Forget Seattle, Denver and San Francisco. Boise, Idaho, is poised to be the hottest housing market at the start of the next decade.
A new report from Realtor.com identified the housing markets that are expected to see the most notable home sales and price growth in 2020. Boise ranked No. 1, a marked increase from No. 8 a year ago.
Driving Boise’s climb up the Realtor.com ranking is the massive influx of new residents from pricier parts of the country — in particular, California. Many of these out-of-state buyers are drawn by the city’s mild climate, outdoor lifestyle, strong schools and its major employers, including HP and Micron Technologies.
Boise’s already seen a boom in terms of housing. A recent report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency showed that home prices in the Idaho state capital have risen 11.1% over the last year.
After Boise, McAllen, Texas, and Tucson, Ariz., ranked No. 2 and No. 3 on Realtor.com’s list. McAllen’s affordable home prices, combined with Texas’ favorable tax environment, have made the border city an attractive destination for home buyers looking to move. Tucson, meanwhile, has benefitted from an influx of retirees looking for warm weather and young adults looking to study at the University of Arizona or work for popular companies that have set up shop there like Amazon and Texas Instruments.
Meanwhile, some of the parts of the country that have proven to be among the most popular in recent years are expected to see a bit of a correction in 2020. Las Vegas, which ranked No. 7 last year, has dropped to the bottom of Realtor.com’s list for 2020. Sin City for a long stretch of time saw bumper home price growth, but the housing market there has cooled in recent months.
Similarly, sky-high home prices in places like San Diego, New York and Los Angeles are poised to put a damper on real-estate activity in those areas as most buyers are forced to the sidelines due to a lack of affordability.
Link to Article
Rochester NY #6. Anyone ever been to Rochester? [Raises hand.] Trust me. Rochester isn’t even a place to be from never mind go to. To be FROM Rochester means you had really bad parents. There’s a reason the median home price is $149,000.
As someone who has lived in the Boise area for over 9 years, it is booming here. Nearly 80,000 moved here in 2018. Here’s the list: CA (#1–like me), WA (#2), Utah (#3), Oregon (#4), and Texas (#5)
Along with new subdivisions with new single-family homes popping up at a huge clip, I no longer call Boise “City of Trees”, but “City of Apartments”. The number of apartments being built is eye popping and shows no trend of slowing down.
Micron or HP are the major employers here, but if not working there, wages are very low. Idaho is an employment at-will state. The minimum wage is $7.25/hour since January 1, 2014. Servers at restaurants only receive $3.30/hour
Strong schools? *Shakes head* The schools were ranked #50 in 2013 and have improved to #46 recently.
The biggest complaint from people who have lived here all their lives is that housing has become unaffordable for them, and with booming population growth the traffic has become crazy as ACHD (Ada County Highway District) hasn’t kept up with growth with needed infrastructure.
I’m retired and spend a lot of time writing. The people here are friendly, there’s not much snow (except “Snowmagedon” in 2016-2017: over 35″ from late Nov-Jan.), and I’m thrilled there are now two Trader Joe’s here. We built a new 2,300sf home 14 months ago and it’s already appreciated about 15%. I’m shocked at how quickly real estate values are shooting up.
If anyone is thinking of moving here, I’m happy to answer any Qs. I look at real estate listings nearly every day–being a real estate addict (not agent)–and really know the areas.
PS JtR will vouch for me, I hope 🙂
You know more than most agents!
We just moved full time to Puerto Rico from California taking our appreciation with and bought an ocean-view 2000 feet condo for $200k from the bank valued in 2004 for $680k I don’t see us moving back to Carlsbad area for the next 4-5 years. To pay min. $15k year for property tax sounds crazy to me. I would rather buy another condo and rent for $2500/ months here. Google Act 20/22 or Act 81 for taxes. 4% federal that’s it. Hence we just shipped Tesla here, since nada sales tax on electric cars. We still have rentals in San Diego but permanent residence would need to wait…
Puerto Rico might sound extreme to some but I love the idea! From wiki:
Puerto Rico (Spanish for “Rich Port”; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Spanish: Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit.?”Free Associated State of Puerto Rico”) and briefly called Porto Rico, is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeast Caribbean Sea, approximately 1,000 miles (1,600 km) southeast of Miami, Florida.
An archipelago among the Greater Antilles, located between the Dominican Republic and the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico includes the eponymous main island and several smaller islands, such as Mona, Culebra, and Vieques. The capital and most populous city is San Juan. The territory’s total population is approximately 3.4 million. Spanish and English are the official languages of the executive branch of government, though Spanish predominates.
Puerto Ricans have been citizens of the United States since 1917, and can move freely between the island and the mainland. As it is not a state, Puerto Rico does not have a vote in the United States Congress, which governs the territory with full jurisdiction under the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950. However, Puerto Rico does have one non-voting member of the House called a Resident Commissioner. As residents of a U.S. territory, American citizens in Puerto Rico are disenfranchised at the national level and do not vote for the president or vice president of the United States, and only some residents pay federal income tax. Like other territories and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico does not have U.S. senators. Congress approved a local constitution in 1952, allowing U.S. citizens of the territory to elect a governor. Puerto Rico’s future political status has consistently been a matter of significant debate.
In early 2017, the Puerto Rican government-debt crisis posed serious problems for the government. The outstanding bond debt had climbed to $70 billion at a time of an unemployment rate of 12.4%. The debt had been increasing during a decade-long recession. This was the second major financial crisis to affect the island after the Great Depression when the U.S. government, in 1935, provided relief efforts through the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration. On May 3, 2017, Puerto Rico’s financial oversight board in the U.S. District Court for Puerto Rico filed the debt restructuring petition which was made under Title III of PROMESA. By early August 2017, the debt was $72 billion with a 45% poverty rate.
In late September 2017, Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, causing devastating damage. The island’s electrical grid was largely destroyed, provoking the largest power outage in American history. Recovery efforts were slow in the first few months, and over 200,000 residents had moved to the mainland state of Florida alone by late November 2017.
Buy/own real estate where you can is another great idea.
A friend’s kid couldn’t afford San Francisco, so they bought a fixer in Truckee. Make it the weekend house and fix it up casually for a year to comply with the owner-occ loan requirements and then rent it out for a slightly positive cash flow now and be in the path of progress.
https://www.truckee.com/
Everyone should get their piece of the action wherever they can.
Unlike Rob_Dawg, I actually lived in Rochester NY for a few years and loved it. The city itself is poor after the loss of Kodak, but the suburbs excellent. We lived in an Erie Canal straddling village full of techies and faculty that was a 15 min drive from the university. The schools were nationally ranked top 100, and the arts/brewpub/outdoors scenes fantastic in all four seasons. Cost of living was low, so our 3,000 sq.ft. new house was only $400k with $10k/yr property taxes (mostly for the schools) so my wife could stay home with the kids.