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Also, eastern Idaho might be an option. Depends on what we find else where. Lots of growth in that area. Mostly from people leaving Salt lake City who are fed up with the growth down there.
Wife lived in Pocatello as a young girl. Hated it.
I am always asking my clients why they are moving away from Boise. None has yet to tell me it is for a better quality of life or a safer community. It is typically going to be closer to family, job transfer, or chasing someone for romantic reasons.
Also, eastern Idaho might be an option. Depends on what we find else where. Lots of growth in that area. Mostly from people leaving Salt lake City who are fed up with the growth down there.
Wife lived in Pocatello as a young girl. Hated it.
Pokey is an option or that area from Chubbuck to Blackfoot not as crowded as Boise.
My home town of Boise is no more my hometown. I hate to say this has I've lived here most of my life. I've loved this place, but the area has grown pell-mell to the point the area is unlivable.
I blink and the area is totally different. Not in a good way.
The Treasure Valley just plain grew too much, too fast and is now so chaotic. It didn't help that our inept local governments just OK'd pell-mell growth without requiring infrastructure upgrades to convey traffic first, or ever. Now traffic is like Mexico City.
The people have changed. We Boiseans all used to be a little scruffy and lower middle-class, but we were friendly and forgiving. Not anymore. The hundreds of thousands of west coast transplants with massive amounts of money have really changed the character of the Valley. They have also run up the price of everything to the point us Idahoans can't afford to live here and most transplants are not nice people. News story the other night said it takes a couple making $135,000 per year to afford a ho-hum house in a hum-drum neighborhood. Incredible, if you are an Idahoan.
Growth brought some good for awhile. Medical care and it's availability became far better. Then the avalanche of new residents saturated the health care system over just the past 2 years and now my wife and I can't find doctors. My Doc won't see anyone over 55 and my wife has to go on Doc interviews to see if the Doc will take her on as a patient. Unbelievable. And scary.
As many Californian transplants on this forum say: if you don't like the place: move. People do it all the time.
I guess they are correct. And yes, I've been spoiled to live here so long when life here was so nice.
So, any others among of us Boiseans leaving??? Where are you thinking about going? My wife and I are thinking the Midwest.
We left that expensive, crowded libhole seven
years ago, and I'm not telling where we moved to.
We left that expensive, crowded libhole seven
years ago, and I'm not telling where we moved to.
I'm glad you found a place that works better for you -- I certainly don't want people hanging around in Boise if they really dislike it. Is there anything you can add to this conversation that would be helpful for OP?
Maybe some advice on how to pick a new location and make a big move? Anything you would do differently or regrets?
While I get that you don't want to say where exactly you moved to, are you willing to share in general terms? Most of Idaho is solidly red outside the Treasure Valley, and the state as a whole is sparsely populated, so did you end up in a smaller more conservative community in Idaho or did you go to an entirely different region like OP is considering?
My wife and I have looked up Duluth, and it is beautiful. I'd love to attend the Folk School in Grand Marias a few times a year!
The cold wouldn't both me. I will keep it on our radar.
I was thinking St. Joseph Mo. On second thought: maybe not.
My wife wants to live in a tiny town where we can keep quiet and enjoy furniture making and a very plain and simple life. If that's even possible anymore.
St. Joseph, MO is generally a horrible place, lots of crime and drug issues- along with 75% of the city that is decaying or not very pleasant at all. It's generally a big red flag if a city hasn't seen any population growth in 70-80 years.
If over 40 or 60 years old, many many / most cities & metros changed size considerably over lifetime because of natural increase in past decades (lots of births / slower death rate) and some saw big change from migration. In future few places will see as much natural increase as in past. Many will see declines from this cause. Migration will still be a big thing for some places but not sure how many.
Boise appears set up for decades and decades of further increase from migration... in and out to some degree, perhaps accelerating further. If you yearn for past in Boise at a certain size & character, you'll either need to pick a different place at or near that size & character (in metro or elsewhere in state or west) or be in a stable neighborhood with stable habits and an ability to avoid / ignore a lot. Can find different densities, maybe stability in certain spots, but not exact past over entire area.
Eastern Idaho and Montana can give you modest to moderate sized small metros but not exactly the Boise of 2000 or 1980. They are much smaller. Too small for some or matching a particular memory of Boise. Boise is a pretty unusual size for the mountain west & nearby. Not much over 200k that isn't much much bigger. You got Reno, Tri-Cities WA, Salem OR, Medford OR, maybe Fort Collins or Greeley CO if you can view them as separate from each other and the bigger front range blob. Olympia WA might recall Boise past in some ways for some people but not for everybody because of climate and political climate and the neighboring Seattle-Tacoma blobs. Some can ignore north of the Nisqually delta, some can not.
City size & character matters along with state. If you anticipate staying in a place for 20 to 40 plus years, might be wise to start smaller or way smaller than your upper tolerance. If your upper tolerance is only 10 years away, that will creep up pretty fast. If you liked say Austin TX at 1 million but not 2, you should have seen it coming. Like at 2 but not 3, same. 3 but not 4 same. Plan the eject before you go farther than you wanted.
This is no stopping Boise metro from 1 million. I dunno if any on this forum or alive in general who see Boise at 2 million. It may or may not happen. 1.5 million? Yeah, likely some day. And there will be folks pining for Boise 2020 or 2030.
I would chose East Idaho over Boise just because you can get more house for the $$$ from new construction to newer larger homes that would cost too much if they were located in Treasure Valley anywhere near Boise and Meridian.
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