From my experiences of moving to Boise, more than once, I feel I’ve become an expert on moving here. That’s right, I’ve moved here twice! The first time when I wasn’t even one year old and the second was returning home from college after sixteen years of being gone to other states. Shouldn’t that make me an expert? Especially when you think of the United States and all the millions of people that live there and all the millions who have never moved to Boise, you have to realize the expert I truly am…after experiencing it twice! I’m hoping to never experience it again either, because I never want to move away, I want to stay right here in good ole Boise!
So how do people choose where to move-Work? Style of Life? What they can afford? Style of Living? Relationships? Security? If any of these are why you would think about changing the location of your home, then I want to create a desire for you to choose Boise. As I said, I spent my younger years growing up here in Boise. My dad and mom possessed one of those very desired Boise houses on the edge of the Boise River. What you would see out my front window was our five acre plot of alf alfa. For any of you who were raised in large cities-that’s the food that cows get fat on. For any of you from very large cities, cows are what give us cheeseburgers. From my back window you could view the many many trees that lined the banks of our Boise River. Our closest neighbor was out of range of yelling-which was great because with six kids there was quite often yelling to be heard.
Right now, there are many many Boise houses that are along the gorgeous edge of the rivers that wind through our beautiful city. If someone would like to see the view out your back window into a river lined with trees and also look into their neighbor’s window (who is certainly within yelling distance) maybe Boise is for them.
Guess who was rated as one of the US’s most livable cities for many different years…Boise! Micron, Boise Cascade, Simplot, The Washington Group, and Hewlett Packard Home are a few of the big corporate names that reside here-we’ve got a great collection jobs for the techies and corporations. Then there’s a variety of newer and smaller businesses that have come up as a shadowing of these big corporations. Yes, Boise was also voted, by a big name business article, as the runner up city to the #1 spot to start a business in. Don’t forget all our smaller universities, our big and wonderful Boise State University, and even a trade school give our community top educational opportunity.
After my experience of many years living Chicago, I started to develop an infatuation for traffic jams, dirty air, and top crime ratings, not forgetting the corrupt politics and big promises by community leaders (many of Illinois’ previous Governors are residing now in jail or awaiting trial). I said I started. But, Boise’s 25 mile long greenbelt for biking, jogging, or walking alongside the beautiful Boise river and our skiing resort only 30 minutes to downtown and still a couple of other ski resorts only two hours away, make me wonder. Not to mention the incredible sight of our mountains you can see from nearly every home in Boise valley. In addition, we are a very quick ride to national wilderness property the United State’s tallest sand dunes. Thinking of all this, I just can’t be missing the huge crowds or polluted air or the corrupted politicians.
Speaking of politicians, Boise crime rate dropped 37% over the past decade according to the Boise Police Department. (I assume they are telling the truth.) You’ll be happy to know that only 490 cases of graffiti were reported in 2006 and there were only 65 domestic violence felonies. Yes- 65 in the whole city for a whole year. While 65 domestic violence is too much, it’s rare indeed here in Boise. There were 7 murders in Boise in 2009. To put that in perspective, Detroit had 361 during that same time period. If you like violent crime, you may find Boise rather boring. If not, you might find Boise a darn nice place to raise a family. By the way, I tried for years to get someone to steal my car by leaving it unlocked with the keys in it. Couldn’t ever get the job done. Not sure if that’s a reflection on Boise or my car. Out of the 272 metropolitan areas that the FBI tracks for violent crime, Boise ranks 219. Seriously, go to their website and look at the places that have LESS crime than Boise. You’ve never heard of any of them. Only six on that list have a bigger population than Boise. Enough said-it’s a VERY safe city.
So that about sums it up. Can you picture it? Read over this again and try to find a reason you wouldn’t move to Boise immediately. But don’t forget to look into the prices of real estate here. Currently Boise is easier to afford than ever since we’ve been tracking it. As a normal person (and don’t we all feel somewhat normal most of the time) you’ll use minus 20% of that normal salary of yours on that average Boise home. It’s a good idea to compare that across the country to other cities. If it’s too hard to find that information, here’s one you can try-the normal amount per square foot is around $79 for an average Boise starter house we were just discussing. You’d spend less every month to buy in Boise and more to rent. Be Speedy! It’d be fun to get to talk to you more about Boise and all it’s real estate possibilities. We’d love to talk more Boise real estate. We’d love to share our great place to live.
Ready to make the move into your own place? Have a quick look at our review on how to easily buy Boise homes and for comprehensive information on how and where to find a great Boise real estate agent