AVOID Moving to Idaho- Unless you can HANDLE These 17 NEGATIVES

Are you thinking about moving to Idaho? Before you move here, you need to know these 17 facts about moving to Idaho. Things like if you consider an AR  scary or a weapon of war, this might not be the place for you because you're going to be seeing a lot more of these around in Idaho. 

17 Things You Need to Know

#1 Conservative

It is a very conservative state. And that might be why you're looking to move here. That is what tends to draw people here. People here love their country. They love their state. They love their guns. They love their churches. If you're not into those things that you don't have to be into going to church, but a lot of people do like to go to church. They might expect you to go to church too, but just depends on the neighborhood and area moving into.

But people are moving here because it's conservative and they want to keep it that way. Generally speaking, it's going to be a more conservative area. That being said, the city of Boise itself is less conservative versus the surrounding areas around Boise, especially places like Nampa, Caldwell, and Middleton are going to be more conservative areas of the Treasure Valley area.

#2 Guns and Hunting

Relating to the being conservativeis the number two, which is people love their guns. As mentioned in the intro, people love their guns. If you consider this scary or weapon of war, maybe this isn't the place for you, but people love their guns for self-defense. It is a constitutional carry state, meaning you can have open carry, concealed carry without a permit.

You can get a permit and you can get reciprocity in other states, in certain other states but you are allowed to carry a firearm without a permit here in Idaho. And they're also big into hunting. If you're in the hunting, you don't have to go out and hunt, but just be aware that a lot of people are. It's going to be discussed and if you're out hiking, you're going to be seen hunters as well.

Do not bother them. You cannot harass hunters. It's actually against the law. If you're uncomfortable with that, maybe not the place for you, but if you are, then it probably is the place for you.

#3 Fiercely Independent

That kind of goes back to that conservative-ism and they want to be left alone in general. There are a lot of people that are kind of isolationists. That's going to be more in the mountains versus the actual city of Boise and Treasure Valley.

But we're still draw a lot of independence. I, myself, moved from California because I was fed up with what was going on in the intrusiveness of the government. And that's probably what you're looking for as well as some more freedom. And that's what people love about Idaho is the freedom.

When some of the major things going on in the country with the BLM stuff, Antifa, COVID lockdown, some counties did not lock down at all. Some did lock down a bit more, but for the most part, we remained open. And when the riots were going on, there were actually a lot of people that went to the Capitol with their ARS, with their firearms, to defend the Capitol and prevent that from even starting here.

No one was shot, no one was killed, but that's what happened. And it prevented a lot of mayhem that occurred in other cities here in the country, which you're very well aware of, of course. Fiercely independent, they want to protect their towns and their cities.

#4 The People

Kind of goes related to number 3, the people here are actually super friendly, but if you're just moving here from California , you might get a little pushback from people. Definitely want to change your plates as soon as you can. When I moved here, nothing happened to me, but I did hear stories of people getting their cars keyed because they were from California. That's terrible.

Here's what actually happened to me though, I got kind of pulled over by a cop early on when I first moved here because I have a Toyota Tundra and it's a really cool brown color, smoke the ski. And so this cop pulled up to me at a stoplight and asked me to roll down my window and the window was locked cause I have kids and they always rolled the window down so we're struggling to get the windows rolled down and finally got it down. Like, "yeah, officer, can I help you?" He's like, "how do you like the color of your truck?"

I thought that was hilarious. That was the only reason we were at a stoplight. It turned green, I'm chatting with him to find him like "I got to go, it's great". He was like, "yeah, go for it". That was like the second time that happened. I was driving through Texas and I got pulled over late at night, because I was on two-lane road and I was staying in the left-hand lane. Didn't know I couldn't do that. And he really just wanted to check on me and then asked me how I liked my truck too. It's pretty hilarious happened a couple times.

The other thing that happened to me too, is I did get followed by police for quite a while on the freeway I was being followed and police officer got off and immediately there was another one behind me who followed me for probably about 10 miles. I just set my speed control and went the speed limit and not above it at all

And I was fine, but I think I was being followed to see what I was going to do being from California as my guests. That being said, the people here are definitely friendly, but I did kind of feel like a fish out of water for quite a while when I have my license plates changed over.

As soon as you can change your license plates over, get to the DMV, it's super easy if you're not financed. If your vehicle's financed, it can take a while because you've got to get the title from the company, that's holding the title and send it to the state of Idaho and then they can release it. That process can take a while. But if you own the vehicle, you can get right in and change your license plates over super, super fast.

#5 Median Income

The median income here is fairly low. Number 5 and Number 6, you're going to go on and go hand in hand. And so the big industries here are service and construction. A lot of service industry, restaurants, and of course construction. There are tech companies moving in. A lot of people that have moved to Idaho have figured out how to work remote.

A lot of people are also starting businesses here. There's a lot of entrepreneurship and there's a lot of help here to help get your businesses started. That being said though, the people that actually live in Idaho, that's why they're upset about Californians coming is because people without a state money with higher paid jobs that are work remote are driving the costs up.

And so folks that live here don't tend to make a ton of money. I mean, tipped employees actually start at a little over $3 an hour, assuming they're getting tips, that's extremely low, but non tipped employees are usually starting hiring. There's signs around for McDonald's starting at $14 an hour. Still not amazing of course, but a much higher than the minimum wage.

The wages are starting to rise, but overall it's fairly low. And that leads into point number 6.

#6 Lack of Affordability

People move into Idaho from California for at least 30 years. My aunt and uncle live in Sandpoint, Idaho. Now they actually moved from Florida to Idaho and he runs a Cedar mill up there. Certainly he has been in business here in Idaho for a long time. That being said, people have been moving here more recently because of how affordable that has been, but it's gotten very expensive over the years.

And the median home price has more than doubled in the last couple of years. You might be surprised at the type of home that you're going to buy here in the Boise area right now, the median price in Ada county, Ada county is Boise, Meridian, Eagle, Star, and it's $600,000. But that being said, in Eagle, it's a $1 million. Now you can get some very beautiful homes for a $1 million.

You could not buy in California, but you might be surprised the type of home that you're going to be buying. You might be buying a home in Canyon County, which is about $130,000 less overall as a median price. But you're still going to be surprised about the type of home you can get.

If you're thinking about what Idaho was a couple of years ago. Just keep in mind is not nearly as affordable as it once was. Gas is certainly high. It's going to be about a $1 cheaper. Don't move here because you think gas is going to be cheaper. It's really not that much cheaper.

#7 Extreme Weather

We do have 4 seasons here in Idaho. Southern Idaho, where Boise is located is a lot less extreme. It's more temperate than other parts of Idaho. That's actually a reason why I chose to move here versus some other states that I was looking at.

I was looking at Texas. I was looking at Tennessee and I ended up settling on Idaho, partially because of how much more tempered it is compared to some of those other states. We do get snow. We only get about 16 inches of snow per year here in the Treasure Valley area. Compared to north Idaho, for instance, Sandpoint, they get an average of about 58 inches of snow. You're going to have a much more to deal with in north Idaho, as far as definitely making sure you're putting chains on your vehicle more frequently, maybe studded tires.

You're going to have roofs that collapse, trees that fall down, that kind of thing you're going to deal with in north Idaho. Down here, if you're going to the ski resorts, you're definitely going to learn how to put chains on. If you don't know how to already to get to your ski resorts, probably put a winter tires on your vehicle as well. It's going to help get all wheel drive or four wheel drive. And that's going to help you a lot.

If you're not used to driving the snow, please slow down. Be very careful and learn those basics of your vehicles so you can not get in a wreck. That being said, it does get cold. Your coldest months are going to be December and January average high of about 39 degrees. And I actually visited here the first time in December to the Boise area on purpose, because I wanted to know what it was like when it wasn't that nice of weather and actually really enjoyed it.

And I was like, "if this is as bad as it gets, I can handle it". That's how I approached it. And then I did, of course come back in the spring and summer, and it's absolutely gorgeous. That's the thing, in the summertime, it does get really hot. It does get cold in the winter and it gets hot in the summer hotter than you might expect.

The average temperature in July and August, those are two hottest months, they're going to be right around 92 degrees, but you probably going to have a spell where it's going to be over a 100 degrees. In fact, when I first moved here, the first several weeks was over a 100 degrees everyday, about a 100-107 degrees as a high every single day. It is fairly dry that you don't have the humidity.

It is bearable and the interesting thing is actually gets really hot in a late afternoon, early evening. That kind of peaks around 5-6 PM. Normally in California being from a coastal city like San Diego, it cools down in the evening. Here, it does not pull down until very, very late in the wee hours of the morning. It takes awhile to get used to that. It's just very hot.

And that being said, it stays very light for a long time. The sun comes up early, goes down late at night. It's going to be light, even though sun goes down around 9-9:30 PM, it's going to be light till 10-11 PM or so at night. It takes some getting used to with those long days. In fact, if you have children, it can be really rough moving here in the summertime.

My kids had a really hard time transitioning. There was a slight time change. When I first moved here, my kids weren't going to bed until 11 PM versus 8 PM. That was more of a normal basis. The trick we did cause we were in a temporary, like a short term rental that have blackout curtains. We ended up, um, putting tinfoil over the windows and taping it. It completely blocked it out. It took us a couple of weeks to figure that trick out, but that definitely helped try to get them to go to sleep a little bit earlier.

The other thing related to the weather is it does get very windy here. It's not maybe as when you has some of the plains, say in Texas where it's extremely windy. I visited Fort Worth, I was thinking about moving there and it was very, very windy. Our friends, like, "yeah, it's when you like this at least half the year". It can get windy here, especially as you get more into the farmland areas away from the foothills. As far as like Nampa and Caldwell area, it's going to be more windy.

But it's not unbearable and there is actually a breeze, so it helps keep the heat down but it can get windy so keep that in mind if you don't really like the wind at all, it's, it's going to be a bit windy and it can get dry here as well. Your nose might start cracking. Your hands are going to start cracking that kind of thing. You definitely want to use the good lotion. But those are all things to keep in mind around the weather here in Idaho.

#8 Wildfires

We don't really have wildfires here in the Boise Treasure Valley area in the local mountains here too much. That being said, there are wildfires elsewhere in the state and wildfires in Oregon, Northern California, Montana, and the smoke from those wildfires does collect here in treasure valley.

And it kind of acts almost like a bowl and it keeps the smoke in. The smoke can get really, really bad here, especially in August and September when those fires are the worst. If you have any sort of  allergies or lung breathing issues, it could be a big problem for you. You got to stay in doors a lot more. It's hard to get your kids out. It gets gray from all the smoke. It's hard to breathe. It's a health hazard.

Those are all certainly things to keep in mind that a lot of people don't realize before they move here, is the wildfires and the smoke from those wildfires here.

#9 Traffic/ Lack of Infrastructure

On the 9th, they need to keep in mind is the lack of infrastructure here and the traffic here in Treasure Valley. Because of the big influx of people over the last few years, the infrastructure just was not there to keep up with it. We really only have one freeway here and that is I-84. There is a connector freeway I-184 but the main freeway is I-84. And that's running through the Central Valley. It's going to be connecting you over from Portland, through Boise, down into Salt Lake City.

That can get bad as well. They are doing a lot of work on it. So there are days where it is just really backed up, especially during rush hour is going to be kind of bad too. And most of the roads around here, if you're off the 84 are going to be two-lane farm roads. If you're going through some of the larger cities around the Treasure Valley area, Boise area, like Meridian, Eagle, and Boise itself, there are going to be four-lane roads.

But it just takes a while to get around. You might look at your map and say, "oh, it's only 5 miles away", but it might take you 15 minutes to get there because there's so many stop signs and traffic lights and train crossings, and that kind of thing. I've noticed my leg actually kind of starts hurting after awhile that muscle in my shin, because of all the stop and go. It kind of takes some getting used to fortunately I've adaptive cruise control signs that a lot just as I'm driving around the city. But it takes getting used to.

There is a lot of traffic, especially getting the farm roads. If you get into areas like Nampa, Star, and Caldwell there can be a lot of traffic trying to commute into the city. It might add another 15-20 minutes to your 25-30 minute commute.

#10 Farm Culture

If you're not used to farm land, get used to it cause that's what a lot of it is. You're going to come across dairy farms, tons and tons of farmland that is everywhere here. And two-lane country roads where you might gets stuck behind farm tractors, farm equipment. Semi-trucks carrying their farm loads as far as hay, sugar beet.

There's tons of sugar beet here in the Valley because there is a sugar beet factory. You're just going to have to get used to driving slower on these country roads. They can get backed up as you start getting around. The major subdivisions are close to the freeway, as people are trying to get on the freeway.

That being said, if you can time it right, and you're not actually on the road at the time that it's a heavy infrastructure or heavy traffic, then you're going to be okay and it's actually kind of relaxing. I really enjoy driving through the farm roads. It just is really, really relaxing for me versus coming from San Diego, which is just so much concrete and freeways.

#11 Worst Drivers in the Country

Idaho has some of the worst drivers in the country. It actually ranks as the 8th worst place in the country for driving. And that's from Insurify and it's based on basically looking at traffic incidents, tickets, accidents, that kind of thing. And I noticed it when I moved here, I'd actually didn't know that before moving here.

And I realized that when I got here, like people don't drive that well here. Keep that in mind, drive slower, watch out for people. The drivers are not great here. I don't know exactly what it is. Maybe it's from the Californians moving in that aren't used to driving on the roads here, that kind of thing.

And relate to that too is there are no helmet laws for motorcycles. That might be a pro for you. You might want the freedom of that. It's kind of shocking when you first see it coming from California, of course everyone has helmets. And frankly for myself, I think you should wear a helmet. That's I guess your decision.

But I was just on the freeway the other day and saw motorcyclists down and did not look good, I'll just say that. And I was just thinking about that before I saw that, because I saw someone without a helmet on, riding his motorcycle, and I was like, "oh man, I just don't know how you can do that". And then I saw someone down a different motorcyclist.

But if that's what you want, that's great. Do it, just be aware of the risks involved in that. That kind of plays into not great drivers and you're riding round without helmet on, you don't stand men should have a chance if you go down, but that's up for you to decide.

#12 Lots of Flies and Mosquitos

We're starting to get into the nuisances that you might find. And there are a lot of flies. There's not tons you can do about the flies. You can put up fly traps. I don't know, I never find them super effective but you might. There are flies here. Keep your doors shut, put screens up, that kind of thing. If you're outside, maybe get a good fan to kind of blow through your patio area to keep the flies away.

Make sure your trash is really sealed up. Keep the flies out, that kind of thing. But the other thing too is mosquitoes. Now in general, they're not bad, but if you have any kind of standing water around here, whether that's just from too much irrigation, a pond, whether it's a manmade pond or in one of the HOAs you're at, a lake, any kind of standing water. Someone said, even just a leaking spigot or like leaking garden's spigot, that can attract mosquitoes, and then they can get bad.

I was actually at someone's house recently and the mosquitoes were really bad. I was like, what is going on here? He's like, "yeah, my neighbors, his landscaping has irrigation, leaked, sprung a leak. And there's kind of a bunch of steam water on the other side of the fence". Nothing he could do about it. And that's where the mosquitoes came from. There are things you can do of course, with citronella to try to keep them away.

There's actually misters you can install that spray a botanical based bio-degradable chemical. I guess you might call it to help keep the flies and the mosquitoes away and other bugs as well.

Spiders, that kind of thing. I would look into that more. I don't know truly how safe that is. Supposedly it's completely safe according to the EPA. I wouldn't feel super comfortable doing that myself, but that is a way to mitigate the mosquitoes and the flies.

#13 Dangerous Animals

Being in Southern Idaho, not as much, but as soon as you get into the mountains, which are not that far away, you are going to start running into potentially bears, wolves, cougars, mountain lions, all these different predators that can pose a threat of course, to you as a human. If you are out hiking, if you're not comfortable with a gun, you definitely want to have some bear spray on you.

In fact, either way, I'd still probably have bear spray on you or be carrying a high caliber firearm. Like a 44 or 45 has good stopping power and get trained on how to use it. Don't just carry it. But that's certainly something you need to be aware of. That being said, actually moose tend to be the more dangerous animals that aren't really thought of. People look at them, think they're super friendly, try to go up and approach them. And then they get stomped and trampled on. Be aware of moose.

Also, we have a lot of deer down in Southern Idaho, that's awesome. Not dangerous per se, but you might run into them with your car and deer do you kill people in their cars. And moose are the worst if you hit moose because they're so tall, they can flip up over the hood and hit the windshield and kill you. Keep all that in mind, we're driving around.

Going back to the hunters, during hunting season, you're going to be seeing dead animals in the back of a pickup truck that someone shot and killed. If you're not comfortable with that, maybe it's not the place for you, but just be aware of that.

#14 Lack of Entertainment Options

Lack of entertainment options and restaurants. That's all starting to change, but the Boise area itself is not exactly a hotbed for entertainment. Downtown Boise are going to have your comedy shows, your clubs, that kind of thing so late at night, Friday, Saturday, if that's what you're seeing, that you're looking for, you will find some of that, but not like the big cities.

If you're looking to move here, you're probably not really looking for that. I was not looking for that at all myself. I wanted a nice, safe place to raise my family for these other freedoms that we've discussed already. But if you're looking for that, this is not going to be the place for you.

Downtown Boise was rated like the number 2 hipster place in America, which is kind of surprising coming from California and having some of the more hipster areas in San Diego. But that's technically what was what happened.

Not a lot of entertainment options, over in Nampa, there is the Ford Center. And so that's where the big performing artists, they will go and play there as well. You get that entertainment. There's also a fantastic rodeo that occurs at the Ford center. If you like that, and even if you don't like it, once you move here, you're probably going to love it. I went to it when I first moved here and absolutely loved it.

There was a gospel centered prayer that was prayed at the very beginning. And it brought tears to my eyes. Everyone stood for the American, for the national Anthem, versus kneeling. And it was just a fantastic time at the rodeo. We had an absolute blast with our family. That's more of the type of entertainment you might be finding here in Treasure Valley.

And the restaurant selection is going to be not as great, certainly improving quite a bit over the past few years has gotten way better. Some good options in Boise, but there's just not a ton of options. There's some good spots popping up in Meridian and Eagle as well. Those are some really good places to check out if you're looking for better restaurant options.

#15 No Pro Sports Teams

If you're moving here and you're into sports, you probably already know this. There's no pro sports teams. If you're looking for a professional sports team to take your kids to, like, I grew up going to see the Padres, that's just not here. Boise State Broncos, everyone is into the Boise State Broncos. If that's your thing, college football, then this is definitely going to be the place for you.

The town basically shuts down when Boise State is playing here in town, people line up to get into the stadium to save their spot outside the stadium. That's definitely a big, big part of the culture here now. Maybe you have your own sports team, that's fine. College sports team, but the big thing here of course is Boise State. But no professional sports teams.

A lot of people kind of bring their pro sports team with them where they came from and just follow them remotely, of course, but you can't, you're not going to be able to go to a professional sports team here. So no baseball, no basketball, no pro football.

#16 Education

The education system here is not that great. It's actually ranked 30th by US News and World Report. It's also ranked 51st in spending on public education. I think Puerto Rico breaks in there, not really a state, but kind of. Not a lot of money spent on public education. There are a lot of great charter schools and private schools, stem schools, and a lot of good homeschooling options.

We homeschool ourselves. We do a homeschool hybrid program. I'm not as worried about that with the public education system. But you might be more concerned about that peripherally. Of course, I want everyone to be educated well for, to increase and better our society but there are some other options available outside the public education systems that'd be said tends to have smaller class sizes. Technically not that great, but it just kind of depends on how you look at it and what exactly you're looking for.

#17 Allergies

If you have bad allergies, they can get bad here in Idaho. Southern Idaho is not nearly as bad as North Idaho. It can get really bad up there, but if you do have allergies, you really need to keep that in mind. A trick that I recently learned is that if you eat raw local honey, then that actually can really help prevent the allergies from flaring up.

It's kind of like you're inoculating yourself against those, the pollens cause those pollens are kind of mixed into the honey from the bees as they collect the pollen and in order to make the honey.

That's to be a great way to mitigate that. You're getting the kind of not inoculating yourself. That's definitely worth trying out. I have not personally tried that yet, but I'm going to try that. I don't have bad allergies though, at least not yet. That is certainly something to keep in mind if you're moving here and you got allergies.

That was 17 things that you need to know before moving to Boise and the Treasure Valley area.

Curtis Chism, Realtor
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boise@chismteam.com 
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