Idaho

We moved from California to Idaho with small-town retirement dreams but moved back after 4 years.

Published

1 year ago

October 27, 2024

We moved from California to Idaho with small-town retirement dreams but moved back after 4 years.

Jodi Wright, 56, moved from California to Idaho in 2020 in search of a quiet place to retire.
Wright and her family built a custom home outside Boise.
But the family moved back to California earlier this year because of rising prices.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jodi Wright, a 56-year-old stay-at-home mother whose family moved from Sacramento, California, to Caldwell, Idaho, a small town about 30 minutes west of Boise, in 2020.

Idaho’s housing market has exploded in the last half-decade, with the median home price jumping from $360,700 in September 2020 to $481,100 in September 2024, according to data from Redfin. Meanwhile, median home prices in Boise specifically jumped from $389,500 in September 2020 to $525,000 in September 2024, according to Redfin data.

The following has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

I was born in Washington State. When I graduated high school, I wanted a change of scenery, so I packed up my car and moved to California.

I met my husband here, and he’s a police officer. We were blessed with triplets, but one of our sons passed away soon after being born. It was terrible, but it definitely clarified life.

We’ve always been outdoorsy people. Any vacations we take are usually geared around the beach or Disney. You can pretty much do that year-round here in California, which we love.

But the cost of living is so high, and our political affiliation is Republican. That became a problem when COVID hit, and they shut down the schools. Our kids were in second grade and struggling.

We had already purchased land in Idaho back in 2018. We were planning to move once my husband retired, but COVID sped up our plans.

We moved to Idaho in December 2020

We listed our house in California, and it sold in one day. We sold it for $699,000. On Zillow, it’s now worth over $900,000.

My husband wasn’t old enough to retire yet, so he stayed in California to keep working. We figured we would just make do for a few years until my husband could join us full-time.

We were a little nervous about how that would work. But he traveled back and forth to Idaho two or three times a month. Plus, we would FaceTime.

We started building our Idaho house in a town called Caldwell, which is part of the Treasure Valley on the outskirts of the Boise area. It was still affordable at that time. If we were to move there now, we could not afford the house we built, which cost us about $750,000.

It would probably cost twice as much to build it there today.

Jodi Wright and her family moved to Caldwell, Idaho, a small town about 30 minutes outside of Boise.

Courtesy of Jodi Wright/Getty Images

It was a big house, almost 4,000 square feet, with four bedrooms and five bathrooms. We had a fabulous view of the river and the mountains on two and a half acres out in the country in a small subdivision.

We wanted to live in the country, have a little more space between neighbors, and less of the hustle and bustle we were used to here in California. Our favorite part of Idaho was how quiet it was where we lived.

One of the major differences we noticed between California and Idaho is how clean Idaho is. You don’t see a bunch of graffiti or trash everywhere.

But we only stayed in Idaho for four years

We definitely thought our money was going to go farther in Idaho. Certain things are cheaper, like power and gas. So, we thought the overall cost of living would be less.

But it felt like prices really started to increase in 2021. Part of that was life in general becoming more expensive with inflation. But a lot of things in Idaho felt comparable to California.

When we first got to Idaho, my husband used to fly back and forth for less than $150. But over time, round trips got up to $300 or more.

Our auto insurance and homeowner’s insurance were cheaper than they had been in California at first. But in our last two years living there, both almost doubled.

The weather in Idaho turned out to be not conducive to our lifestyle either. You can’t really know a place until you live here. The wind blows really badly there for six or seven months a year. Plus, Idaho gets a lot of the fire smoke from California and Oregon. The first two summers we were there, we barely went outside because the air quality was so bad. The wind there just made it so much worse.

Smoky air from forest fires in neighboring states fell on Boise in August 2020.

Getty Images

By the end of 2022, we started thinking Idaho was maybe not the place for us.

We talked a lot about maybe moving somewhere else. But the more we talked, the more we realized that California is home. Despite the politics and cost of living, it’s home.

We moved back to California in June.

I’m glad we went to Idaho. We don’t regret it at all. My kids got a great education there. We made the best of it and enjoyed it.

It took us a year to sell our house in Idaho because the housing market is flooded at the higher end. We still managed to make a couple hundred thousand.

Now that we’re back in California, we’re also paying less for car insurance than we were in Idaho.

We recently bought a house in Dixon, California, for $760,000, which we’ll be moving into in the next few months.

We’re just going to carve our little piece of happiness here in California.

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Idaho

University of Idaho professor awarded $10M after TikTok tarot influencer claimed she ‘ordered’ quadruple murders

Published

23 minutes ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

University of Idaho professor awarded M after TikTok tarot influencer claimed she ‘ordered’ quadruple murders

A University of Idaho professor won a $10 million judgment after a tarot TikTok influencer publicly pushed false claims that she was behind the savage quadruple slayings of four college students.

A Boise jury in US District Court ordered fortune-telling Texas TikToker Ashley Guillard on Friday to pay $10 million after concluding she falsely accused professor Rebecca Scofield of having a secret romance with one of the four victims and orchestrating their killings, the Idaho Statesman reported.

Following the verdict, Scofield thanked the jury and said she hopes the case sends a clear warning that making “false statements online have consequences in the real world.”

“The murders of the four students on November 13, 2022, were the darkest chapter in our university’s history,” Scofield told Fox News.

“Today’s decision shows that respect and care should always be granted to victims during these tragedies. I am hopeful that this difficult chapter in my life is over, and I can return to a more normal life with my family and the wonderful Moscow community.”

Scofield, the university’s history department chair, filed the lawsuit in December 2022 — just weeks after Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were brutally stabbed to death at an off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022.

Guillard began uploading videos to her more than 100,000 TikTok followers in late November 2022, accusing Scofield of a secret relationship with one of the students and claiming she had “ordered” the killings, garnering millions of views across the social media platform.

The complaint states that Scofield had never met the victims and was out of state when the murders occurred.

Even after being served with cease-and-desist letters and after police publicly confirmed Scofield had no connection to the murders, the Houston-based tarot reader continued posting videos, the history professor’s legal team argued.

Guillard doubled down on her accusations against Scofield after being sued, posting a defiant video saying, “I am not stopping,” and challenging why Scofield needed three lawyers to sue her “if she’s so innocent.”

The professor’s legal team argued the defamatory accusations painted her as a criminal and accused her of professional misconduct that could derail her career.

Bryan Kohberger, then studying criminology at Washington State University, pleaded guilty in July 2025 to the quadruple murders in a deal that took the death penalty off the table. He is currently serving four consecutive life sentences in Idaho.

In June 2024, Chief US Magistrate Judge Raymond Patricco found Guillard’s statements legally defamatory, leaving damages to be decided by a jury.

During the damages trial, Scofield described the anguish of seeing her name tied to the murders online, the Idaho Statesman reported.

However, Guillard, acting as her own attorney, insisted her comments were simply beliefs based on tarot card readings.

She claimed to have psychic powers and testified that she relied on tarot cards to try to solve the shocking homicides that shook the rural college town and sparked global attention.

It took jurors less than two hours to return their verdict, the outlet reported.

The jury awarded Scofield $7.5 million in punitive damages in addition to $2.5 million in compensatory damages.

With Post wires

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Idaho

Gas prices expected to exceed $3 as the Iran conflict prompts supply shortages

Published

12 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Gas prices expected to exceed as the Iran conflict prompts supply shortages

BOISE, Idaho — AAA is warning Idaho gas consumers that pump prices will likely rise as the conflict in Iran disrupts oil and gas supply chains worldwide.

The ongoing turmoil in the Middle East will likely push the price for a gallon of regular gasoline past the $3 mark over the coming days.

“On one hand, the crude oil market had time to account for some financial risk in the Middle East as forces mobilized, but a supply shortage somewhere affects the global picture,” says AAA Idaho public affairs director Matthew Conde. “If tankers can’t move products through the region, there could be ripple effects.”

On Monday, March 2, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline is $2.97, reports AAA, which is 12 cents more expensive than it was a month ago but 20 cents less than this time last year.

State / Price: 1 gallon of regular gasoline

Washington / $4.37
Oregon / $3.92
Nevada / $3.70
Idaho / $2.97
Colorado / $2.89
Montana / $2.82
Utah / $2.74
Wyoming / $2.73

In terms of the most expensive fuel in the nation, Idaho currently ranks #14. However, buying a gallon of regular gas in neighboring states such as Oregon and Washington could cost a whole dollar more. In contrast, gas prices in Utah, Montana, and Wyoming are anywhere between 15 to 24 cents cheaper than fuel in the Gem State.

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Idaho

Idaho Lottery results: See winning numbers for Pick 3, Pick 4 on March 1, 2026

Published

1 day ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

The results are in for the Idaho Lottery’s draw games on Sunday, March 1, 2026.

Here’s a look at winning numbers for each game on March 1.

Winning Pick 3 numbers from March 1 drawing

Day: 7-2-3

Night: 2-7-6

Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Pick 4 numbers from March 1 drawing

Day: 4-7-9-3

Night: 8-7-7-3

Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Idaho Cash numbers from March 1 drawing

03-06-07-33-41

Check Idaho Cash payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from March 1 drawing

10-11-12-35-56, Bonus: 04

Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

When are the Idaho Lottery drawings held ?

Powerball: 8:59 p.m. MT Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
Mega Millions: 9 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
Pick 3: 1:59 p.m. (Day) and 7:59 p.m. (Night) MT daily.
Pick 4: 1:59 p.m. (Day) and 7:59 p.m. (Night) MT daily.
Lucky For Life: 8:35 p.m. MT Monday and Thursday.
Lotto America: 9 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
5 Star Draw: 8 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
Idaho Cash: 8 p.m. MT daily.
Millionaire for Life: 9:15 p.m. MT daily.

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a USA Today editor. You can send feedback using this form.

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