Want to buy a home in Idaho? Boise is selling some for cheap. But you’ll have to move fast
It is such a common refrain throughout the media and real estate industry that it is almost cliche: Buying a home is getting harder and harder.
The financial wherewithal to buy a home has been slipping away from the average American for years, with high inflation pushing more of your paycheck into things like eggs and gas, while home prices have continued a skyward march. This has been all the more true in Boise, when real estate prices rose dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But if you’ve always dreamed that most American of dreams, you might have a shot. The city is selling two “underutilized” homes forcheap, well under market prices, though they will need significant repairs.
The city listed the first home at 9679 W. Poppy St. in West Boise for $370,000, and the second home at 2709 N. Woody Drive in Northwest Boise for $280,000. The city is working with Jeffrey Wills of Do Work Realty and Homes of Idaho to sell the houses.
Maureen Brewer, the city’s housing and community development senior manager, said the city is selling the two properties to the highest bidder, starting at those values.
According to the Intermountain Multiple Listing Service, the median home price in 2024 was $433,000 in West Boise and $684,000 in Northwest Boise.
The four-bedroom, 2½-bathroom Poppy Street home, which the city bought with federal funds in 2013, is roughly half a mile north of Fairview Avenue and the West Valley Business Center. It’s an eight- to 10-minute drive east of The Village at Meridian and northwest of the Boise Towne Square.
It has two stories and 1,670 square feet. It includes a two-car garage, a covered patio and deck and garden space, according to Do Work Realty. If you buy the home for $370,000 with a 20% down payment, 30-year mortgage and the current 7% interest rate, the estimated monthly payment would be $1,969.
The Woody Drive home, which the city bought in 2007, is just north of Taft Elementary School on State Street, less than a quarter mile west of Sunset Park and roughly a mile from Veterans Memorial Park and the Willow Lane Athletic Complex.
The two-bedroom, one-bathroom home has 869 square feet and includes a single-car garage and a large backyard, according to Do Work Realty. If you buy the home for $280,000 with a 20% down payment, 30-year mortgage and 7% interest rate, the estimated monthly payment would be about $1,490.
The properties were listed for sale as-is on Jan. 15, and offers will be accepted through 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 31, according to Brewer. The city is expected to close soon thereafter, she said.
Why is Boise selling homes?
This isn’t the first time Boise has sold homes, and it likely won’t be the last.
Both houses had been rentals. According to Brewer, the city owns about 20 single-family homes that it rents to residents to help address the city and region’s housing crisis.
“The line of thinking at the time — certainly well-intended and worked for a while — was to provide and expand an affordable rental housing opportunity,” Brewer said during a Jan. 14 City Council hearing on properties.
But the market has shifted, she said, and made it difficult to charge the rents needed to keep up with the high expenses to sustain affordability.
The city reported that it brought in a combined average of about $9,500 in rent per year for the two homes over a three-year period, while the combined three-year average expense was $18,000.
“The cost to maintain them is not supported by the rents that we are able to charge,” Brewer said.
Both Poppy and Woody also need significant renovations, Brewer said. Repairs for the Poppy home are estimated to cost about $44,000, and for the Woody home $51,000.
All the remaining properties the city still rents rent out are in the same position, she said, with rents unable to cover expenses.
The city is selling off the properties as they age, Brewer said. The ones it can rehab are being sold off in affordable home-ownership opportunities, such as listing them at lower prices and reserving them specifically for homebuyers at or under a certain income level. The homes that require too much renovation for the city to handle — like Poppy and Woody — are being sold as-is.
Revenue from the Poppy sale would go into the city’s Community Development Block Grant Program, while revenue from the Woody sale would go into its property management fund.
“It’s really just a kind of shift, if you will, in how we approach the rental housing portfolio that (the Housing and Community Development Department) owns and manages,” Brewer said. “And making sure that we’re doing so in a cost-effective way, and that rents are able to pay for the expenses associated with that portfolio.”
How do I buy one of Boise’s homes?
The Poppy and Woody homes have much less stringent requirements for purchase than houses that Boise has sold in the past.
When the city sold a few homes in August 2023, it required interested homebuyers to be earning 80% of the area median income or less. For a one-person household in 2025, that would mean those earning $54,900 a year or less, while for a four-person household that number would be $78,400. The city provides income guidelines online if you visit cityofboise.org and search for “income guidelines.”
But that requirement is not attached this time around. Nor are other requirements such as being a Boise or Idaho resident or finishing a home-ownership course approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“The city is selling these as-is to the highest bidder… rather than selling them affordably, because the cost to repair them for a lower-income buyer exceeds the budget we have available for such a purpose,” Brewer said by email. “The proceeds from the sale will be reinvested for affordable housing related activities.”
Take a home-ownership course
If a buyer wants to take a home-ownership course anyway, the Idaho Housing and Finance Association offers online and in-person courses through Finally Home! Homebuyer Education. Applicants can take an online class at any time that generally costs $50 in Idaho, though some may qualify for a lower price based on their income. The online course takes four to six hours.
An in-person class costs $10 to $20, depending on location, and takes about six hours. The next in-person course will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 25, in Boise.
You can register online for in-person or online classes by going to idahohousing.com, clicking the “Homeownership” tab and selecting “Homebuying Education.”
