The 5 Most Affordable Towns & Cities to Live in Idaho for 2023

If you’ve done any degree of traveling outside of Idaho this summer, you’ve likely exchanged the “so where are you from” small talk with someone at the airport, the person sitting next to you on the plane or your rideshare driver.

We just experienced this with an Uber driver in Denver. She was quick to tell us how many many people she knew that relocated to Idaho and asked if it was really as nice as it seems. So, we weighed the pros and cons out loud. While we can’t speak for every area of the state, we definitely have a list of things we love about Boise. The weather, the food scene, college football, the growing amount of fun/free community events, the Boise Greenbelt and amount of trails up in the Foothills…but we quickly that up with “but, good luck being able to afford a place to live.” 

Maybe we’re still bitter about being forced into an unplanned move when our old apartment complex wanted to renovate our unit and move us into a different unit for double the rent. Maybe we still have regrets about not buying a $425,000 home in Southeast Boise back in 2016 because it was just too much. (That house is easily a $700,000 home now.) The point is, that if you’ve been living in Idaho for decades, it’s easy to be frustrated with the housing market and wonder “Where are the affordable homes?” 

Where Are the Most Affordable Towns and Cities to Live in Idaho?

That’s a question that SmartAsset recently tried to answer when ranking the most affordable cities in Idaho for the seventh time. The financial planning website knows that when buying a home, buyers need to consider more than just the asking price of the home. That’s why they examined the average annual mortgage payment and several other factors like the average closing costs, annual property tax, annual homeowner’s insurance, and the median income for each city on the list. SmartAsset explains they accessed this information from the US Census Bureau, National Association of Insurance Commissioners, and government websites.  

When the numbers were crunched, these were the most affordable cities. If you’re one of our local readers in Boise, it looks like your best bet is to move east if you’d like to spend less on housing. 

Disclaimer: Your definition of “affordable” may vary.