Boise, Idaho's population is surging as more Americans are enticed by the city's affordability, natural landscape, and growing downtown area. From 2011 to 2017, Boise's population grew 10 percent.
In 2016, 85 percent of Idaho's net new in-migrants were from California, per U.S. Census data. “We’re coming from California in droves, because it’s gotten to the point we don’t want to live there anymore,” Toni Wolfe, a retiring Los Angeles police detective, tells Realtor.com. Boise's popularity has already caused a housing shortage, along with rising home and rental prices, and area natives are beginning to wonder if they will be priced out of their hometown.
Laura Johansen has always loved the easiness of life in her hometown: first-rate hiking and rafting close to home. The quick commute to her job at a local hospital. The affordability. When Ms. Johansen, who was renting her home, decided to buy a house this year, she was shocked. The median price of a single-family home in Boise’s Ada County had shot up to almost $300,000, well above the $200,000 homes she first considered two years ago. “It does make it tough on locals like us,” she said.
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