In another step toward exiting the lakefront landlord business, Idaho will auction 38 state-owned lots at Priest Lake this week; last year, the state auctioned 59 lots at Priest with lake homes on them. Nearly all of those sales were to cabin owners who bought the ground under the cabins they already owned at the appraised value, which averaged nearly half a million dollars.

The state, which is charged by the Idaho Constitution with earning maximum returns for its public schools from the lakefront land that’s owned by the school endowment, is transitioning out of the cabin site leasing business, after years of fights over what constitutes fair-market rents and adequate returns for the schools.

“We hope to have a robust auction, and we hope to have a lot of satisfied customers,” said Tom Schultz, director of the Idaho Department of Lands, “and we hope to make a lot of money for the school trust up there.” There’s another auction scheduled in September for nine unleased lots at Priest Lake, mostly ones on which cabin owners couldn’t keep up with the lease payments; and another auction is set for Nov. 13 in Boise for more than 20 cabin sites at Payette Lake, including both leased and unleased lots.

The first auction is this Friday at 1 p.m. at the Coeur d’Alene Resort; you can read my full story here from Sunday's Spokesman-Review, and there’s more info here from the state Department of Lands. Anyone can bid at the auctions. So far, the state of Idaho has auctioned off 126 lots at Priest and Payette lakes, garnering more than $52 million for the state’s permanent endowment, which largely benefits schools.