Pros and Cons of Living in Star, Idaho

You're looking to move to Boise, Idaho, and the Treasure Valley area, and you've heard of Star, Idaho and you're wondering if maybe Star is the right place for you or maybe somewhere else. We're going to be covering the pros and cons of living in Star, Idaho and we're getting after it right now.

Idaho is all about the lifestyle and it's important to figure out exactly where the best spot is going to be for you to move. And sometimes you won't really know until it actually come out and tour around. Whether you want to be in Eagle, close to the river or further out in the country, out in Nampa or Caldwell or right in the action in Boise itself.

Let's get after living in Star, Idaho and the pros and cons here.

#1 Pro - A Lot of Homes Have an RV Bay attached to them

The number one thing that I love specifically about the homes here in Star is you're going to find a lot of homes where you can get an RV bay attached to the home. These RV bays are absolutely incredible. There are huge oversized garages. You can of course put your RV in there, you can put your boat, you can put your side by sides, your quads, whatever it is.

Or you can even turn these into a giant workshop. I've seen it where people have built like an office in the tall part of it in the back and then a workshop below and then they put there smaller boat or RV in there as well. There's a lot of different options. There's even some communities that have, believe it or not, double RV Bay garages.

You can pretty much put a basketball court in these suckers. That's the really cool part about Star that you can find these RV bays. There are other areas around that also have RV bays, you'll find those a lot in Caldwell in particular as well and a little bit in Middleton and scattered throughout the Valley.

But a big concentration of these are here in Star. Toll Brothers for instance, this is definitely an option that they offer, not the double RV Bay, but certainly you can add on the RV Bay for an extra fee if you're building new construction. That's a really cool feature of Star.

#2 Pro - Close to the Foothills

It is semi rural, super close to the foothills. In fact, part of the Boise foothills are right here in Star and you just drive up the hill and boom, you're in the foothills. You can find homes with large acreage.

These are going to tend to be a little bit more utilitarian but you can find lots here that are in the two to five acre range where you can have all your toys there, have your side by sides, your RVs park, that kind of thing.

But there are going to be more of working farm type areas up here as well. But it's also super close to the Boise foothills and tons of hiking and, and mountain biking opportunities as well.

Before we continue on with the pros, let's touch on a couple cons as to keep this balanced out here so you don't think it's all perfectly rosy.

#1 Con - Traffic

Star is a fairly small town with fairly small roads and so there's really just Highway 44, which is state running through here. It connects to Highway 16. There's also Star Road, that's one of the main roads coming out. There can be traffic that builds up on these roads because they're just two lane old country farm roads essentially.

People do get a little bit frustrated in the morning and afternoon with a little bit of rush hour traffic. Of course there's nothing compared to probably where you're moving from, but it can get backed up, It can take a while to get through some of these roads because of the traffic.

#2 Con - Smoke From Wildfires

The second thing that's a con is the smoke from wildfires. This is not just limited to Treasure Valley, this is really an Idaho thing. The winds blow in here from Oregon, from California when there's fires and of course fires even here in Idaho. There can be lightning strikes during the summer, late summer that caused these brush fires.

And the smoke just filters down here into Treasure Valley and sits here. And so the air quality can get really bad. This is certainly a feature of Star and of Treasure Valley as well.

#3 Pro - A Lot of Homes For All Kinds of People

There are starter homes, move up homes, luxury homes, not so much on the condo side of things, but a but a wide range of homes depending on where you're looking to get. Either get started in life and started in buying a home or if you're looking to sell and move up into a home or buy something on the more luxury side.

There are homes that are going to range anywhere from kind of the mid $400,000-$500,000 into the $700,000-$800,000 you're going to find some really beautiful nice homes in that range. And then of course into the $1 million plus as you start getting into those RV bays that I was telling you about, those are certainly me pushing into that $800,000-$1 million price range.

#4 Pro - Gold Course

If you like golf, there is a beautiful golf course here called River Birch. There's also a community driving range that is a part of that golf course as well.

Touching back on a couple cons.

#3 Con - Internet is Not that Great

The internet is not that great here in Star and really even in the Treasure Valley, it's not exactly wonderful. It can be great and then it can just drop out and stop working. If you're working from home, you might have to be aware of that, that it could be not the best internet in the world. That's the case here in Star.

#4 Con - On-going Construction

There is construction going on everywhere because it is a rapidly growing town, there is new construction everywhere. Some people are okay with that but it is hard to live in a construction zone. I kind of live in a construction zone having bought new construction here myself as well. And it's tough because you got to hear the hammers banging and the framing nails going and the tractor's grading.

It can be a little annoying and you can get stuck behind construction trucks as well. That is going on right now. That is going to be going on for a long time. Star is only about 10,000 to 12,000 people right now. 10,000 people as of the 2020 census but it's growing rapidly.

Right now, about 12-ish thousand people and is projected to grow to 40,000 people in the next 15 years or so. There's going to be a lot more building going on. If you're not a big fan of new construction and all the construction going on around you, then this may not be the place for you. You might want to look more into places like Eagle or Meridian.

#5 Pro - Patriotic Home Owners

You're going to find American flags all over the place with all the craziness that's gone on in the world that we all know what we're talking about. Star did not put up with that. They backed the blue the whole time.

Covid was not a big thing here. It's super patriotic town. If that's what you're looking for, Star is the place for you. With the name like Star, how can you not be patriotic?

#5 Con - No Major Medical Center

You're going to have your basic medical services, your dentist, that sort of thing, but you aren't going to have a major medical facility for that. You're going to have to go into Meridian, Eagle and Boise for your major medical services.

This one isn't necessarily a pro or a con depending on how you look at it, but there is not a ton of shopping opportunities here. You do have kind of your basic necessities, you're going to met here, be met here. You have Star Merc or the Merc, they call it. And that's basically a grocery store or a hardware store, a little café. You can get all your kind of your basic needs met there.

There is an Albertsons that went in recently. That's great. You're going to be getting a lot of your shopping needs met there, of course, Albertsons tends to be a little bit more on the expensive end on average, but it is going to give you a lot of shopping opportunities there for your basic needs and groceries.

There is a Bi-Mart here as well, getting it all your outdoor, stuff there as well. But if you're really looking for your more branded shopping opportunities as far as clothing, taking a night out to the theater, that kind of thing, you're going to be heading into either Eagle, Meridian or Boise for that, specially Meridian.

Meridian has The Village, which is an awesome outdoor mall with all kinds of shops and restaurants here. So you're probably going to be heading in there for for that. Also, Costco is located in Meridian and Trader Joe's is Meridian as well close. The Trader Joe's is close to the Village. Costco is going to be about 15 minutes away. Trader Joe's more about 20 minutes away or so. And if you're looking for Whole Foods, you're just going to find that only in Boise, in downtown Boise.

As far as the homes and communities here at, like I touched on a couple of the features you're going to find, especially with the RV bays and some of the properties that you're going to be able to find here in terms of sizes, but I have another blog on Star and the specific communities in there. 

Search all homes for sale in Star, Idaho

I'll keep releasing blogs about the specific communities and subdivisions in Star. And that's the complete overview of the pros and cons of living in Star.

Curtis Chism, Realtor
208-510-0427 | Mobile
boise@chismteam.com 
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