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I am a so cal native that moved to Idaho a year ago. Every day I’m thankful I’m here. I’m in the Boise area and have quickly adapted to less traffic, much nicer people, slower life, less stress, hardly any crime or homeless. I find lots to do here and I never knew what I was missing experiencing change of seasons.
RE internet in Idaho: You'll need to evaluate each city and property carefully to know if suitable internet service is available. For those coming from the crowded coasts it can be difficult to fathom the remoteness of much of ID. Outside of the few small cities, it's exceptionally sparse. The population of the entire state of Idaho is less than 2M, with almost half of the population in the southwest corner of the state. Compare that to CA with almost 40M people, with 9M in just the Bay Area. We're in a close-in neighborhood in Boise, so we have gigabit fiber (incidentally, better and less expensive than what we had in CA!), but just a little further out and service is much more limited, though probably adequate for your needs. In very small towns or rural areas internet may be extremely limited.
We really love Boise. The city has a lot of dining and cultural amenities, a major airport, and winters are mild. I'd actually prefer more cold and snow, but that doesn't work for my wife, so this is a reasonable compromise for us. BUT, I will say it's busier and more expensive here than most people anticipate. I'd say "it's not what I expected" is the most common comment we get the first time friends/family visit. That's not a bad thing, but look to other parts of Idaho if you want a sleepy small town feel and you don't value the cultural amenities.
Based on what you've described, my suggestion is to consider the other cities in southern Idaho such as Twin Falls, Pocatello, and Idaho Falls. Big enough to have infrastructure and services, but less expensive and way less busy. Winters generally get progressively longer and colder as you go from west to east, so be aware of that.
I am a so cal native that moved to Idaho a year ago. Every day I’m thankful I’m here. I’m in the Boise area and have quickly adapted to less traffic, much nicer people, slower life, less stress, hardly any crime or homeless. I find lots to do here and I never knew what I was missing experiencing change of seasons.
I moved to Idaho 13 years ago from Albuquerque. We live in Mountain Home, which is about 40 miles east of Boise. Traffic in the Boise area, and back and forth on I-84, has gotten much, much more crowded and faster. We used to drive into Boise and see a few cars, and mostly trucks, moving along with us at 80 - 85 mph. Now at 85 we get passed more than we pass people, and the traffic density between cities has really grown. In Boise the freeway speed limit is 65 mph. I used to set cruise in town at 70, and I'd pass more than were passing me. Now at 70 - 75 in town plenty of people are still going 80 - 85 and blowing by. That used to be extremely rare.
Anyway, in the Boise area internet will be fine. You can do anything. We had a moment in the office where we were speed testing between 4 & 5g. My 4g phone was getting ~85 mbs down, ~60 mbs up. You can pay for gbs downloads in your house even in Mountain Home.
The Boise area is mainly high desert, so very brown and dry where people don't water or irrigate. To the north is the start of the mountains that go all the way into Canada. There are plenty of trees on the north face of the Mountains bordering Boise, but the south face you see in town is brown and grassy. It's pretty similar all the way from the Oregon boarder across to Pocatello in the SE side of the state (it varies, but is similar).
If you enjoy golf and/or boating, your season for enjoying these pursuits is seriously restricted in North Idaho due to winter. But then there's skiing.
What's it like to live in Idaho? Right at the moment it is cold. Well, not all that cold this morning. It's 22 F degrees right now. It was 4 F degrees just a couple of mornigns ago. 4 F degrees counts as cold.
There was a warning to stay off the roads yesterday due to white-out conditions in a blizzard.
I run the snow blower then run it again and again and will have it out today when the sun finally comes up (it's 6:37 Am and pitch dark outside)
...It was 4 F degrees just a couple of mornigns ago. 4 F degrees counts as cold.
That's for sure. We're forecast for -5 tomorrow night. We're staying in.
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