‘It’s forcing people out.’ Boise still is the fastest-rising rental market
We’re in first place, but you may not be rooting for this prize.
Boise rents shot up again this month, with a national listing service pegging rents in Idaho’s capital city as the fastest-growing of any large city in the U.S.
Apartment List, an online rental marketplace, said Boise rents have increased 6.6% since April, the highest jump of the country’s 100 largest cities. The cost of rent has gone up for six straight months, leading to an increase of 30.8% since last May — also the nation’s highest.
Nationally, rents have grown 5.3% over the past year, according to the company. The dip in rental prices seen in many cities during the pandemic has now ended, as prices have again risen and economies are reopening. But in Boise, a rental slowdown never materialized, and many tenants are struggling to absorb the change.
“People who grew up here, lived here, worked here — there’s a gap between what they earned and what housing costs now,” Lori Dicaire, the founder of two advocacy organizations, Vanishing Boise and Boise Renters United, told the Idaho Statesman by phone. “It’s forcing people out.”
Since 2012, according to one study by QuoteWizard, an insurance marketplace, the median income in Idaho has risen by just over 27%, while the costs of housing have risen much faster.
“For low-income folks who are already living on the line, paycheck to paycheck, its not possible for them to sustain that increase,” said Ali Rabe, executive director of Jesse Tree, which provides grants for tenants at risk of becoming homeless. Rabe, who is also a Democratic state senator representing the Boise Bench, told the Statesman by phone that renters in the city are increasingly leaving and moving to Canyon County, Mountain Home or farther afield, in search of housing they can afford.
“A lot of the folks that we’re seeing (leave) are people who have lived in our community for decades and rented maybe in their same rental for just as long, and it’s really sad to see those people be displaced,” Rabe said.
Case managers at the Jesse Tree are increasingly hearing from tenants whose landlords are declining to renew their leases, she said. Tenants often have only 30 days to find a new place to live. Money Management International, a nonprofit credit counselor, reported that calls for help from Idaho tenants through March of this year were up 900% compared to last year.
While the costs of housing in the Treasure Valley still lags behind those in larger cities, Boise is quickly catching up. The median price of a two-bedroom apartment is $1,230, including units not on the market, according to Apartment List, which is close to the median prices in Atlanta and Dallas of $1,260 and $1,250, respectively. Zumper, another listing service, reported on May 25 that Boise is the 31st most expensive rental market in the nation. In April, the city ranked 39th.
To analyze rental data, Apartment List uses statistics from the Census Bureau and its own market data each month. In its methodology, the company stresses that it looks at how a particular unit’s rental price has changed over time rather than at the average cost of available rentals across the city, as some listing services do.
Dicaire said more and more tenants whose leases expire have to make alternate plans.
“People who are having to leave their homes are exhausting their relationships, sleeping on couches and in basements,” she said. “Then when that wears out, they’re living in their cars, looking to buy RVs, looking to do whatever they can to keep living here in the Treasure Valley.”
This story was originally published June 1, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
