Best PlacesBoise, ID Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Boise area, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Charles Knowles, CC BY 2.0, via commons
Boise ranks 6th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It earns the spot by being affordable and steady rather than flashy: everyday costs run well below the national average, and crime is low. The trade is tree cover: the nearest large city and its jobs, flights, and culture are a drive away.
The best neighborhoods in the Boise metro
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
The best areas in Boise
The parts of Boise, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first.
Eagle, Emmett & Star
Meridian
Kuna
Downtown Boise
Garden City
Nampa
Caldwell
Middleton & Parma
Boise shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 12% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Boise's strengths and weaknesses
Boise ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. State finances, low crime, and few empty homes are the strongest pieces.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Tree cover, an overheated housing market, and air quality hold the score down. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Boise ranks high
- State fiscal healthBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 96% of metro areas
Where Boise ranks low
- Tree shadeBetter than only 14% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 18% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 24% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 25% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 34% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Boise
A household needs to earn about $128,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Boise home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $92,808, so buying stretches a typical household.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment and a 6.8% 30-year fixed rate. The rate updates weekly from Freddie Mac; property tax uses Boise's effective rate against the median home value.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first ten years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Boise
Boise's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Boise.
Who works in Boise, and how
Work in Boise centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Boise
Boise has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 72% of metro areas. The map and measures below show how they vary by area.
Is Boise growing, and who is moving in?
Boise has grown about 28% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Los Angeles, CA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Boise go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Boise, month by month
Boise sees roughly 109 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 97 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 24. Spring and fall carry most of the comfortable stretch.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 32° | 24° |
| April | 66° | 52° | 38° |
| July | 97° | 80° | 62° |
| October | 68° | 53° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Boise
Boise Air Trml/Gowen Field sits about 3 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.6 million passengers in 2025, with 59 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Boise
Schools across Boise average a B, better than 72% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Discovery Elementary SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Highlands Elementary SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Galileo Magnet SchoolA+ · 81% proficient
Top middle schools
- Heritage Middle SchoolA+ · 71% proficient
- Eagle Middle SchoolA · 66% proficient
- Victory Middle SchoolA · 65% proficient
Top high schools
- Renaissance High SchoolA+ · 89% proficient
- Meridian Technical Charter High SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Idaho Fine Arts AcademyA · 75% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Boise school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Boise measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Boise against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Boise suits
Families
Schools beat 72% of the country and crime runs low. Compare neighborhoods on the map for the best fit.
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 80% of metro areas and 17% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Boise
Is Boise a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Boise ranks 6th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on state finances, low crime, and few empty homes, and lowest on tree cover and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Boise expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $500,208. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $92,808 median income, cost of living beats 80% of metro areas.
Is Boise safe?
Yes, Boise is safer than 98% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $212 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Boise?
July highs average about 97 degrees, and January highs near 42 with lows near 24. The area gets its pleasant stretches in spring and fall.
What are the best neighborhoods in Boise?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Eagle, Emmett & Star, Meridian, and Kuna. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Boise good for families?
Schools beat 72% of metro areas, and safety is best away from the urban core. Home prices are usually the catch in the strongest school areas.
Is Boise good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 80% of metro areas, and internet is widely advertised, so a big-employer salary stretches further here.
Compare Boise with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Boise. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Boise represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Boise detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Boise: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Boise: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Boise: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Boise: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Boise detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.