Kuna is Ada County’s housing hot spot — and one of America’s fastest-growing cities

Kuna, Idaho, is growing too fast for its signs to keep up.

The green placard along Meridian Road — Kuna, Pop: 24,011 — is just six years old and already at least 7,000 people short. And farther south, on a Monday in May, the banners outside Ashton Estates that advertised “Homes for Sale” should have read “Homes Sold.”

After a week away, Hayden Homes sales associate Jessica Cipollina arrived at the three-bedroom model home that serves as her office to find the subdivision’s last three lots had gone under contract. That’s an increasingly common pace for the once-small community a half hour south of downtown Boise.

“It moves pretty quick,” Cipollina said of the Kuna housing market. “The price is really key — it comes down to the fact that people can afford to buy here.”

In the past decade, that principle has driven Kuna from a rural town to a roaring suburb. And now, through the first quarter of 2026, it’s the hottest spot in Ada County’s housing market.

Since the start of the year, nearly one of every five houses sold in Idaho’s largest county has been in Kuna, according to data from the Intermountain Multiple Listing Service. Narrowing down to new homes, it’s closer to one in three — despite Kuna making up around 6% of the county’s population.

The boom isn’t slowing down, according to Michelle Covert, economic development administrator for the city. Through May 8 of this year, the city had permitted 520 new single-family homes, plus a multifamily project — “and counting,” Covert said. That’s on pace to surpass the 1,101 homes the city permitted in 2025.

Since 2021, Kuna has issued building permits for 4,475 new homes and 22 multifamily developments, Covert told the Idaho Statesman. In 2010, emerging from the Great Recession, Kuna had a total of around 4,700 households across the whole city, according to Census Bureau data.

The changes are written on the land itself. From above, Kuna is a splintering amoeba of annexation, tract housing intercut with active farms and green fields. Along Meridian and Linder roads, it looks like rogue farmers planted starter homes instead of seeds, with gray peaked roofs arrayed alongside neighboring sprinklers, spring shoots and tilled soil.

The transition is by design. Against tight inventory and rising prices, developers say that Kuna officials have allowed them to take on Idaho’s housing crisis in the most direct way possible: by building through it.

So far, people are responding. Kuna was the 11th fastest growing city in America from July 2024-25 jumping 8.4% to reach 31,500 people, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho is even more bullish, projecting a 14.2% annual increase to 38,560 people in its 2026 population estimates. Not long ago, Kuna officials projected their city would top 45,000 people by 2040; if COMPASS’s curve continues, it could get there a decade early.

“Anyone considering a move to Kuna should remember that we are a rapidly growing city,” Covert said. “If you buy a house because of the view, that view might change over the next few years. An empty field today may very well become neighborhoods tomorrow.”

Kuna remains an affordable enclave

Kuna has its civic boosters, including Covert. But amid a ballooning Treasure Valley housing market, a major piece of the draw is undeniably economic.

Kuna is one of the last places a family can find an affordable house. Through March, homeowners purchased 371 single-family homes within the city limits for a median price of $445,000, according to data from the Intermountain Multiple Listing Service. That’s roughly $94,000 less than the countywide midpoint of $539,990 during that same period — about 17% cheaper.

For a family of four, Boise’s median income in 2025 stood at $108,800, per city data. “Under typical financial assumptions,” that family can buy a house worth just under $453,000 without being considered “housing burdened” — that is, spending more than 30% of pay on housing costs, according to Katy Wooderson, vice president of marketing and production at Hayden Homes, a private homebuilder that operates across the Pacific Northwest.

“That’s where Kuna stands out,” she said: Its housing market seems to be centered on that number.

“Kuna’s growth reflects what we’re seeing across the Treasure Valley,” she said. “Demand remains strong for communities that offer a balance of quality of life and more attainable price points.”

Hayden has built 270 homes since entering the Kuna market eight years ago; free-standing houses in its Ashton Estates and Bellaro Springs subdivisions start at $409,990 and $399,990, respectively.

“We’ve been building in Kuna since 2018 because it’s one of the places in Ada County where working families still have a real path to homeownership,” Wooderson said. “These market-rate price points allow us to serve teachers, healthcare workers, tradespeople and first responders who are increasingly priced out of other parts of Ada County.”

Meridian builder CBH Homes has worked in Kuna since 1997, according to director of sales operations Holly Haener. The company has built 11 subdivisions in Kuna, with prices ranging from $369,990 to $774,990; the average is around $455,000, she said.

“Kuna has been one of the most dynamic growth markets in the Treasure Valley for years,” Haener said.

In the past year, 29% of CBH’s home sales have come from Kuna, she said, “which really reflects the continued demand we’re seeing from both local and out-of-state buyers looking for attainable new construction, strong community amenities and room to grow.”

Many movers are first-time homeowners or “move-up” buyers using equity from another house to buy a place with more space, Haener said.

“We know that we’re seeing folks from everywhere come into Kuna, though Washington, Oregon, Texas and, of course, California, still lead the way,” Covert said. “A lot of young professionals are moving here. Kuna is still a little more affordable in comparison to other areas of the Treasure Valley, so we have a lot of first-time homeowners.”

Cipollina agrees but added that she also sees retirees and empty nesters picking Kuna, many to be closer to their families — and grandchildren — in the area.

Rough data backs up what they’re noticing in the neighborhoods. Kuna skews younger than Ada County as a whole, and households on average have more kids. About one in every three Kuna residents is under 18, according to Census data, and one in 11 is under the age of 5 — much higher rates than the rest of the county. Ten percent of Kuna residents are 65 or older, compared to 17% of the rest of the county.

Kuna a ‘great partner’ in housing

To Deborah Flagan, vice president of community engagement at Hayden Homes, these outcomes aren’t accidental. They stem from the housing options people can find in Kuna — and that depends on the flexibility builders have found working with the city, she said.

When the Oregon-based builder looks into a market, Flagan often runs ahead to talk to city officials about what they can do. Hayden builds single-family homes targeting the middle of the income spectrum.

In many places, Flagan has found, “it doesn’t make sense to build a small house,” she said.

Kuna has been “a great partner,” allowing builders unusual latitude to get homes built, particularly when it comes to trimming setbacks, reducing minimum lot sizes and allowing homes to cover larger percentages of a property than other jurisdictions, Flagan said.

“I truly believe that they’re really trying to offer some affordability,” she said. “You can see what’s being built in Eagle, and you can see what’s being built here. And that has 100% to do with leadership.

“It gives us an opportunity to build what people who want to stay in Idaho can afford.”

Kuna has been in the growth business for a long time, Covert said. A “large number of subdivisions” were planned decades ago, she said, before the 2008 financial crash took the floor out of the housing market and stalled construction nationwide.

“As the market rebounded, developers were able to move quickly because much of the groundwork had already been completed,” she said. At the same time, Idaho grew. Home prices pushed buyers farther from the center of the valley. A twenty- or thirty-minute drive doesn’t feel as long today as it did in 2006.

To Grant Gaynor of Waypoint Real Estate Group, Kuna in 2025 felt “a lot like Meridian a decade ago,” he wrote in a blog post, “ready to shed its ‘up-and-coming’ label and step into full demand mode.”

While that happens, Covert expects growing pains.

“Our growth story is still unfolding, and we’re working to guide the direction,” she said. “I can tell you, as a relative newcomer to the area myself, even though we’re growing, Kuna still has great people, a strong sense of community and is a great place to live, work and play.”