Spokane real estate agent Mary Stanton worked part-time in real estate for decades before deciding late last year to make it her full-time profession. Despite the arrival of COVID-19, the 51-year-old Stanton says she's busier in real estate now

The luxury-home market is especially hot in the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene market due to what some agents say is a convergence of factors.

The mining industry in the Inland Northwest and throughout the U.S. shares some guarded optimism looking forward to 2021 and the incoming presidential administration, says Mark Compton, executive director of the Spokane-based American Exploration & Mining

The tourism industry here expects to see some signs of recovery in 2021 from the stifling effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but likely not until midyear. Meg Winchester, president and CEO of Visit Spokane, says that by all accounts, 2020 was shaping up

Experts here say that while financial institutions have seen increases in loans and deposits in 2020, they could feel the squeeze of low interest rates in 2021. In March, the U.S. Federal Reserve lowered the federal fund rate-the benchmark interest

If a few positive steps are taken in 2021, the Inland Northwest could regain all of the jobs it lost this year, Spokane-area economists say. Such a recovery might not be V-shaped, but it would be a dramatic comeback, as Avista chief economist Grant

Real estate in Spokane stayed surprisingly strong in most sectors through the pandemic, say industry observers here, with home sales and commercial real estate investment, particularly in industrial space, seeing strong growth. Rob Higgins, executive