Country Homes, Washington — Real-Estate Pitch Became the Place-Name

Country Homes sounds like something printed across the top of a subdivision brochure, which is remarkably close to the geography it describes.

The community developed immediately north of Spokane as farms and open land were divided into residential parcels. Automobiles made it practical to live beyond the city while working, shopping and going to school inside the metropolitan area.

Eventually the suburb became substantial enough to receive formal census recognition. More than six thousand people lived in the Country Homes census-designated place in 2020, surrounded by schools, commercial corridors and neighborhoods that can look completely urban.

The old promise embedded in the name has become slightly ironic. Country Homes offered life beyond town; Spokane grew until town was nearly everywhere around it.