Complete Overview of Boise Idaho - Everything You Need to Know

You're thinking about moving to the Boise and Treasure Valley area. This is everything you need to know. We're diving into all the cities around Boise in the Treasure Valley area, like Eagle, Nampa, Kuna, Meridian, and we're going to be covering everything you need to know about living in the Treasure Valley area and we're getting after it right now.

I think it's really important to know where everything is when you're looking to move here so you can feel comfortable, and just have your bearings when you come here.

I don't like to feel lost. And you get a good idea of where all the major cities are, the recreational activities, the lakes, mountains, that kind of thing.

Boise is right here in Southwest Idaho, and the Treasure Valley area is basically high desert. You've got Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and Washington. Boise in the Treasure Valley area actually really close to Oregon. Just less than an hour away from the Oregon border and got the Owyhee Mountains

It's bordered by the Owyhee Mountains and you got the Snake River that cuts through here, and you got the Boise River that also cuts through Boise. The Snake river is going to be more Southwest of Nampa and Caldwell, kind of cutting through right by the Oregon border. And then you got the Boise River that comes down and flows through Boise through Eagle and in Caldwell.

In Caldwell, there is the Indian Creek that runs through it. It's a beautiful little river. I would consider it a river being from California, but it’s considered a a creek here. And then real quick, you got in the mountains, you got the foothills. This is the foothills of Boise where is built right up against it. You got Boise over here on the east side of the valley, right up against the foothills. Eagle is right here, also against the foothills and everything kind of moves west from there.

You've got Meridian right here, kind of right in the center. That's kind of the heart of the Treasure Valley next to Boise. And then as you head a little bit more west, you got Nampa, Caldwell, Middleton and you got Star right in between Middleton and Eagle.

As you head up into the foothills and into the mountains, if you're in Boise or Eagle, you're about 45 minutes to an hour you're into some absolute, incredible mountains. You got Banks right here. There's a really awesome little Sandy beach in Banks, and there's a rope swing. You can swim over to, and swing into the water. I've done that myself. It's awesome. Like I said, 45 minutes to an hour outside of Boise.

A little bit further up, you got tons of camping in the Boise National Forest. And then there's also a great little restaurant as well like a cafe, it has some beer, great hamburgers, warm apple pie all a mode with ice cream. And if you head a little bit further up, you get into Cattle Country, high Cattle Country in the mountains as you head up here to Lake Cascade and beyond Lake Cascade, you've got McCall with Payette lake. Also amazing camping opportunities in McCall and around Lake Cascade.

The interesting thing right now that some of the lakes have to deal with around here is the blue algae bloom. Lake Cascade this year had a very early bloom. It was it's warmer water and the lake is shallow so it warms up and algae bloom. It's not safe to swim in, and animals can actually get sick and die. You definitely don't want to swim in that. Payette Lake, no problem this year so far. You're good there, deeper lake.

Lake Lowell down south, awesome opportunities for boating, jet skiing, water skiing, paddle boarding, kayaking, and it's right outside Nampa and Caldwell. Nampa and Caldwell border it so you got Caldwell on the north side of it and Nampa kind of on the south end of the lake. But it also can have an algae bloom as well. It actually just started up here recently, so it's not safe to swim in anymore either. You got to keep in mind about that when you're looking at the lakes.

And also you've got Bogus Basin. That's about an hour or so from the city, 45 minutes to an hour. Bogus Basin is a great ski resort. There's summer activities you can do, there's roller coaster type activity built into the mountain you can do, which is super cool. Definitely worth checking out. Those are kind of the local foothills around and the mountains.

And then of course you got the Boise River and the Boise River is a blast. The most popular thing to do in the summer on the Boise River is the Boise River float. You can paddleboard on it. You can rent rafts and they have a busing system where you start at Barber Park and you float down the river, and then you get bus back up from Ann Morrison Park to your car. But you can start the other way to, you can start at Ann Morrison Park, bus yourself up to Barber Park, rent a raft if you don't have your own and then float down the river, it's super, super fun. And everyone loves, loves doing it.

Depending on the time of year, earlier in the season, it can be a little bit faster. There's three drops you need to be aware of, later in the year, not a problem at all, but, if you've got really little kids, may or not may want to take them with you. But it's, it's really pretty safe, I would say, but people do drown each year because they drink. You're not supposed to drink on the river. A lot of people do and they get themselves stuck in a stupid situation.

A lot of people go on inner tubes here as well. And the problem in inner tubes, you have very little control and you tend to get kind of pushed into the brush and trees along the side. And you can kind of hit your head as you go under these low hanging trees. The fire department does go through every year and try to trans back all the trees along the river, but you don't have to do the full float.

There's all kinds of river access along the Boise River, like a Reid Merrill Park, great park in Eagle. You just do a short little walk down and there's you got the river right there. We go there all the time. Absolutely love it.

Let's dive in a little bit more into the Boise area. You've got Boise and you've got a Boise Bench. A lot of people love living in the Boise Bench because there's a lot of mid-century homes that are very well built homes. They are older, some have been upgraded, but there's some opportunity to buy less expensive homes that are also very solidly built home. You got Boise State University right outside at downtown Boise so if you're looking to go to school, you have someone move in there to go to Boise State University.

You got downtown, which is really, really cool area. And specifically you got North End. North End and Hyde Park, you have a lot of really great little restaurants here.

Great pizza place and a lot of people love hanging out here, super popular. North End is very, very hipster. For myself, coming from California, there's a couple communities there like North Park, for instance, that are super hipster, which really reminds me of that. You got all kinds of old craftsman style homes here in the North End.

Boise is certainly going to be, I'll just let you know, certainly the more blue, liberal side of the Treasure Valley. Certainly if you're looking for something more conservative, you might want to start looking into some of these other communities that we're going to be talking about. This Old Idaho Penitentiary site, this is super cool. This is not an active penitentiary anymore. During Christmas time, they have a whole Christmas light season. It's super, super fun to take your kids to and go with your family. And they've got hot chocolate milk and cotton candy and all kinds of things. There's an awesome light show that you can walk around and experience.

You're not too far from Boise Bench to the Boise Airport. Boise Airport is super easy to get in and out of. I love flying in and out cause it's kind of a small airport. It is more expensive to fly out of Boise. I always thought that San Diego was kind of expensive to fly out. Boise's pretty expensive. That being said, there are direct flights to San Diego. If you book far enough out that aren't terribly expensive.

You've got Costco here in Boise and Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's is going to be in downtown Boise, and then you've got Costco right by I-84. This is going to be one of your main areas, if you're looking for a Costco or trader Joe's to head to. As we move out a little bit, we start heading into the city surrounding Boise that make up Treasure Valley. When a lot of people are moving to Boise, they're actually end up moving to one of these other communities.

And I've got videos about each of these doing deep dives into these communities. Check those out if you want to know more, very specifically, but we're just going to give you the lay of the land here. You've got Boise here on the west. You have Garden City that's kind of surrounded by Boise, not a whole lot going on there, but there are some really cool breweries and restaurants there.

You've got Western Collective Brewery and you've got Telaya Winery right along the river. There are some homes, but not a lot of homes. It's actually a little expensive there because there's not a lot of homes there.

Main Places People Go When They Move to Boise

#1 Eagle

A lot of people joke, I actually have heard this about a couple communities, I've heard about Meridian as well, but I've heard a lot of people kind of joked that Eagle is built for Californians. It's like 90% of the people live in Eagle are from California. I don't know if that's actually true, but that's kind of the word on the street, but Eagle's super cool.

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It's a mixture of mid-century homes as well as very modern new construction homes as well. And you have some really large homes that you can buy here that are going to be in the $1-$2 million range that are massive homes, 3,000 sq ft plus, half acre lots, right on the river or right on ponds, gated communities. But depending on what you're looking for, if you're looking for a mid century home or something brand new, something like in Lakemoor or Two Rivers, then Eagles are really a great spot.

It's certainly more upscale for sure. We love going there. We don't live there, but we love going there. Fantastic parks in Eagle like Reid Merrill Park that I mentioned earlier and really, really great restaurants as well. We like Caci for instance, a lot kind of an Italian woodfired pizza, the great cocktails, happy hour, fantastic happy hour, 2 for 1 cocktails during happy hour. Also got Bodacious Pig there in Eagle as well.

#2 Meridian

Moving south is Meridian. Meridian is really kind of the heart of Treasure Valley. And you got The Village at Meridian. We're going to talk about the shopping there a little bit because that's kind of what blew up Meridian. It was built in 2005, all kinds of little boutique shops and restaurants, all your main like national retailers are going to be there and they do have Lululemon right there in The Village.

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I love wearing Lululemon. My wife does too. If you're looking for Lululemon in Boise area, The Village at Meridian is going to be your place to go, but it's super cool. They got all these water fountains, they got a little playground for the kids. Great little coffee shop right in the middle there as well. And they have an ice rink as well that they have during the winter time, which is super cool.

Everything kind of built out around Meridian around, The Village once that was built, all kinds of things to do in Meridian though, you got several really big parks, Settlers Park. That's where a lot of the football and baseball programs are. And then you've also got Kleiner Park as well, which is right next to The Village at Meridian. And then you got Roaring Springs Waterpark, which is super fun to go to as well.

A whole mix of homes you're going to find here, but mostly built in the last 20 years or so. And it's mostly built out for the most part. As far as if you head into south Meridian that's room to find some of the brand new construction versus homes that were built anywhere in the last couple years to the last 20 years. You're going to have a mix of established neighborhoods that were built in the last 15-20 years and some brand new construction as well.

#3 Kuna

As you head south, we're going to Kuna. This town here is pronounced Kyu-na not Ku-na as a lot of people might pronounce it. You've got Indian Creek that runs right through Kuna. And you've got this really cool little downtown area, not quite like Caldwell. We can even Caldwell here in a second, which is super cool downtown area, but really nice, big, huge park here, you can go and fish right at the river.

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Some restaurants, shops, you've a lot going on here for family activities in Kuna. Kuna has really blown up over the last years. I was just talking to my home inspector the other day and he actually moved to Kuna 11 years ago and he's like, "yeah, you know, it was totally different 11 years ago. This is kind of disappointed how much is blown up cause it's been discovered.

In Kuna, you're going to have a mix of homes that are brand new construction. Some that are a little bit older, but most of these homes are going to be built in the last 5-10 years. There is a four-lane highway going from Meridian down to Kuna. The traffic flows really well through there. You're also going to find a lot of larger properties in Kuna as well. A lot of track home developments that are going to be smaller properties, 6,000-10,000 sq ft lots.

But if you're looking for more of a farm type feel like, you're looking for a couple acres, you want to have room for all your toys, your side by size, your RVs, or you want to have goats and horses and cows, then Kuna is going to be the place for you. You're going to be able to find those properties that are more in the 2-10 acre range here in Kuna.

#4 Star

We're going to talk briefly about Star before we kind of get into these other areas. And this is going to round out Ada counties. Ada county is comprised of all these neighborhoods here, Eagle, Meridian, Kuna, Boise and Star. Star is another fantastic area, if you're looking for slightly more affordability than an Eagle, it's not going to be that much cheaper to be honest. I mean, you can get some really big homes here in Star.

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And the cool thing too is you can actually get into the foothills here in Star. It starts to move into the foothills, and you can get some incredible views from the homes here in Star. And some really beautiful homes, a lot of homes with the RV bays that you're going to start finding as you get into Star and these other areas like Caldwell and Nampa. Also right along the Boise river, not too far from Eagle Island State Park, which is an awesome state park to check out as well.

But it's a really small sleepy town. There's only about 10,000 people in Star versus about 130,000 over in Meridian. But it is rapidly growing and so it's a massive influx of people that are coming in the traffic can back up a bit as you get into Star and trying to get out. If you're commuting into Meridian early in the morning or coming back late at night, awesome community though, really cool communities here.

#5 Nampa

This is Canyon Country or two C as it's referred to a lot. Nampa this is actually where I live and I moved here because you can get a lot house for your money, both in Nampa and Caldwell, somewhat in Middleton as well. The Middleton's getting kind of expensive too. Nampa has a super cool little downtown area that's getting revitalized, not quite like Caldwell.

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You got to stay tuned for Caldwell, super cool. We're going to talk about that, but cool. Little downtown areas, Holy Cow restaurant, super good burgers, fish and chips as well. Also a cool little brewery right here with 2C Family Brewing Also Mother Earth Brewing is located here. They moved from San Diego, still operate in San Diego, but their main production is up here in Nampa.

And the interesting thing here is kind of laid out. It is laid out on a grid, but it has the railroad that cuts through at an angle here. You can get a little confused as far as your orientation where near in Nampa, as far as your north south, because everything's kind of angled a bit. But a lot of new construction here in Nampa, a lot of farms being converted over into brand new subdivisions.

Traffic is kind of an issue in Nampa because a lot of two lane roads are here. It can be hard to get around in Nampa rush hour. It can take a while to get in and out of Nampa. Nampa is located about 30 minutes from Meridian depending on where you're going, 35 minutes to downtown Boise and about 25-30 minutes also to Eagle.

It's a little bit further out there, but not bad down the freeway. If you're close to the freeway, if you're in north Nampa and you get up on the 84 freeway, then you just head right over Meridian and there in 15 minutes.

#6 Caldwell

The next one up is Caldwell. Caldwell also has a lot of new construction. Very predominantly by CBH homes. There's a lot of that going on in Caldwell, but also some custom homes, semi custom homes at Sienna Hills, which is awesome. Also has the RV bays, you're going to find a lot here in Caldwell. Indian Creek Plaza is awesome. It's been totally revitalized. There's something like 260 events per year at Indian Creek Plaza. They got farmer's markets. They've got live music every Tuesday.

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They got the splash pads here for the kids. You can grab a drink at the community bar thing they've got here and go and listen to the music, have your kids playing the splash pads. We absolutely love going here. It's super, super fun. And it's putting Caldwell on the map. Caldwell has around 60,000 people and growing Nampa has a 100,000 people. Meridian has 130,000 and then Boise is closer to quarter million people. Those are the biggest areas here.

Caldwell still has a lot of rural parts to it and  just not too far out and boom you're into the mountains. And you can do side by side and mountain biking, that kind of thing as well. Awesome area as well.

#7 Middleton

And then finally rounding out with Middleton. Middleton is super small community right now. Only about 10,000 people. There is not much going on here. All your shopping's going to be down in Caldwell or Nampa or over in Meridian. Nampa does have a Costco, but no Trader Joe's.

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Your 3 Costcos here are going to be Nampa, Meridian, kind of north Meridian, and then over in Boise. And your two Trader Joe's are going to be in Meridian or in Boise. Middleton is a really small community, also starting to really rapidly grow, but there's some super cool homes that you're going to find here as well like Valhalla Country Estates, Purple Sage, which is kind of on the border of Caldwell, and Middleton.

That was everything you needed to know about living in the Treasure Valley area.

Curtis Chism, Realtor
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boise@chismteam.com 
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