TV show to shine spotlight on CdA

Coeur d’Alene will be featured as one of five “up and coming neighborhoods” Monday morning on “The View,” the popular Barbara Walters-produced talkfest.

During a two-minute segment, New York real estate executive Barbara Corcoran will describe the city and its attributes while video footage of the community is shown onscreen, said Lauren Weber, a spokeswoman for the Corcoran Group, the New York real estate brokerage founded by Corcoran in 1973.

Corcoran hasn’t actually been to Coeur d’Alene, but she’s “heard unbelievable things about it,” Weber said. “She believes it’s a diamond in the rough; it’s one of those (towns) that just hasn’t been exposed yet.”

Local residents, however, might quibble with the idea of Coeur d’Alene as an undiscovered city. Coeur d’Alene’s population grew 41 percent between 1990 and 2000 and now hovers at about 37,500.

As for affordability, the average sale price of a home in Coeur d’Alene last year was about $165,000, up from about $141,000 the year before.

Jonathan Coe, president of the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce, said it’s all relative.

“I’m sure to a good part of this country we are undiscovered,” he said. “On the other hand, for those of us who live here, we realize Coeur d’Alene has been very much discovered.”

And the home prices here are nothing compared with Seattle or San Francisco, he said – not to mention Manhattan, Palm Beach and The Hamptons, where the Corcoran Group has offices.

Corcoran makes regular appearances touting “hot properties” on Fox News and also is a regular contributor to ABC, Weber said. This is Corcoran’s first segment on up and coming neighborhoods.

Corcoran chose the five based on tips and recommendations from her many contacts in the real estate business, Weber said.

The other neighborhoods on the list are in Alexandria, Va.; Detroit; Redhook, N.Y.; and Albuquerque, N.M.