What salary do you need to live in Boise, ID?

The cost side of living in Boise

A one-bedroom in Boise rents for a median of $1,200 a month, utilities the tenant pays included; a two-bedroom goes for $1,416 and a three-bedroom for $1,753. Over a full year, the two-bedroom median comes to $16,992.

The median value of owner-occupied homes in the metro is $468,900. That works out to 5.5× the local median household income of $85,987, a mid-range ratio.

The Regional Price Parity, BEA's index of local prices with the US at 100, is 98.4 here. Below 100 means a paycheck stretches further: $100,000 in Boise has the buying power of roughly $101,635 at national average prices.

Income needed for each grade in Boise

The salary lines for a two-bedroom household land at $54,000 for Tight, $108,000 for Okay and $217,000 for Comfortable. The gap between the Okay and Comfortable lines alone is $109,000, which says how much extra income it takes to make housing feel roomy here rather than merely workable.

Reaching Royal takes $575,000 — 2.6× the Comfortable line — because the last points come slowly once rent is already a small share.

How they were found: the same scoring function the calculator runs was evaluated at rising incomes until each cutoff was crossed, and the crossing rounded up to a whole $1,000.

What different incomes look like in Boise

At $75,000 home size barely changes the picture: one, two and three bedrooms all grade Tight, with scores from 31 to 37.

Comfortable is above every row of the table here. At $150,000 a two-bedroom still grades Okay, with rent taking 11% of income.

Where Boise falls nationally

Out of 387 metros, Boise has the 103rd highest price parity and the 92nd highest two-bedroom rent, which puts it in the middle half on overall prices and in the most expensive quarter on rent.

Chico, CA ($1,417) and Madison, WI ($1,410) bracket Boise on two-bedroom rent.

Boise vs. the rest of Idaho

Compared with Idaho as a whole, two-bedroom rent in Boise is 22% higher ($1,416 vs. $1,163) and the median home is 12% higher ($468,900 vs. $418,600).

On statewide medians, a two-bedroom budget reaches Comfortable at $173,000 — below Boise's $217,000 line.

Within Idaho, the metros closest to Boise on rent and overall prices are Coeur d'Alene, ID, Logan, UT-ID, and Idaho Falls, ID. Their Comfortable lines for two bedrooms sit at $216,000, $172,000, and $150,000.

Does the typical Boise income clear the bar?

What about a typical local household? Census puts median household income here at $85,987, which grades Tight (39) for a two-bedroom at the median rent. That falls $131,013 short of the $217,000 Comfortable line, a reminder that the typical household here spends a larger share on housing than the Comfortable band allows. For Idaho as a whole, the median household income of $77,800 scores 42 against statewide rents. Household income can include more than one earner, so a single salary of the same size goes less far.

These are pre-tax estimates from public statistics, not financial advice.