Idaho
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.
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.
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.
We’re lucky to live in a place as safe as the Treasure Valley. Despite our growth, one of the things that makes our area so special is the way that we look out for one another–for our neighbors! That’s a principle that seems to have held on as Boise has boomed.
Despite low crime rates, there seems to always be one incident or so that makes us scratch our heads.
A recent string of fraud incidents in the Treasure Valley area is one of those.
Nampa Police initially warned the public of this because cases of fraud began to ‘mushroom’. Then, it took an interesting turn–people that HAD their credit cards were being ‘taken to the bank’, so to speak.
In a statement originally released on April 30th by the Nampa Police Department, officials advised the following:
We are not sure how the suspects are gaining access to the victim’s credit cards. There is a growing fraud scheme, “ghost tapping”, that scammers are using to access victims’ credit cards. This is possibly occurring in these instances. “Ghost tapping” uses stolen credit card details in Apple Pay or Google Pay, then remotely relays the tap signal over the internet to a ‘mule’ at a store, allowing them to make high-value purchases that appear completely legitimate. (We’ll share more information on ghost tapping in a later public service announcement that will also suggest ways to protect yourself.) The app used by these criminals obscures the actual credit card number, making it harder for investigators to link a victim to a particular crime. Keep in mind that victims still have their physical credit cards while suspects use the stolen card information to make purchases, which also affects how victims are alerted. So far, local investigators have not been able to identify a common theme among the victims (e.g., a specific bank, a website they visited, a gas pump they used, etc.) in the fraud cases we are investigating.
The investigation spans far and wide.
Authorities say that some suspects are in custody, others are being contacted, and others are still at large.
Now, a week later, the police are back to reaching out to the public–this time, urging people to check their bank accounts.
Nampa Police say that they have caught onto a pattern– there are fraudulent charges at Albertson’s to purchase gift cards, at Costco to purchase Apple products, and at Best Buy, also for Apple products.
Check those bank statements!
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The USDA has issued a public health alert for various meat and poultry products containing FDA-regulated dairy that may have been contaminated with salmonella. The recall was originally issued on April 30th, but the contaminated product list could continue to grow as more products are identified.
The Food Safety and Inspection arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued the public health alert and there have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of the products listed below, consumers are still advised to dispose of the items or return them to the place of purchase. Great Value and Pork King Good products sold at Idaho Walmart stores are included in the alert and recall.
Public Health Alert and Food Recall Issued For Pizza and Pork Rinds Sold in Idaho
As of right now, the food list includes pork rinds, breakfast pizzas, and chicken bacon ranch pizzas. The list could grow and the USDA advises consumers to check the list frequently. We will also update the list here when possible. The contaminated products carry a variety of ‘Best By’ and ‘Produced On’ dates, so check the lists carefully to make sure you don’t consume a contaminated product.
The nationwide brands to look for are Mama Cozzi’s from Aldi stores, Pork King Good, and Great Value at Walmart Stores.
Photo Credit USDA – 1
Photo Credit USDA – 1
You can also look through these label photos to see if you have the product in your freezer.
Photo Credit USDA Recalls
Photo Credit USDA Recalls
Photo Credit USDA Recalls
Photo Credit USDA Recalls
Photo Credit USDA Recalls
If you feel sick and have consumed a contaminated product, the USDA advise you to contact your health care provider.
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