With fastest rent jump in U.S., Boise ‘substantially narrows’ gap with San Francisco

If you’ve called Idaho home for a few years, you’ve gotten used to Boise ranking high on lists — Livability’s Top 100 Best Places to Live, for example.

But some of the lists that Boise has started topping hint at the bottom dropping out.

Idaho’s capital city just “won” the latest monthly rent report from online marketplace Apartment List. This isn’t one to take a victory lap over. Unless you’re a money-hungry landlord. Or you enjoy seeing the Treasure Valley compared to the Bay Area.

Boise rent jumped 5.2% month-over-month, according to Apartment List’s newest estimates. That’s No. 1 among the nation’s largest 100 cities. The national average was a 1.9% increase.

Year over year, Boise rent shot up a whopping 22.7%. That, too, is No. 1 among the 100 biggest cities in America. Nationwide, rents have grown by just 2.3% over the past year. At this same time last year, Boise’s year-over-year rent growth was 0.6%.

It’s no wonder that a recent Reddit thread about a Boise apartment listing asked, “$1,365 for 375 square feet? Is this a joke?”

(No, it was not a joke. It was downtown.)

Median rents in Boise are now $964 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,144 for a two-bedroom, according to Apartment List. It calls Boise’s 5.2% one-month jump “staggering.” To put it in perspective, consider the 1.9 percent national index increase. “This is the biggest monthly jump in our national index since the start of our estimates in 2017,” Apartment List says, “breaking a record set just last month. Rent growth has now been outpacing prior-year averages for several months, indicating that this year’s moving season is set to be a historically busy one.”

Even crazier? The article compares Boise with San Francisco. Yes, this is how Bizarro World Boise has become since the pandemic began. The authors explain that “more affordable cities have tended to see prices climb. This has led to a certain degree of convergence in rent prices across the country — the most expensive markets have gotten somewhat more affordable, while the most affordable markets have grown pricier.

“For example, last March, the median two-bedroom rent in San Francisco was $3,146, which was 3.4 times the $929 median for a two-bedroom in Boise. As of this month, the two-bedroom median in San Francisco has dropped to $2,496, while in Boise it has grown to $1,144, meaning that rents in San Francisco are now just 2.2 times those in Boise.”

Let that sink in.

“While still a significant price difference,” the article says, “the affordability gap has narrowed substantially, and even as rents in San Francisco have rebounded in recent months, Boise has continued to grow even faster.”

Even scarier if you rent? “... It seems that Boise and cities like it have yet to hit their peaks.”

Gee, maybe Boise residents should stop renting and go buy a house. Oh, wait ... .

Overall, Boise rent is still less than in most other large cities, Apartment List points out. Still, Boise pricing is now nearly on par with much bigger cities such as Atlanta, Dallas and Phoenix.

As for peaking? When it comes to being a place suitable for working-class Idahoans, that’s something you hope our unique city didn’t already do years ago.

This story was originally published April 28, 2021 at 4:00 AM.