Would like to hear from people that moved to Idaho (Boise: low income, for sale)

[GutNurse]

Originally Posted by wurd4wurd

The primary negative is that wages are fairly low, although I believe that salaries are a bit better in the Boise area. This is a "right to work state" and that's where the low wages come into play. Hopefully, the right to work law will eventually be repealed.

Don't count on that happening...Idaho is a very conservative state (with the exception of those liberal enclaves of Hailey/Sun Valley), and the general populance doesn't take too kindly to liberal ideals (a major reason why I miss N. Idaho, I felt so at home there, compared to here in Minneapolis).

Yes, wages are low, but that's a fact of life that people have been dealing with there for generations, and I honestly don't see that changing anytime soon.

[Pineboy]

Wages across Idaho are up quite a bit according to a new state study. If you move to the Boise Metro area the wages are right on par with Salt Lake and Portland wages. Idaho is conservative but the Boise area is rather liberal;along with Northern Idaho and the Sun Valley area. In fact the most liberal area of Idaho is supposed to be the North End Historic Neighborhood in downtown Boise. I moved to Boise from SLC and Boise seems to be the city that SLC is striving to be with a vibrant downtown, people on mountain bikes everywhere, and there are actully real coffee shops and art galleries downtown and downtown is alive with activity most nights of the week. Most people moving to Boise from out of state are from larger cities and say that Boise does not lack anything except the negative aspects of a larger city. Boise is really "growing up" considering the variety of jobs, wages, and diverse people living and moving here.

[Southside Shrek]

Pineboy
what areas or towns in Northern Idaho are 'liberal' except possibly for Moscow and a few larger towns?

[huntman58]

Originally Posted by bluehen

Spent 7 years in Boise, some of the worst air polution in the nation. Inversions so bad 5 times a year you can't see 300 yards. I was in Boise yesterday and had a ferderal red alert for ozon's. Paper (Idaho Statesman) Said all elderly, Asthmatics and young Children to stay indoors.
If you have any respitory trouble stay away.

Spent ten years there and most winters it was that way. some summers it also was when forest fires were burning or the foot hills but then they seam to burn every other year or so . It did make my health worse I will say that same with my son. Also the welcome we got was not a nice one unless you call being spat on some thing nice for having calif plates on the car. No we did not sell a home here and come loaded but that is how we were treated. Fact the worst treatment I ever have received happen in Idaho. To me Idaho a good place to visit and that’s it period. If you really want to know what a state is like ask the ones who love it and hate it get both sides as every cloud is not silver lined! Idaho dose have its bad may be my family just found it all but I doubt that.

[outbound]

I moved to Idaho 4 years ago. I have lived all over the U.S. and am originaly from California. I left there more than 30 years ago. I live in Kamiah, a small town on the Clearwater river. I had no trouble from the locals when I moved here. Everyone treated me well. I work in a little store here so I had the opportunity to start meeting people right away. That was a big plus. I made the decision to move here a long time ago. I had family who lived here in the late 90's, so I thought I had a good idea of what the area would be like. I was wrong! Things had changed quite a bite. The price of everything has gone crazy. Some people now refere to it as Kami-fornia. The attitudes, values and atmosphere have changed completly. Needless to say, I am very unhappy with my choice. The real problem is that people from all over the country seem to be migrating to this part of the country and when they get here, they miss many of the things they left behind. They seem to forget what they found most appealing about the area, what drew them here in the first place. They want to make it more like what they left behind. In this small ranching and logging town, we now have a Tea House/Bakery. You guessed it, owned by Californians who want to bring a little "culture" to this neck of the woods!

[Idaho-newbie]

DH and I moved to Boise area exactly one year ago. Not escaping any other state (we've lived in CA, OR, and WA), but we're now retired and moved here to be near our kids who moved here about ten years ago. If we had our "druthers" we'd have moved back to Washington (central) which we loved. But here we are, and we're really enjoying Idaho and kids and grandkids.

Great people. Love the dry heat. Snow's OK; better than 80" rain we had before. Prices are still good. HATE the traffic. Unbelievably awful! Only leave the house between 10am-3pm, otherwise you're STUCK. I'm exaggerating, but it's much worse than the very small town we moved from. But we're adjusting ...


We're liberal and have found an active liberal enclave here in the Boise area.

[happy-k]

We moved to Idaho Falls in July. It's ok... pretty safe town. It's not too expensive to live here (esp. if you just rent, like us. some houses are getting expensive for the income). my husband works at the site (Idaho National Labs) so he has a bus to work, which is awsome. When we moved we used U-Haul, and we're glad we did.
It's extremely conservative here in town because of the strong LDS influence, but I think in Idaho Falls the locals are more open to outsiders, since the Site brings so many people in from all over the country. The town is pretty polar: Engineers on one side, and potato farmers on the other. So, that makes for interesting conversations. Overall it's an allright place to live. Nothing super exotic compared with other parts of the country/state, but someplace you can live for a while. We'll probably be here for about 3 years or so, which is why we haven't bothered to invest in buying a house.

[Dwatted Wabbit]

Check out PODS and similar. We have moved numerous times over the past five years, and our experience with movers is the packers are either make-workers who do too much--such as take lamps apart, use a crew of five when two will do--or careless to the point of dumping lots of stuff in boxes and taping it up. We have used different moving companies. They all hire from the same labor pool. We are not impressed.
As someone above mentioned, if/when we move again we will try to get rid of as much stuff as possible, keeping the family classics, dishes, etc. and getting rid of lots of the rest.
Don't know that we'll do it, but it sounds good at this point.
With PODS, you can pack at your own speed, store it, move it and store it, etc.
Any mover website will give you weight/price guesstimates based on bedrooms etc. that you're in now.

[burdell]

Originally Posted by Dwatted Wabbit

Check out PODS and similar. .

ABF Freight, a very well established trucking company has a similar program with containers, when I checked they were pretty reasonably priced.

[proeye]

Originally Posted by happy-k

We moved to Idaho Falls in July. It's ok... pretty safe town. It's not too expensive to live here (esp. if you just rent, like us. some houses are getting expensive for the income). my husband works at the site (Idaho National Labs) so he has a bus to work, which is awsome. When we moved we used U-Haul, and we're glad we did.
It's extremely conservative here in town because of the strong LDS influence, but I think in Idaho Falls the locals are more open to outsiders, since the Site brings so many people in from all over the country. The town is pretty polar: Engineers on one side, and potato farmers on the other. So, that makes for interesting conversations. Overall it's an allright place to live. Nothing super exotic compared with other parts of the country/state, but someplace you can live for a while. We'll probably be here for about 3 years or so, which is why we haven't bothered to invest in buying a house.

Weird... I posted something that was almost identical to everything you said except that I'm not a woman...

I worked at the site for 4 years as an engineer and it was awful. Hated the bus rides. I'm an eye doctor now...