what neighborhoods are good to buy in and what are not in Boise area ? (Star: sale)

[opinionswanted]

Recommend good areas and bad ones . What do you think of HOA'S ? is it worth it to buy an older home to not be in one ? anything made after 1985 is HOA.

if you wanted to invest 200-250 , what would you buy ? what do you think of towhomes especially ones by the river ? what would you not buy ? realtors cannot tell us what to not buy they just refer us to webpages .

Some think that buying in Idaho for speculation is bad because there is so much open land .

[run-mike]

After several trips to the Boise area we fell in love with and bought a new home in Star. I did a lot of reasearch on schools, crime ect. and you won't be dissapointed! Prices are rising and there is talk of a groth moratorium so you might want to move fast.

[pll]

We've moved on the average every 5 years for job related reasons. When purchasing a home we always look at the best school district in town and then narrow it down to the schools with the best test scores. We have always been able to have higher home appreciation and a quicker home sale by doing this. The neighborhoods are safe and well kept. Plus the people are friendly.
I would buy a home as opposed to a town home. You could get a real nice home for the price range you listed.
Our HOA is around $350 per year which is good because in California some HOA is $200-300 per month.