained in the same “natural state” that her family had enjoyed. The Foundation made sure that her wishes were fulfilled.

The scenic, pastoral property lies adjacent to the Big Wood River and the Wood River Trail, a paved bike path. The open space area owned by the Sun Valley Company on the River Run side of Bald Mountain adds to the natural setting as people drive into town.

Full Article Here

Nonprofit Serves 39 Countries

Hailey-based POWER Engineers has entered into a formal partnership with Engineers Without Borders, a nonprofit humanitarian organization that provides pro-bono engineering services to underserved communities in 39 countries around the world, including in the United States.

The partnership ensures that POWER Engineers will dedicate $25,000 per year in support and serve on the EWB corporate advisory board and work to help Power employees find volunteer opportunities in the U.S. and around the world.

“This is an incredible opportunity to use our skills for good,” said Nathan Bingham, who is POWER’s director of strategy and technology as well as Engineers Without Borders’ mountain region steering committee president. “And it’s more than our engineers—EWB is looking for a wide range of skill sets from project management to event coordination and fundraising. It’s a chance for all of our employees to help communities build success.”

Several POWER Engineers employees have volunteered for both domestic and international projects with EWB, and the POWER Engineers Foundation has previously provided funding to various university EWB chapters. Bingham said he expects both of those efforts will expand thanks to the formal partnership.

Plan calls for ARCH Community Housing Trust to Build Homes in Southern County

Blaine County commissioners have approved three resolutions to potentially provide affordable-housing units in conjunction with the Blaine County Housing Authority and ARCH Community Housing Trust.

ARCH’s plans call for building a total of six three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath homes with two-car garages. ARCH already owns three parcels of land—one that was purchased using private donations and two in Bellevue that were donated by the city—and will add the three parcels being conveyed by the county.

The federal funds will be matched by an anonymous donor at 50% and ARCH plans to secure the balance of the funding needed through donations. The homes would be rented to qualifying households at no more than 30% of adjusted gross income.

Full Story Here

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Sun Valley

Fireworks and torchlit parade will ignite the sky on Christmas Eve

Sun Valley is transforming into a Winter Wonderland before our very eyes. Magical lights twinkle throughout the village. The sound of jingle bells and the smell of gingerbread float through the air.

Sun Valley spokeswoman Jenna Vagias says their series of events will fill even the biggest Scrooge with holiday cheer.

“Our family of employees at Sun Valley Resort are woven into the fabric of our community, and family-friendly events bring generations together for memory-making,” Vagias said.

The festivities continue at 7 p.m. on Dec. 17-18 at the Opera House with the Classic Christmas Concert. Tickets cost $25 and are available at the Guest Center in the Sun Valley Village, or at sunvalley.com.

“Nothing evokes the spirit of the holidays like music,” Vagias said. “Where better than the historic Sun Valley Opera House to enjoy a wonderful evening of carols old and new, storytelling, and more?”

Performers include Aly Wepplo, Andrew Alburger, Andrew Garratt, Teddy Cunningham, John Mauldin, Melodie Taylor-Mauldin, with special guests The Beverly Lovers and Colla Voce. Taylor-Mauldin directs, with R.L. Rowsey taking on the music.

This 12-Acre Sun Valley Estate Starred in a Marilyn Monroe Film. Now It Can Be Yours for $16 Million.

The guest house on the property is better known as Grace’s Diner on the silver screen.

While many of the private homes that have appeared in feature films and TV shows are located in Los Angeles (obviously), that’s not always the case, as shoots often head out on location to get some authentic flavor. For the classic Marilyn Monroe movie Bus Stop, for instance, the crew shot scenes in an old general store in Idaho. That shop has since been repurposed into a guest home and is now part of a larger, contemporary estate that’s just hit the market for $16 million.

The residence is better known by Monroe fans as Grace’s Diner. In the movie, it’s where characters Beauregard Decker (played by Don Murray) and Virgil Blessing (played by Arthur O’Connell) make a pit stop on their way down to Phoenix. Since they’re taking a bus to get there, in many ways the now guest home was the titular bus stop. The duo return to the diner on their way back to Montana after meeting Monroe, who plays Cherie, a singer.

Full Article Here

Did your favorite make the list?

It’s that time of the year again, when SKI releases the results of our annual Reader Resort Survey ranking the top ski resorts in North America. And after the pandemic season we all made it through, it was anyone’s guess which resorts were going to come out on top. In the West, where travel was less restricted, many of you said that you made most, if not all, of your typical ski trips—aside from Canada, as borders were closed. That said, we did see a bump in responses for smaller, independent resorts, and more appreciative comments about them, as well.

Not surprisingly, the West’s biggest resorts bore the brunt of the frustration from readers, with comments about interminably long lift lines and packed slopes dominating the responses this year. Readers both lamented the loss of skiing’s softer side—limited access to the dining and après facilities, less camaraderie after a day on the slopes—and celebrated just skiing without all the bells and whistles. While we anticipate a return to normalcy at ski areas this winter, we acknowledge that the pandemic changed how we ski at the resorts—and that some of us are opting not to, with a newfound love of backcountry skiing.

Whatever the coming season will look like for you, we hope you can use these rankings to inform your vacation choices. As one wise reader wrote, “There is no one resort that ‘has it all’. People need to decide what’s important to them.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

1. Sun Valley Resort, Idaho

Overall Score: 8.91
Strengths: Grooming, Service
Weaknesses: Access, Snow

What Readers Say

“Sun Valley is just magical. The village and the Lodge can’t be topped. The mountain is perfectly maintained and has perfect pitch on every run. The history makes it fun to be a part of. The Holding family are supreme stewards of this jewel. “

From New Mexico to Wisconsin, leaves are turning.

When temperatures cool across the United States, the colors of the leaves heat up. States like Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont seem to steal all the glory when it comes to fall foliage and leaf peeping opportunities—but what many travelers don’t realize is there are a bounty of destinations for watching the leaves change in every region across the U.S. From Georgia, to the mountains of Arizona, and beyond, here are 13 destinations for fall foliage that are nowhere near New England.

Sun Valley, Idaho

The autumn colors of Ketchum in Sun Valley, Idaho, are one of a kind. Between the months of September to October, Sun Valley’s backdrop of aspens and cottonwood trees turns vivid shades of red, orange, and brilliant gold. Bald Mountain, Sun Valley’s ski mountain, can be a great spot to peep at the colors from above. Head to the Scenic Overlook via Bald Mountain Trail, which requires just a 3.6-mile roundtrip trek to reach a wood-platform with an eagle-eye view of the Big Wood River and the town of Ketchum below. Pair a day of taking in the scenery with a cozy cup of coffee or cocoa at Lizzy’s Fresh Coffee, then spend the night at the iconic Sun Valley Lodge, which has easy access to numerous hiking trails.

All 13 Fall Foliage Trips Here

By Julie Miller

Aug 4, 2021

Home prices notched their biggest annual growth since 1979 in June, during an extra-hot summer for real estate, fueled by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Nationally, sale prices shot up 17.2% in June compared with a year ago, according to a recent report from real estate data provider CoreLogic. They rose 2.3% from May.

“When you start hitting historic highs, you wonder how long this is going to go,” says Selma Hepp, CoreLogic’s deputy chief economist. She estimates that home prices have likely peaked and will grow more slowly for the rest of the year. “Home prices have gotten out of reach for a lot of people.” While it’s still a seller’s market, that doesn’t mean buyers should sit it out.

“Interest rates are still low, and home prices will still keep going up even if they level out,” Hepp says. Appreciation of single-family, detached homes, like those typical in the suburbs, rose 19.1% in June. That’s almost double the 10.7% rise in attached properties, such as townhomes and row houses.

The increase makes sense as buyers have sought out more square footage, outdoor space, and locations where they could socially distance during the pandemic. Buyers have been competing over the limited supply of these detached, single-family homes, which typically offer all of these things, bringing prices up to previously unheard of levels.

Where are home prices rising the fastest?

Prices continue to rise the fastest in the western part of the country, with year-over-year growth in June reaching 34.2% in Idaho, 26.1% in Arizona, and 24.3% in Montana. “These places are affordable,” Hepp says, adding that the Rocky Mountain states “have been particularly of interest to people who are now able to work from home and looking for outdoor amenities.”

Twin Falls, ID, about two hours southeast of Boise, had the highest year-over-year increase of any locality, at 40.2%. The median list price in Twin Falls was $367,550 in June, according to the most recent Realtor.com® data. Bend, OR, with a median list price of $737,500, came in second, at 35.4%.

“What I hear from out-of-state clients is, they are looking for a better way of life and a place to raise their families,” says Nicole Gabiola, owner of Keller Williams Sun Valley. And many who are priced out of Boise, where the median list price was $513,050, “are coming our way.”

Local agents say the housing market in Twin Falls has been growing for years and is still hot. But they expect it to start slowing. There were just 30 houses for sale in the spring, says Stan Tobiason, a Realtor® with Super Realty of Idaho. Now there are about 130. “Prices are still crazy, but people have a few more houses to choose from,” he says.

by Anna & Michelle – Luxury In Sun Valley Team

Wild spaces, happy places, and a place to call home are all essential to protecting our way of life here in the Wood River Valley. The balance of conservation and development is a tricky one, but is an area the Wood River Land Trust is familiar with. Quigley Canyon in Hailey was once slated to become a sprawling suburban development until the Wood River Land Trust worked with the developer to condense development – ensuring that homes would still be built to accommodate the growing population while also preserving the majority of the property for future generations.

And now we can add another success story! The Wood River Land Trust has worked with Blaine County and Anna Mathieu, a real estate broker with Windermere Real Estate SV to introduce Gerardo Perez Cano and Marlene Grimaldo to a brand new program within Blaine County.

This new program utilizes a technique called a “transfer of development rights (TDR)”.  A transfer of development rights is a zoning tool used to permanently protect land with conservation value (such as farmland, critical habitat, or other natural or cultural resources) by redirecting development that could occur on this land to another area better planned to accommodate growth and development. Through this program, Perez and Grimaldo were able to transfer the development potential of the Wood River Land Trust’s Church Farm Property (located out by Timmerman Junction) onto their 16-acre parcel of land. Gerardo and Marlene are now able to subdivide their 2 lots into 4 4-acre lots, which will allow them to build houses for their children.

Marlene and Gerardo elaborate on their experience with this new program: “Anna really helped us with the whole process. From understanding and evaluating the TDR opportunity, to working with the Land Trust to hunt down TDRs, through working with the county and Galena Engineering to make sure we understood the process, and finally, in securing the various property rights needed, we couldn’t have done it without her help.”

Blaine County has implemented this TDR program with a goal of increasing density close to town while keeping the land in the Bellevue triangle as open space. This recent use of TDR’s in Gerardo and Marlene’s case has ensured that 40 acres of land in the Bellevue Triangle is under permanent protection. In addition to other conservation tools, the sale of these development rights has enabled the Wood River Land Trust to permanently protect its 131-acre Church Farm Property, which is also enrolled into a federal Wetlands Reserve Program conservation easement.

The Wood River Valley is growing and the need for more housing is urgent, and yet we also need to be thinking about smart growth, intentional development, and protecting the critical places that make our home unique.

For 25 years, the Wood River Land Trust has worked diligently to protect the land, water, wildlife and recreational opportunities that make the Wood River Valley a place where you can connect…or disconnect. Our mission is to protect and sustain the treasured landscapes and life-giving waters of the Wood River Valley and inspire love for this special place for generations to come. For more information please visit woodriverlandtrust.org or call our offices at 208.788.3947

Please see the article in the Idaho Mountain Express

Interested in selling a TDR and putting a conservation easement on your property? Want to add density to your property through the purchase of a TDR? – Call Anna or Michelle!