It’s no secret that Idaho’s population has been growing rapidly. But, it seems that the Idaho housing market can’t keep up with all the people moving here. Many people are coming from California, Oregon, and Washington. The market here tends to be more active in the spring, and with outsiders coming in, the market has been at an all time high. Builders are not able to build homes fast enough for the rate of those moving into town. 

According to the 2020 census data, Idaho is the fastest growing state in the nation. KTVB reported that “Forbes listed Boise as the fastest-growing city in the nation in 2018, and Meridian and Nampa were among the top 10 fastest-growing cities in the country, according to a 2020 report of the fastest-growing cities in America.” These three cities are also accompanied by Kuna, which is also growing at a rapid rate. In addition, the Boise Valley Economic Partnership recorded that in 2018 Californians made up 46% of the migrating population in Idaho. 

A local Boise realtor, Eric DeBord, owner of Red Pheasant realty, spoke on the influx of movers to the Treasure Valley. “With more people moving in we continue to spread out developing the land into housing subdivisions. The areas easiest to develop into subdivisions get developed first. This means our farmland is turning into housing. That spread is also called ‘urban sprawl’ and creates bigger roads, more commercial shopping areas, no one wants to drive very far so stores pop up everywhere there are houses,” DeBord described.

He went on and explained the problems with this influx by saying, “This means more parking lots. That has its own problem as more parking lots means less dirt and that means that rain has to be channeled off the parking lots instead of being soaked up by the earth. The short-version of this is that we have more people spread out over a larger area and more cars and more driving. The bucolic areas of our valley will just become jungles of houses. New people will also bring changes to culture — whether they are similar or different than current residents, the more people we get, the more our culture will change.”

Many realtors in the valley don’t expect the market to slow down anytime soon. The reasoning for this is because the only reason for it to decrease would be if people decided they didn’t want to come to Boise. The likelihood of this scenario is low unless it becomes too expensive or if people no longer have the money to move in the first place. People are attracted to the standard of living in the Treasure Valley, as well as the less dense traffic and overall less crowded than California. 

What will this mean for Boise School District students? Our schools will likely grow in population, which may or may not be something current students want. There’s a vast majority of opinions from local teens about the influx of the Treasure Valley population. 

As Boise and its surrounding areas continue to grow, we will see changes to our community.