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...If you are well off financially Coeur d’Alene and it's immediate metro area is a little better political climate versus Boise. The hospital there should suffice though I'm not 100% sure on any specialists.
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Originally Posted by Rudydog1
Thank you for the recommendation, checking it out now. Looks like rents for homes are similar to Boise. Need to look at medical though.
Lost a dear friend to liver cancer the other year. There are oncology specialist in the area. She received radiation treatment at Kootenai Health in Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls. Also some speciality treatment in Spokane, (about a half hour/45-minute one-way drive from CdA), but most treatment was local. We also made one trip to Seattle. That was an over-nighter as it's about a six-hour, one way drive from North Idaho. I cannot attest to the quality of the care she received, but she seemed satisfied.
Politically, the area leans solid right. Even to the point where extremist are taking over pretty much everything, (and are making a huge mess when they do). Our community college is currently operating under "show cause" and under threat of losing its accreditation, one school board up north is dysfunctional, and the local library network is not much better. They promote non-qualified candidates, and the results are predictable. There is some fightback, but it will be a long, long fight to restore any semblance of government efficiency and political order. Figure I heard last week is that only 16% of registered voters identify as Democrats. The rest are Republicans or unaffiliated, (not including the two other officially recognized, minor political parties).
Just curious as to what smaller areas outside of Boise? I only cruised around the Boise area, went to Nampa and back. How far out is Eagle?
Thanks..
My parents live in Eagle. It's a suburb of Boise, about 15-20 minutes from downtown. Boise, Meridian, and Eagle are part of a contiguous urban area. Eagle is conservative, with higher real estate prices and has normal suburb-of-bigger-city traffic issues and a nice little historic downtown. There are some beautiful country estates in Eagle, but these are pricey, usually well north of $1M.
Star and Middleton are small cities little further from Boise, more similar to what Eagle was 10-20 years ago. Caldwell and Nampa are bigger, yet still conservative.
You may also consider Emmett, around 30 minutes north of the main urban area.
Cancer treatment options are located in the bigger cities: Boise, Meridian, Nampa, Caldwell.
I've lived near Boise for 15 years. My in-laws lived outside of Rapid City (Piedmont) for about 20 years before they passed (they grew up near there and moved back for a final location). Our son graduated from the SD School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City too. The cities are VERY different. The Boise metro is ~800K+, the Rapid City metro is more like 140K, but feels much smaller.
Boise is within an easy 5 hour drive to SLC, and a longer 6 - 8 hour drive to Portland or Seattle areas. All on interstates.
Rapid City to Denver is a series of back roads and freeway that says 6 hours, but our son usually planned on more (he lives in a Denver suburb). It's 8 hours out to Minneapolis with Sioux Falls a bit over halfway. There isn't much else in South Dakota or eastern Wyoming city-wise to see, so Rapid City tends to feel pretty isolated vs. Boise. Twin Falls, ID is about 2 hours east of Boise and similar sized to Rapid City. You'd better love Rapid City, because that's pretty much it most of the time.
If you want to fly out of either city, Boise boast many more flights, to many more destinations, and is serviced by several airlines to include multiple discount airlines. Rapid City is serviced by Delta and United and flights are to Minneapolis, Denver and SLC. That's pretty much it. We flew from Boise to Rapid City many times. The most expensive portion of any fight was always the leg to/from Rapid City.
Weather-wise:
Boise is mostly dry high desert. Brown foothills and mountain faces to the north, brown desert to the east and south, old irrigated farm land and metro sprawl to the west. If the developments can get water there is quite a bit of metro sprawl planned to the east too. Anyway, lots of sun and little rain in Boise most of the year. This year was a pretty typical summer season. Many hot days in the 90s and several above 100. Last year was a record year with 21 days over 100 during the summer (late May to late Sept). We had some thunderstorms in August and Sept, but not much rain at all otherwise. Most summers have a stretch of 6 - 8 weeks without rain. Winter is still mostly dry with a few rain/snow events from Oct to May in the valley. It doesn't stick around for long, and the snow events seem to last less than an hour to a few hours. It just gets going, looks pretty, covers the lawn/roads, and then stops. The snow falls mainly in the Mountains that are NW, N, NE and S of Boise. Lots of mountains and forests, with rivers and lakes to explore, all the way north into Canada.
Rapid City is on the eastern edge of the Black Hills, so you can see pine-tree covered hills to the west mainly, but it's the Great Plains to the east right out of town, so typically brown grasses to the SE, E and NE. It's much windier in Rapid City. As the storms come off the Black Hills the snow blows sideways and creates drifts that shutdown the roads and highways frequently for a few hours to a day or so until the drifts can be broken down and cleared. The winter storms tend to last longer than in Boise, and sometimes blow and drop snow for 24 hours or more. Summer rain is again thunderstorms that come off the Black Hills and drop more rain and bigger hail stones than is seen in Boise. The Black Hills are a small island chain of mountains and valleys. There is a limited amount of space to explore and enjoy, and the topography doesn't vary that much.
Food wise: As I mentioned in your other post the food scene in Rapid City is pretty dismal. Boise has a very diverse food scene as is typical of a much larger metro area that has a much more diverse population. Boise had three or four restaurants that are James Beard award finalists this year, and one or two winners for 2023. There are multiple Trader Joes and Whole Foods stores in the metro area, plus the very nice Boise Coop in Meridian. There are multiple large famer's markets in Boise and its suburbs too. The farmer's markets in the Rapid City area are much smaller and less diverse.
Rapid City has a very nice regional hospital and has a VA hospital nearby in Sturgis. Boise has four large regional-style hospitals, plus the VA hospital is in Boise proper too.
The big benefits to Rapid City is that SD doesn't have an income tax, vs. Idaho's 6%. Sales taxes are similar: Rapid City 6.2% vs. Boise's 6.5%. Property taxes are Rapid City at ~1.350%, Boise ~0.800%. If you will always rent then that won't be much of an impact. Buying property is pretty much a wash for property you'd likely want to live in. The Boise area is likely just a bit more expensive, but has much more housing stock and variety, from urban condos and apartments to a variety of urban and suburban homes. Both have rural acreage on the outskirts of town and suburbs. Being a smaller city, Rapid City has much less traffic, much less suburban sprawl, when compared to Boise. Though compared to other big cities (i.e. Portland, Seattle, Denver, SLC, etc.), Boise's traffic is a breeze!!
Only you can decide what is the best fit for you. Visit both. I'd suggest you make some winter visits to both. You can get a non-stop flight from Phoenix to Boise, but not to Rapid City.
Just curious as to what smaller areas outside of Boise? I only cruised around the Boise area, went to Nampa and back. How far out is Eagle?
Thanks..
Eagle is less than 10mi downtown to downtown. Meridan, Garden City and Caldwell are a few. I am not 100% sure what the housing looks like today in these areas so check them out.
*Note, smaller than Boise is what I went after. Truly small towns are more like Garden City or Kuna. Or if you don't mind a short drive Emmett.
Eagle is less than 10mi downtown to downtown. Meridan, Garden City and Caldwell are a few. I am not 100% sure what the housing looks like today in these areas so check them out.
*Note, smaller than Boise is what I went after. Truly small towns are more like Garden City or Kuna. Or if you don't mind a short drive Emmett.
Kuna has boomed. It's not quite solid from Boise down to Kuna, but it's getting closer all the time. Emmett is the next city to boom as they are making HWY 16 an expressway from I-84 out to Emmett. The on/off ramp is being built right now, so one more exit on/off I-84 between Meridian and Nampa. But, Emmett is a pretty nice small town by itself and it's easy to get into Boise or Meridian. It might be a good time to buy before the expressway is completed. I think part of the effort is to take pressure off HWY 26 and 55 between Garden City, Eagle and Horseshoe Bend, and then up to Cascade/McCall. That's a busy HWY and going through Emmett would at least skip all that and bring you into Horseshoe Bend on HWY 52.
The cities are VERY different. The Boise metro is ~800K+, the Rapid City metro is more like 140K, but feels much smaller...
Thank you for all your info. Coming originally from San Diego years ago, migrating to Virginia twice and back to Arizona twice we are somewhat spoiled to having some vision of infrastructure for needs. Many of your comments regarding RC I already confirmed on-line, Utube videos etc. Even though we are in our early 70's, hubby is in remission for cancer, we like nice shopping, dining and travel experiences. I like a more four season climate, not hiding from tornados and digging out from chronic snow storms.
I am up about 3400 feet here so I have milder heat in summer and actually see snow on occasion after the first part of the year. Hubby hates humidity and bugs, AZ scores high there, how about Idaho? Don't think I will be visitng SD, no need. I am attracted to their tax benefits however at what costs right? I am assuming SSI isnt taxed there, maybe I should look up . We will have to rent at this point, appears to be many opportunities/competition for home rentals, shouldn't have a problem in Idaho. Oh..how are your vehicle registration and auto insurance rates...ours are crazy, not as bad as Cali..
Last edited by volosong; 10-03-2023 at 09:26 PM..
Reason: fixed open quote hypertag
Thank you for all your info. Coming originally from San Diego years ago, migrating to Virginia twice and back to Arizona twice we are somewhat spoiled to having some vision of infrastructure for needs. Many of your comments regarding RC I already confirmed on-line, Utube videos etc. Even though we are in our early 70's, hubby is in remission for cancer, we like nice shopping, dining and travel experiences. I like a more four season climate, not hiding from tornados and digging out from chronic snow storms.
I am up about 3400 feet here so I have milder heat in summer and actually see snow on occasion after the first part of the year. Hubby hates humidity and bugs, AZ scores high there, how about Idaho? Don't think I will be visitng SD, no need. I am attracted to their tax benefits however at what costs right? I am assuming SSI isnt taxed there, maybe I should look up . We will have to rent at this point, appears to be many opportunities/competition for home rentals, shouldn't have a problem in Idaho. Oh..how are your vehicle registration and auto insurance rates...ours are crazy, not as bad as Cali..
Humidity is quite low here, since it is high desert at just under 3,000 feet at the airport. Bugs aren't really a problem here in Boise or Idaho in general. Flies are annoying this time of year (say mid-Aug to first hard freeze in mid-Oct). Not covering your food if you eat outside, but they are buzzing around and you have to keep your eyes on your food at least. Mosquitos aren't much of a problem in the city, but if you are camping/hiking near water they can be a bother like most places. There are spiders around, to include black widows. Some type of spider webs are in the flowerbeds, but only see a black widow in the garage every few years.
Insurence is on auto-pay. As I recall it's about $98 per month for two daily driver vehicles on full coverage, and a classic car on a limited mileage policy. Registration is pretty convoluted and based on age, cost, weight, city fees, county fees, and probably some more factors. In the end we pay several hundred dollars a year for the newer vehicles, and less than a hundred a year for the classic car.
Well after reading all this great information and doing research I realize we are a little late to the party.
Goodness...should of purchased back in 2013. Looks like for us to live there it would be on our own little lot, living in a trailer of sorts or mini home. Might need to adjust my vision to another area or just stay put and wait for things to change...RE wise.
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Oh wow the prices
