Californians Are Fleeing These 15 Cities to Move to an Appealing City in Idaho

If you search the number of California to Idaho relocation groups on Facebook, the number is pretty jaw dropping. 

Census numbers seem to indicate that the folks that have joined those groups are doing a lot more than just searching for information about the Gem State. They’re actually packing up all of their belongings and moving there! According to the latest State-to-State one year migration flow numbers shared by the United State Census Bureau, close to 27,000 Californians relocated to Idaho in 2022. 

Idaho’s far from California’s favorite state to relocate to. The same census data showed that Texas, Arizona, Florida, Washington State, Nevada, New York and Colorado were all more population destinations. However, that won’t stop Idahoans from complaining about California transplants all over social media and rightfully so. Californians accounted for almost 31% of Idaho’s population growth during the dates that were part of that particular American Community Survey table. 

Get our free mobile app

We’ll happily accept California-based In-N-Out Burger opening their first location in Idaho and planning three more in the Boise area. But does a good quality, fairly priced fast food burger make up for the surge in housing prices and increase in traffic that we’ve seen since an influx of Californians started moving to Idaho or more specifically, its state capital? Not really. We'd like a house more than a burger.

Why Are Californians Picking Boise, Idaho As Their New Home?

It could be any number of factors. We dove into the data for things like cost of living, weather and safety. Boise’s crime index, violent crime and property crime rates are lower than ever single one of these cities. Potential salaries could be a factor as well. Six cities on the list have a median income lower than Boise. Much to the chagrin of some Idahoans, housing costs play a major role too. While we view our median listing price as downright painful, it’s lower than 10 of the cities on this list. 

Which California Cities are Sending the Most People to Boise?

We took a look at the most recent “Metro Area-to-Metro Area Migration Flow” data from the census bureau to find out. We compared and contrasted the cities using data from, Neighborhood Scout, which uses FBI crime data for their safety rankings, the American Census Bureau, BestPlaces.net, and Realtor.com. The housing price data reflects the current available inventory of homes on February 20, 2024. Crime Index means the city is safer than (x)% of cities in America.