Retirement In Idaho (Boise, Eagle, Hope: hotels, buy, income)

[Ron House]

I moved from LA to Tri Cities Washington about 14 months ago.Tri Cities is a great palce to live but medical facilities and entertainment and restaurants are pretty sparse.How is Idaho for retirement and particularly Eagle or the Boise area.Good medical facilities and good resstaurants and things to do are essential. I am also curious about taxes both State income and propert etc. We are fortunate here in Washington in this regard. We are driving over to Eagle next week and am hoping we are not wasting our time.

[Torrie]

Hey Ron, let's see if I can answer some of your questions. I think you posted in the Boise forum and I'm sorry no one answered your post, sometimes they get overlooked, or, nobody knows the answer to your questions.

Boise-Metro's retirement community is growing. Last I saw the retirement community made up 11% of the population. This is a huge family oriented city and with the families come the retired grandparents, so the retirement facilities are only going to grow. We have a couple of retirement communities such as Meadow Lake Village, The Regency Columbia Village, The Cottages, and there's a new one...called the Boise Retirement Community slated to be built over in NE Boise. Below is a link:

$97 million retirement community coming to Boise

For medical facilities you have St. Alphonsos and St. Lukes. Meadow Lake Village is actually right behind St. Luke's.

Restaurants are dynamite! Lots to choose from and I'm not just talking chain restaurants. For a city of it's size, Boise has a wonderful selections of places to eat. I think if you do a search on here you'll come across a thread that discusses several places to eat, it's in the Boise forum.

You know, my husband and I looked in to moving to Prosser, WA about 6 years ago- it would have been a work move for my husband. It felt pretty remote to us....and the location made it hard to get to other places to explore. Weather wise, I found it to be a bit hot for me and I believe you guys don't get much snow out that way, right? Honestly, there wasn't much of a draw for us.....probably the best thing was the access to all the produce and a long growing season if you were a gardener. I can say Boise does have four seasons, we do have warm weather, but you can also retreat to the mountains within in an hour, for a reprieve should you so desire. I find the location to be desirable as you have many opportunities to explore other areas within a days drive or a quick hour flight. Our airport is larger than Tri-Cities so your flights will most likely be affordable as there are more travelers.

Do you golf? Boise is one of the few places where you can golf and ski in the same day. Definitely an outdoorsy type of city.

You will find lots to do and I encourage you to come and visit. Here's a nice place to stay below, it's minutes from the city and and just down the street from Barbacoa, one of our many great restaurants.
SpringHill Suites Boise ParkCenter: Spacious hotel accommodations in Boise

Barbacoa - Stimulate Your Senses, Elevate Your Mind - Dining Restaurant in Boise, Idaho

As far as taxes go, below is a link to a website that should clarify any questions you should have on property taxes.
Idaho State Tax Commission - Property Tax Relief


Here's another good website that offers a lot of helpful information on the medical facilities.
Health Care

I also have an article from Where to Retire magazine, that features Boise, I'd be happy to send it your way via email or fax. Just send me a direct message with your information and I can send it to you. Don't post the information on the forum as you could possibly expose yourself to a lot of spam mail.

Hope this offers some answers to your questions.

[Perkinst]

Coming from Arizona, which has a lot of retirement communities, I can tell you Boise is a great place for retirement. Medical facilities are not overcrowded like Arizona, where you have to wait in the emergency room for hours to see a doctor. In Mesa Arizona, at some resaturants you take a pager and wait an hour or more to be beeped for a table. I haven't seen that kind of wait in Boise. You can play golf or do any other outdoor activities in the summer, spring, and fall.
Retirement communities are good economy, because they bring in people who buy and spend money, creating more jobs, without taking jobs.
The Boise area just needs a better traffic system. It is way behind Arizona. They are expanding the freeway I-84, but two lane surface streets need to be widen to four lanes, like Overland Rd. To much sitting in traffic, for a small sized area population.

[Need2Leave]

If you like Tri-Cities, but just want bigger/better hospitals, and more city "stuff" Boise was tailor made for you. Best of luck, and enjoy your retirement

[Ron House]

Send me your e-mail and we can exchange addresses

Ron