Want to Retire Cheap? Follow Californians Buying Houses in the Gem State

California residents are fleeing the state’s high living costs and taxes to chase an affordable retirement in places like Boise, Idaho.   

Are wealthier retirees, or those near retirement, having an outsized impact on housing markets? In Idaho’s Ada County, which includes Boise, the inventory of available single-family homes has dropped every quarter since 2014, and the median sales price has increased from $209,990 to $324,950, a 54.7 percent jump. At the same time, demographics have shifted. Between 2012 and 2017, the number of baby boomers in the region, those aged 52 to 70, grew by 30.5 percent. 

While much of the inbound migration to Boise comes from elsewhere in Idaho, many newcomers are from high-cost metros on the west coast. Per census data, 17,000 of the roughly 80,000 new Idaho residents in 2016 came from California. According to an analysis by Realtor.com, homebuyers from 82 California ZIP codes made up 4.5 percent of the page views for Boise real estate; many of them were concentrated near the Bay Area.

A Boise realtor report about local residential trends identifies this group as impacting what housing is being built, noting that local builders are focusing on “higher-end homes and amenities versus entry-level projects to meet profit margins and consumer preferences.” 

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