Rental prices are still increasing in Boise. But for now, it’s better here than elsewhere
READ MORE
Affording Boise: Rental housing
Soaring rents. Skyrocketing home prices. The double-digit rates of increase in the costs of Boise-area housing create increasingly urgent problems for low-income, working-class and even moderate-income Idahoans who need places to live. Affording Boise is a series of Idaho Statesman special reports on housing. This collection focuses on rental homes, including apartments. A separate collection focuses on homeownership.
Expand All
For the last couple of years, Boise has been a challenging place to live as a renter, with rental prices skyrocketing month after month.
But after the first four months of 2022, rental price increases, on the whole, haven’t been quite as bad in Boise when compared to state and national averages.
Rental prices in the City of Trees have increased by 2.9% over the past month, according to Apartment List. However, they still are 12.1% higher than this time last year. But that number still is lower than the year-over-year increase for Idaho (13.2%) and the United States (16.3%).
As of the start of May, the median monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Boise is $1,073, and a two-bedroom apartment is $1,272, according to Apartment List. Boise’s rental market is most comparable to Atlanta, Georgia, where a two-bedroom apartment would cost you $1,410 per month.
Looking at Ada County as a whole
Looking at the downtown Boise area, rental prices are on par with the national average, but some zip codes have decreased. The interactive map below uses data from the housing data website RentHub to calculate the one-year difference in rental costs by zip code. All zip codes may not be available.
According to RentHub, two downtown-area Boise zip codes have seen a decrease in rent over the past year — 83702, which encompasses downtown, has seen a 1.7% decrease since last year, while just west of downtown, the 83703 zip code has seen a 2.7% decrease.
But those are the only two zip codes to have seen a decrease in all of downtown Boise and Ada County. The county has seen a 17.1% increase for the zip codes available from RentHub, putting it 0.8% higher than the national average.
South Meridian, zip code 83642, has seen an increase of 31.4% in rental prices over the past year, raising the median rent in the zip code to $2,095. The West Bench area, zip code 83704, and Eagle’s primary zip code, 83616, have seen a similar increase.
Many of the most expensive neighborhoods in the area also exist east of downtown Boise, according to RentCafe. The Riverland East neighborhood, which exists in zip code 83712, has an average rent of $1,864. Meanwhile the Vista neighborhood, just south of downtown, boasts the lowest average rent in the county at $1,313 per month.
For more information on the housing market for Ada County and the Treasure Valley, check out the Idaho Statesman’s housing dashboard for several updated maps and graphs.
Tell us what you want to know:
This story was originally published May 11, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
