Not long ago, Boise was the No. 1 place to live. Look at our Livability ranking now

There’s something about living in Boise that makes a person smug.

Idaho’s capital city has been a national darling for at least a decade. Everyone wants to be a Boise citizen. We’re just smart enough to have made it happen. Natives and longtime transplants? Utter geniuses.

So when an email recently popped into my inbox reporting that Boise had made another notable top cities list, oh yeah — I ordered finger steaks, poured a beer made from Idaho hops and rubbed against the wall like a house cat.

Ego? Prepare for some strokin’.

The list came from Livability, the “go-to resource for anyone looking to discover the best places to live, work, and visit.” In 2019, Livability named Boise the No. 1 best place to live in America. Idahoans ate it up. “Boise — again — takes top billing in Best Places to Live list,” a TV station trumpeted as heads swelled citywide.

Livability’s latest update lets the air out of our balloon.

Boise isn’t No. 1 anymore. Not even close.

We’re No. 35. Thirty-freakin’-five!

I couldn’t believe it. Yet, without saying it out loud, we already knew this day had arrived.

‘Quality of life factors’

Boise didn’t just topple off the Livability throne in 2022. It jumped the shark a few years ago.

After topping the list in 2019, Boise plummeted to No. 35 in 2020. We bounced back slightly to No. 24 in 2021, then dove to No. 35 again this year.

In 2022, Madison, Wisconsin, is the top place to live in the United States, according to Livability.

Curious about Boise’s fall from grace, I reached out to Livability’s outreach coordinator, Lauren. (No last name given. I get it. Best to stay under the radar when delivering bad news.)

Livability’s rankings are fueled by data. The list uses the same categories year to year, but things do get tweaked.

“That means each year’s list isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison,” she said, “even though the overall integrity and ranking criteria as a whole remain consistent throughout the years.”

Some of the ways that “rankings change over the years have to do with fluctuations in population, unemployment rates, housing prices and quality of life factors,” she said.

Gotcha. But why does Boise suddenly suck?

Between 2019 and 2022, we dipped in the education, demographics and infrastructure categories, Lauren said.

But let’s talk about Boise’s elephant in the room: growth and population. The pandemic turbocharged those forces. Hordes of newcomers stampeded Idaho. Treasure Valley housing prices inflated. White-knuckle traffic is now routine.

Waiting in line is the new Boise, too. At concerts, festivals, sporting events. That’s how I judge quality of life. A beer line and a stopwatch.

Salt Lake City? (Sigh)

Apparently, we should be happy about our No. 35 position. It’s just hard to do that when you used to be the champ.

“I do want to emphasize that while Boise shifted from No. 1 to No. 35, it still ranks very highly on all criteria to be in that spot,” Lauren said. “We collect data on 2,300 cities to create our list of 100 places, so ranking at 35 is still quite good!”

In our hearts, we know she’s right. Boise is quite great. Many of today’s trade-offs arguably are worth it. We finally got Topgolf! (OK, in Meridian, technically.) And we’re getting In-N-Out Burger! (Granted, I’ve never actually tasted In-N-Out.)

Still, many of us already look back wistfully on that bygone era. When Boise was the No. 1 place to live. Three years ago or whatever.

I’ll reminisce about it as I drive up to Bogus Basin to snowboard after work. Or go hit mountain bike trails 2 minutes from my house.

Being in Livability’s Top 100? That’s “an amazing feat,” Lauren says.

“With over 19,000 cities in the U.S., being in the Top 100 means you’re in the top 1% of best places to live,” she wrote. “Talk about bragging rights!”

Yeah, I guess.

Did I mention Salt Lake City? It’s ranked No. 8.

This story was originally published December 7, 2022 at 4:00 AM.