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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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We’re just going to carve our little piece of happiness here in California.
BOISE, Idaho — The death of eight-year-old Mora Gerety earlier this month on Harrison Boulevard has renewed calls for safer streets in Boise’s North End.
Neighbors say the incident highlights long-standing concerns about vehicle speeds and pedestrian safety in the neighborhood.
WATCH | North End Neighbors call for safer streets —
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Boise’s North End pushes for safer streets after death of 8-year-old
“Every time we have a fatality like this where a child is put in danger and killed or seriously injured, it elevates the conversation because people realize how dangerous our streets are for young people to navigate,” said Cynthia Gibson, who chairs the North End Streets Committee.
Gibson, who has lived in the North End for more than 30 years, is among those advocating for lowering local residential speed limits to 20 mph. She also encourages residents to join the North End Neighborhood Association, volunteer with ACHD’s Pedestrian Advisory Committee or participate in state legislative discussions around street safety.
“They need to be slow and cautious and aware of people trying to cross the streets. A lot of our streets have schools on them, kids are trying to get to school,” said Gibson.
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The conversation also echoes a 2023 crash that killed Boise High School student Jadin Zurawski just blocks away on 16th Street. In response, ACHD added raised crosswalks and flashing warning lights at that intersection to alert drivers of pedestrians crossing.
At Harrison Blvd and Ada St, ACHD says crews began assessing safety conditions the morning after the crash and are evaluating possible improvements for pedestrians. The agency extends their condolences to Mora’s family.
— How you can weigh-in on safer streets —
A public meeting will be held Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. at the Cathedral of the Rockies, where ACHD staff will solicit input from Ada County residents on street safety.
Neighbors can also share feedback through an online safety survey.
POST FALLS (Idaho Capital Sun) — A major Idaho health insurer this week asked the Idaho Department of Insurance to investigate the billing practices of a new North Idaho hospital.
Blue Cross of Idaho claims that Post Falls ER & Hospital has refused offers to be part of the insurer’s network of in-network providers, and has instead relied heavily on a last-resort financial protection that lets health care providers dispute insurer payments.
Blue Cross of Idaho Chief Strategy Officer Drew Hobby said the insurer wants to protect consumers from rising health care costs.
“We have a responsibility to help Idahoans get access to high quality, affordable care. And we’re very concerned and alarmed with this process, which we would say is driving up unreasonable costs and unreasonable rates to Idahoans,” he told the Idaho Capital Sun in an interview.
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The Idaho Department of Insurance is reviewing the issue, agency spokesperson Julie Robinson said in a statement.
The Post Falls ER & Hospital opened in 2024. The facility was Nutex Health Inc.’s first micro-hospital in Idaho.
Post Falls ER & Hospital could not be immediately reached for comment.
Outside of the Post Falls ER & Hospital, 100% of hospitals in Idaho are in Blue Cross’s network, Hobby said. Blue Cross also asked the Department of Insurance to help get the hospital’s owners to meet with Blue Cross.
What is the billing practice Blue Cross wants Idaho to investigate?
In its letter to the Idaho Department of Insurance, Blue Cross asked for a probe into whether the Post Falls ER & Hospital has misused a process called independent dispute resolution.
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The process, created by the federal No Surprises Act, allows health care providers to challenge denials and payments by health insurers for services that are out of network, triggering arbitration to decide the final payment.
Each week in recent months, Blue Cross received an average of 75 dispute requests from the hospital, the insurer said in its letter. That is much more than the insurer says it received from all other health care entities in Idaho. On average each month, Hobby said Blue Cross only received 14 dispute requests from other providers in Idaho.
“Compared to the rest of providers that we work with … the volume is alarming,” Hobby said.
The payments sought in that process are often high, Blue Cross told the Department of Insurance. One example Hobby shared was a claim for nearly $2,900 to treat a runny nose, which was well over the $376 that is the median commercial rate for nasal congestion.
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With more than three decades of public service, Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) Chief Deputy Director and Chief Operations Officer Dan McElhinney has announced he is leaving state service.
McElhinney focused on relationships and working with local leaders and community members to improve safety on Idaho’s transportation system. A significant advocate for stakeholder partnerships, he established the work zone safety task force and strengthened the Construction Partnering program with the Idaho Associated General Contractors.
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“I am so grateful for Dan’s dedication and emphasis on connecting with communities and overseeing the historic investments in construction focused on safety and mobility, which have enhanced quality of life for Idahoans,” said ITD Director Scott Stokes.
ITD Chief Engineer Dave Kuisti has been named acting Chief Operations Officer until permanent leadership position changes are determined.
