Living in Caldwell

You're thinking about moving to Boise, Idaho, and you're looking at Caldwell, Idaho as an option. You need to read this blog and watch the video to find out everything you need to know about living in Caldwell, Idaho, before you make the move here and we're getting after it right now.

Caldwell Idaho is absolutely blowing up and people that live in Caldwell absolutely love it. We're going to be getting after everything there is to know about living in Caldwell, Idaho.

There are a couple of really awesome features about living here in Caldwell, Idaho, that I'm going to get after in just a little bit in the blog, but first I just want to cover

Where exactly is Caldwell, Idaho?

Caldwell, Idaho is located up the 84, just about 25 minutes west of Boise. It's located just to the north of Nampa, Idaho. Nampa and Caldwell kind of run right into each other. And you've got Lake Lowell kind of on the south side that borders it, that Nampa and Caldwell share that lake and it's right next to Middleton. Middleton is in between Star and Caldwell.

Again, about 25 minutes, you can be right into Downtown Boise and to the airport. Depending on where you end up in Caldwell, it might take a little bit longer. And if there's traffic, you might be pushing 40-45 minutes to get into Boise. Depending on how close you're looking to live in near to Boise, then a Caldwell could be a good option for you, but that's where it's located.

It's a little bit more rural in Caldwell. Because it's more rural, there's a lot more farmland out here as well. You're going to have to get used to that. And the two-lane country roads, I absolutely love the two-lane country roads coming from San Diego. You just don't see that at all. I find that very relaxing and peaceful, but traffic can build up on some of those roads because they just weren't necessarily built to handle the increased traffic because of all the people moving here.

The median price for Caldwell is right around $450,000. That's really going to vary depending on the type of home that you're looking for. If you're looking for a much older home, very small, that's going to be in that $300,000-$400,000 price range, but you're not going to get much for your money.

If you're moving here from California, you're probably looking more for something that's going to be pushing more in that $600,000-$800,000 price range. And you're going to get a lot more for your money here in Caldwell versus your somewhere else like Star or Eagle, for instance.

A product that I really love here is these RV bays that you're going to find all throughout Caldwell, also in Nampa and in Star. If you're looking for an RV bay, a boat base, something to store your toys, your side by side, or have a workshop, Caldwell is definitely going to be one of the places you want to end up so you can get this. A lot of the homes have this here and we're going to be diving into some of their local communities that you're going to find some of these RV bays here in Caldwell.

2 Cool Things About Caldwell

#1 Indian Creek Plaza

Downtown area of Caldwell has been completely revitalized. This is the Indian Creek Plaza, and there's lots of little shops and restaurants. There's a music venue, a stage, and there's about 260 events per year that take place here at Caldwell. Here in the video, you can see the splash pad with my kids, playing and dancing to the music.

They have a number of taproom, like a little brewery. There's a little bar. They have canned, cocktails. You can purchase wine, beer, and you can take it and drink it while you're listening to the music. You can bring in your own food. They have food trucks, they have farmer's market that occurs regularly. It is an absolute blast, especially when it's hot.

The kids love playing in the splash pad and just having a grand old time. It's crazy.

Apparently about 15 years ago, these buildings were going for $30,000. It was run down, but the city of Caldwell has really taken a proactive approach and completely revitalized and redeveloped this Downtown area.

Now these commercial buildings are going for like $1.5 million. And you can see why. The creek running right through there. The huge open Plaza, it's an absolute blast and a huge draw for living in Caldwell.

#2 Wineries

There's 17 wineries in the Snake River Valley winery area and growing of course too, but they are producing some amazing wine. I come from California, I did not live in Napa, but I did live near Temecula Valley just outside of San Diego. I was a member at a number of wineries there, and I absolutely loved the wine and Temecula, but the wine here is also extremely good. Some people consider it the next Napa.

I don't know, maybe kind of pushing it a little bit, but it's super fun to go check out. Definitely check out Koenig winery. I love going there with my family. I have a friend that's a bartender. They're definitely worth checking on. People love coming here specifically for the wineries. People come from out of state from Utah and Oregon to come check out the Snake River Valley wineries.

Some of the Types of Homes and Communities

Windsor Creek

A really nice community here, a couple of hundred homes, wide mix of homes. You've got two car garage, three car garage, mostly two car garage, kind of a starter homes built by Hubble Homes.

Hubble Homes makes some really nice homes. They're finishes a little bit higher grade, not quite Toll Brothers, but kind of in between like CBH and Toll Brothers. Square footage is ranging from about 1,600-3,000 sq ft. And the price points right now are about low $400,000 for kind of your starter homes up to around $500,000 for the larger homes.

Not too many amenities in here, but there is a large grass open field,  grassy open field with some basketball courts. And these homes are pretty cool. They've got mud rooms in them, in some of them in the larger homes, decent size back yards. These are going to range from about 6,000 sq ft up to about 8,000-10,000 sq ft depending on the lot. 

And this is right here in Caldwell. Again, you're not too far away from Nampa and a lot of your shopping but a really nice community in here. Super clean, still fairly new construction. The homes are still being built. They've been built over the last couple of years.

You're going to have some that were built few years ago and then some that are still being built right now.  You're not going to have the mature trees yet. They're still growing up. But definitely a nice community worth checking out.

Sienna Hills

These are just incredible homes, very large ranging anywhere from about 1,600-3,200 sq ft. And a lot of them have the RV bays or boat bays or workshops, whatever you want to use them for. And I just think that's such a really awesome feature that you're going to find here.

The backyards are going to be a little bit smaller, because most of the loss going to be taken up by the home, but that being said, it depends on the home. Some of the homes are going to be built on 6,000-10,000 sq ft, lots and others are going to be on true quarter acre, lots as well.

Just kind of depends on the home and the size of the lot. And these prices are going to range, quite a bit anywhere from $500,000 for the kind of those more starter homes. And then up into the a $800,000 for the larger homes, especially with the RV base.

The really cool thing about Sienna, as well as Santa Hills, it has its own little vineyard here. It has a really awesome community pool, community center, like rec center, basketball courts and tennis courts. It's a really awesome community here in Caldwell and definitely should be on your list if you're looking for these kinds of amenities

CBH/ Cedar Crossing

A big builder out here. They've been in business for about 30 years now. They've built a lot of the homes, a lot of the tract homes here in the Valley, and they're going to be building the Dutch more affordable homes for the most part. You're not going to get maybe some of the nicer features like granite countertops, that kind of thing, but definitely affordable homes. And a lot of the homes built here are by CBH.

You're going to know that at CBH by seeing the red flags, when you come into a newer development. But these homes are going to range in price from about a $450,000-$550,000 here in Caldwell, depending on the type of home, how many square feet, but you can get starter homes through them. Kind of lower $400,000 2 car garage, you can get 3 car garage here as well, and the homes are going to range from about 1,500-3,000 sq ft.

The lot sizes are going to be about anywhere from 6,000-10,000 sq ft, but this is definitely a really nice community here in Caldwell and it's right across from Sienna Hills. Depending on your price points, this was a good option to check out.

Purple Sage Estate

Community is definitely worth putting on your list if you're looking for something more on the luxury side. It's going to be Purple Sage Estate. These homes are going to be in the 3-6 bedroom range. And if you're looking for acreage, you can get properties 1-2 acres. Definitely if you're looking for acreage larger homes, this is probably where you're going to want to end up.

And you're going to find homes again with 3-6 bedrooms, 2-4 bathrooms, and they are going to have their own septic and wells as well. It's kind of a unique feature that you're not going to find in most of the tract home developments here.

Heart Leaf Community

Definitely one worth checking out. That's going to be on the more affordable side built by Hayden Homes. Hayden along with CBH and Hubble are going to be your more affordable builders. You kind of got CBH, Hubble and Hayden.

Hubble and Hayden kind of similar in terms of quality. And these homes are definitely going to have your starter homes in the 1,400 sq ft range up to your more move-up homes into the 2,600 sq ft range. Bedrooms, bathrooms range from 3-5 bedrooms, 2-4 bathrooms as well.

And definitely a really nice community here in Heart Leaf. It's definitely worth checking out here in Caldwell. New construction so again, you're not going to have the developed mature neighborhoods. You're going to have the smaller trees that eventually will grow up. But as far as affordability and quality homes, definitely worth checking out.

School district here in Caldwell

You've got Vallivue and the Caldwell School Districts, you have 3 public high schools, a few middle schools and 8 elementary schools. We also have a mix of charter schools and private schools. You have Thomas Jefferson School, Vision Charter and Heritage Community. And you also have a mix of small private religious schools as well. We also have the College of Idaho here in Caldwell and the Treasure Valley Community College.

Shopping/ Parks and Recreation

As far as other things to do here in Caldwell like I mentioned, the Indian Creek Plaza, which has all those events every single year, it turns into a Winter Wonderland in the winter, the wineries, you also have Lake Lowell. Lake Lowell is a huge lake here in Treasure Valley. You can boat, you can fish on it and you can launch your kayaks into it. An awesome lake that's super accessible from Caldwell. Lowell is shared with Nampa borders.

You've got a lot of splash pads. My kids absolutely love the splash pads, the playgrounds, there's some BMX, parks around here as well. Skateboard parks, you got Piccadilly Park was actually in Middleton, which is nearby, which was a really great park. If you live in Caldwell, definitely worth going and checking that out over in Middleton.

And Caldwell being rural, there are a lot of trail systems. Very quickly you can have your mountain bike on the country roads here, the dirt roads out into the foothills to take your side by side your razor. There's a lot of off-roading opportunities here in Caldwell as well.

And there's also golfing. You have Fairview, which is a 9 hole executive golf course right here in Caldwell. And then the other major golf course here is Purple Sage Golf Course. Remember I mentioned the Purple Sage of Estates. You also have the Purple Sage Golf Course which is a really incredible golf course, if you love golfing. It's really kind of pushing more into Middleton, but it's kind of here in Caldwell as well.

Healthcare

You have the West Valley Healthcare Center. You also have the VA clinic here as well. If you're a veteran, you don't have to go all the way into Boise for that. You can go to the VA clinic here, which is awesome. Also a number of smaller local doctor's offices and clinics here for your more major hospitals like St Luke's or St.

Alphonsus, you're going to be heading into Nampa to take care of those larger needs.

That is an overview of living in Caldwell and some of the communities and the things to do here, the awesome Indian Creek Plaza and the wineries.

Curtis Chism, Realtor

208-510-0427 | Mobile

boise@chismteam.com | Email

Chism Team | NRDS# SP56593

brokered by eXp Realty