Is this a decent neighborhood? (Boise, Meridian: apartments, rentals, condo)

[californiasucks]

Hi, me again.

So it looks like I'm going to be attempting to move to Boise in the coming months. Had to take some time off and contemplate life and where I was headed/etc. My ultimate goal is to raise a family and I don't think California is the place for children.....at least not at my current income level. I'm not poor, I'm just not rich. Why live on my proverbial hands and knees in California, when I can live like a normal person in Boise at my current income level?

So I'm on Zillow.com and I found this apartment: Apartments For Rent - 2 Rentals | Zillow

Can anyone tell me if that's a decent neighborhood (free from illegal aliens and gangs)?

Just looking for all-American neighborhood to move into. Friendly neighbors/etc. (their race does not matter to me)


Or could you advise on areas I should avoid moving into in Boise?


I'm not starting this thread to troll anyone (due to my "no illegals" comment). I'm just concerned because the price of that apartment is $725/mo. and that seems too good to be true.

I'm paying $1830 right now for a 2 bedroom apartment in Orange County ("so so" area).


Apologies in advance if I broke a rule by linking out to Zillow....

[boisefan88]

I used to live about 6 blocks from there. I always thought that neighborhood south of Boise Ave, east of Broadway was a bit white-trashy. I'd try to stay north of Boise Ave, though then you're going to be getting into the college rental areas. There are a few pockets of really nice residential areas in SE Boise north of Boise Ave, east of Broadway, but may be hard to find vacancies.

I don't remember if you talked much about your job, but you better have a job in hand before moving here... because good luck just finding one on a whim, and depending on what it is you do, just because rent prices are cheaper here, you need to take into consideration wages are far, far less here as well. Your income level WILL NOT stay the same, unless you are somehow keeping your same job.

[californiasucks]

No job, but have 1 years worth of "living money" in the bank and a trickle of money coming in every month ($1,500 or so).

Do you think 1 year is enough time?

[sunflowersinthegarden]

It took us 8 months to land a full time job (we were jobless anyhow... so it didn't matter that we came to Idaho with no job), despite pre-scouting 4 states a whole year before to see what the general job market was like. Boise and Idaho had the most prospective options. And it was almost 10 months before we even saw a paycheck. We had a bit over $2,000 a month to work with and 1.5 years of savings if we stretched it well.

A year might be cutting it close.

One thing you might want to consider is having a short term lease or going month-to-month so you will have flexibility to move close to your job if it's in another town or even different part of Idaho. We signed a 6 month lease, went two months month-to-month, and then signed a 9 month lease after we got the job (knowing that we'd want to move into a rental house at the end of the lease.)

We also choose to live in west Boise, near the Boise Towne Square Mall. We were basically trying to straddle Boise and Meridian school districts for our job hunt, which worked well because we did a lot of business in Boise, but a lot of job-related things in Meridian.

And $700-800 is the norm for a lot of 2 bedroom apartments that aren't high end. We were paying $765/month for 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment.