Looking to buy a home in Idaho? You won’t find many places more expensive. Here’s why
Housing prices in Boise have slowly been decreasing over the past year, but it’s no secret in the Treasure Valley that the cost to purchase a new home today isn’t what it was just five years ago.
The median sale price of a house in Boise in March 2023 was $458,615, according to the real estate agency Redfin. That’s a far cry from the median sale price of $296,500 in March 2018.
While Boise is feeling the sting of rapidly increasing prices, it’s an issue that’s put Idaho on a list that the state doesn’t want to be on: One of the worst states for first-time home buyers.
A new study from the personal finance website Moneywise found that Idaho is the 8th-worst state in the United States for first-time home buyers. The study considered the median price for a house in each state and calculated a down payment of 13%, which is the average down payment percentage, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Using the median house price on Zillow, Moneywise found the median price in Idaho is $466,435, resulting in an average down payment of $60,636.
“For first-time home buyers, the challenge of finding and affording their dream home can feel insurmountable at times,” a spokesperson for Moneywise said in a news release.
By comparison, homes in West Virginia boast the lowest prices in the nation. Residents of the Mountain State have a median home price of just $129,103 and an average down payment of $16,783.
But Idahoans can at least be thankful they don’t live in Hawaii. The median house price in the Aloha State is a nation-leading $848,926, resulting in an average down payment of $110,360.
Median house prices in the Treasure Valley
Despite Redfin finding the median sale price of a house in Boise to be $458,615, that figure is heavily skewed because of ZIP codes in the downtown Boise area. The following graph uses data from Zillow for average home value and automatically updates every month:
ZIP code 83702, which encompasses most of downtown Boise, has an average home value of $717,743. One ZIP code over in East Boise, 83712, also has an average home value of $732,292.
But the rest of the Treasure Valley isn’t feeling the sticker shock quite as acutely. ZIP code 83651 in Nampa has an average price of $349,459, the lowest in the area for March 2023.
In fact, outside of the two downtown Boise ZIP codes and three in Eagle and Meridian — 83669, 83646 and 83642 — every other ZIP code in the Treasure Valley has an average price under $500,000.
Other high-priced states
Although living in Idaho is becoming increasingly pricier, the Gem State isn’t the worst off. Here are the top ten most-expensive states for median home prices:
Hawaii ($848,926)
California ($760,800)
Washington ($595,732)
Colorado ($559,838)
Massachusetts ($559,312)
Utah ($544,868)
Oregon ($502,215)
Idaho ($466,435)
New Jersey ($441,762)
Nevada ($434,832)
