Is Idaho’s Housing Crisis The 2nd Worst In The U.S.?

We're not sharing breaking news when we tell you that it's pretty expensive living in the United States in 2025, no matter what part of the country you find yourself in.

Gas prices are up. Grocery prices are up. It feels like the cost of every single little thing is up. Well, that's mostly true. Especially when it comes to finding an actual structure to live inside.

Is Boise's housing crisis really the 2nd worse in the entire country?

According to these real estate experts, yes. Very much so.

First of all, how does one even tabulate what areas have a "worst outlook" when it comes to housing? Well, like this:

• Low vacancy rates, making it hard to find housing
• How many new homes are being built
• Home value vs. income, and it's change year over year

Where does that put Idaho? You guessed it, at spot #2, just behind Portland, Oregon.

It has an even lower vacancy rate than Portland at 4.56%. That's practically no wiggle room in the market. While its value-to-income ratio (5.25) is slightly better than Portland's, the change in that ratio is where Boise really falls down. It saw a staggering 7.12% increase in the value-to-income ratio between 2022 and 2023. This indicates that home prices in Boise have been skyrocketing much faster than incomes, making it rapidly less affordable for people who live and work there.

Look, we absolutely adore Boise and the surrounding area, but we're not going to act like it's a cheap place to live. Worth it? Yes. Cheap? No.

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Annoyed? Want to get away from it all? We get it, and we gotchu: