What is the worst thing about Boise? (Eagle, Stanley: real estate, house prices)

[micrguy]

As far as the neighborhoods in Boise go, they are typical of cities in the west. One block is great and you go over two blocks and you have rentals and houses that are not kept up. It's not like the midwest or east coast where generally all of the cities are like a bullseye with the worst neighborhoods in the center and the best neighborhoods on the edges. That being said, I'm trying to stay on the Boise Bench or west Boise. Eagle is a little out of my price range and the North End is cool, but paying $300,000 for a 1200 sq. foot house on a postage stamp sized lot doesn't appeal to me. The parts of Meridian that I saw were nice but living in a new development with no character and houses where the garage is the biggest feature on the front of the house doesn't work for me either.

Someone told us that the Boise school district has open enrollment so if you find a house in a nice neighborhood but doesn't have a good school, you can drive your kids over to a better school. I am going back to Boise in two weeks to find a house and will have 2 maybe 3 days to find one. So if anyone has any leads on a good house, let me know.

[Benton]

Originally Posted by sillygal

U went from Portland, down the coast did u get to see Eugene? that was an area I was interested in.......? I am actually thinking that area or Boise?

My wife lived in Eugene before we met. I have visited it with her on numerous occasions. I find it to be a great city. The place is clean and the roads were thought out before they were built so it makes it easy to get around. We are currently living in the Deep South but we are trying to get back to the NW. I also enjoyed Florence and Port Orford along the Oregon coast. I never lived in Eugene but I found it a great place to visit so I hope this helps.
-Benton

[izzy]

Thanks micrguy,

I will be waiting to hear where you buy your home and what the prices are in that area. I too don't want to buy a home for $300,000+. We are selling a home that cost us $320,000. The payments are crippling. $2400. a month before taxes.

We hope to find a home about 1700 - 1800 sq ft for under $200,000. in a decent neighborhood. I like the sound of eagle too. But there is limited available homes in our price range.

I also like older homes 10-25 years old. With a little style and lots of mature landscaping. My hubby likes the newer homes because of no repairs need to be done. Will go have a look at the areas you mentioned. I didn't know Boise had open enrollment. Good schools are a big consideration for us.

Keep us posted on your next trip please

Thanks again,

Izzy

[Brutal Attack]

My brother is going through a divorce and may sell his house in South Boise. However, it's upwards of $300k and it's in a brand new development less than a year old.

[huntman58]

Originally Posted by micrguy

living in a new development with no character and houses where the garage is the biggest feature on the front of the house .

Wow that sums up most of Boise’s affordable housing in a nut shell

[tammiescharm]

Hello
My husband and i are thinking of moving to Boise Idaho this year in june. We have done alot of research and watched the internet KTVB news station. Right now we live in San Antonio Texas, and frankly i hate it here. the gang violence is spreading rapdily, and i think ALL the bad drivers move here. So please give me feed back on Boise. Good or bad. I think Boise sounds wonderful! Your traffic is nothing compared to here. and your crime rate is much lower then here. rent appears to be the same. and the majority of the
jobs there have medical benifits, where here youll be lucky if you find a job with it. I am concerned about the winters, i am not a custom to snow and your summers have LOTS of mesquitos.( which they are not my friends). so other then that we are so ready for a change and alittle bit of a slow down. i mean Idaho has as many people as San Antonio. the photos ive seen on the net makes Boise look peaceful and pretty. Am i wrong? I would like to hear from yall.

Tammie

[zeta]

Regarding the movie, there's no Boise in it as I remember. No shots of the skyline or mountains or anything.

[zeta]

Tammie,

More mosquitos than Texas? We live in Boise and the bug situation is not bad at all. I thought the hot humid places like Texas were the places with the big nast bugs everywhere...

I moved from CA and I was also worried about winter. The truth is, it's not that bad. The cold is dry and usually without wind. The snow is nothing like Minnesota or Chicago.

The traffic in Boise is only bad in West Boise, where the sprawl and subdivisions are still gridded with many single lane roads, and not enough freeway exits.

[Ironmonkey]

Boise cant even come close to the traffic in southern ca.

[TreasureValleyRentals]

You really need to know where the person grew up to understand their point of view. I used this forum quite a bit before coming out to Boise, i heard quite a few bad things about the Boise area. Bad traffic, drugs, gangs...... that sort of stuff. When I came out here, I never saw anything as bad as it sounded on this forum. But then you would have to know where i came from, I'm form Santa Cruz, Ca. So when I heard "really bad traffic" I was expecting really bad traffic, we sit in traffic for 50-60mins to go 6 miles here, and thats not even during the summer when traffic is stop & go from the mountains to the ocean/boardwalk. When I heard "gang problems", that kind of turned me off form the area, but being here now, it's one of the last things on my mind. We had entire areas of santa cruz that the police never even went into(the flats) because of the gang problems. Illegal immigration is completely out of control here, I NEEDED to speak spanish to get my job done here. The drug problem in Boise does seem like a real problem though, meth is a really bad drug, and seems like its hurt a lot of people here. In Santa Cruz most people smoked weed, but that is nowhere near as bad as meth. I know people in Idaho don't like people from Ca., but I left there because I didn't like Ca. I don't want to change Idaho in anyway, the natives have done a great job in making this a WONDERFUL place to live. So, when your reading peoples posts, checkout where they are from.