Boise v. Fort Collins (Meridian, Eagle: mortgage broker, brokers, hotel)

[Anchorless]

There isn't a local corner grocery store yet, but I do know there are plans of putting one in (that's all I'm allowed to say). Winco and Albertsons are both fairly close to downtown, though.

Plenty of dining downtown - no need to worry about that.

All of the big box stores are pretty much to the west, in the Milwaukee/Fairview/Cole/Franklin block. here are a few to the east, and a few south toward the interstate. Nothing much in the downtown area - there is a Macys, an Anthrolpologie, an Urban Outfitters, and maybe a few more, but no Target or Walmart or Best Buy or anything like that.

I think you'll enjoy it downtown. Also consider the residential areas in the extreme proximity to downtown - I think these areas would be just about perfect to live.

[Deselminator]

To be honest I'm not 100% sure where we would end up living. I've just always thought it would be fun to live downtown in a mid to large-size city. There just aren't too many cities that are clean or safe enough for me to seriously consider. Then of course, it is always fairly expensive too, although I assumed that Boise would be cheaper than most. From what I'm hearing though, maybe that isn't so much the case, at least as far as downtown is concerned. We may end up living in an area that isn't downtown but is near downtown though, as my wife really wants a house and a yard. Most likely we will rent for awhile, and then look at buying after a year or so. From what I'm hearing from many of you, I think we would definitely be much happier living in the city of Boise than in the surrounding areas. Even if that ends up being near downtown rather than in the downtown itself. I guess we will just have to wait and see how we feel about Boise after our visit in July. I'm really looking forward to it though!

[jufrbo]

^^Look for a house on the Bench near the intersection of Rose Hill & Vista. The neighbor hoods have small (about 1,000 sq ft), older houses. They are cheap, but not for too much longer I would guess, because they are getting fixed up. They sit right under the train depot, and are literally up the hill from BSU & downtown.

[Deselminator]

Thanks for the info, I will definitely check that area for housing!

[micrguy]

I would agree with Justin, look at the Bench area for houses. It is just waiting to be discovered and you can get a rental house with 2-3 bedrooms and a yard for around $1000 or less. Our family lived in the area when we first moved here and if it wasn't for the kids we would still live in that area.

The area that you want to look in is from Rose Hill and Vista down to Overland and Vista and maybe go half mile to a mile in either direction between those two intersections. We lived near Vista Village and it took my wife no more than 10 minutes to get to work in the North End during rush hour.

[Deselminator]

Thanks again...sounds like the bench area might be a good fit for us! Hopefully it's still affordable in 2009 which is when we would probably be looking at moving out that way. To be honest, my wife and I were all but set on Ft. Collins, but listening to what many of you have to say about Boise, it may just end up being the next place we choose to call home!

[micrguy]

We looked at both cities as well and Boise won out over Ft Collins for a number of reasons. Good luck on picking a place.

[Deselminator]

May I ask, micrguy, why you ended up choosing Boise over Ft. Collins? I would love to hear your reasons. If they are too many to bother listing here, feel free to send me a PM instead.

[micrguy]

The short version is better airport, to fly out of Ft. Collins you realistically had to drive down to Denver. Cost of living was a little lower, better climate and if we had to drive back to Phoenix for anything you could do it in 14-15 hours.

[Deselminator]

Yeah while the proximaty of the Denver airport to Ft. Collins is nice, the fact that Boise's airport is right there is definitely a plus. I've been a bit concerned about the availability of reasonably priced flights from the Boise airport, but have been somewhat resassured by many of you who have mentioned that the Boise airport is very nice as well as convenient to catch a flight in or out of.