Why Boise, Idaho rent is rising so fast
Typical rent in Boise was a record $1,900 in September 2026, up 8.5% from a year earlier, according to RentDataNow data built on the Zillow Observed Rent Index. Nationally, typical rent rose 2.9%. Among the 328 US cities with at least 100,000 residents and enough data to compare, only a handful rose faster, most of them in the Bay Area.
It isn't just Boise. Rents are climbing across the Treasure Valley, with the biggest increases in Eagle and Boise and the smallest in Caldwell, farthest to the west.
| City | Typical rent, September 2026 | Change in a year |
|---|---|---|
| Eagle | $2,200 | +10.1% |
| Boise | $1,900 | +8.5% |
| Meridian | $2,056 | +6.9% |
| Kuna | $2,346 | +6.4% |
| Nampa | $1,668 | +6.2% |
| Caldwell | $1,736 | +4.0% |
| United States | $1,932 | +2.9% |
The biggest reason is a sharp drop in apartment building. Boise went through a construction boom early in the decade, and builders in the metro area pulled permits for 4,074 units in buildings with five or more apartments in 2022, according to the US Census Bureau. Then it stopped. In 2024, permits fell to 610 units, down 85%, and in 2025 they recovered only to 1,218.
| Year | Units permitted in buildings with 5+ apartments, Boise metro |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 3,201 |
| 2022 | 4,074 |
| 2023 | 3,115 |
| 2024 | 610 |
| 2025 | 1,218 |
Apartments take a year or two to build after a permit is issued, so the boom-era buildings opened into a soft market, with landlords offering discounts to fill them. That supply is now running out. In the Boise metro, the apartment vacancy rate fell to 4.0% in October 2026 from 7.1% a year earlier, and the share of properties offering a free month or more dropped from 24% to 13%, according to Apartment List. A year earlier, its measure of Boise-area rent was up just 0.4%. Now it's up 8.4%, the third-fastest increase among 103 metros with at least 500,000 residents, behind San Francisco and San Jose.
Demand hasn't let up, either. Ada and Canyon counties, the core of the metro, added 18,595 residents between mid-2024 and mid-2025, a growth rate of about 2.3%, Census estimates show. Most of that came from people moving in, with net migration of 15,414. Idaho as a whole grew 1.4%.
The squeeze lands on renters who were already stretched. The median renter household in Boise earned $52,849 in 2024, and 56% of renters paid 30% or more of their income on housing, according to the Census Bureau. A year of today's typical rent, $22,800, would take about 43% of that median income. Typical rent in Boise is up 29% since 2021.
New construction is the usual source of relief, and the 2025 permit numbers show only a partial rebound. Renters signing a lease now have far less room to bargain than they did a year ago, though concessions haven't disappeared. For how prices compare nationally, see why rent is so expensive, and look up any Boise-area city on our Boise rent page.
Sources
- RentDataNow Boise-area city rent data, anchored to the Zillow Observed Rent Index, September 2026
- US Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey, annual metro data, Boise City, ID, 2021 to 2025
- US Census Bureau, county population estimates, Vintage 2025
- Apartment List rent, vacancy, and concession data, October 2026
- US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 1-year estimates, 2024, tables B25119 and B25070
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is rent going up so fast in Boise?
Apartment construction collapsed after 2022, with permits for larger buildings down 85% by 2024, while the area kept adding people. Vacancies fell from 7.1% to 4.0% in a year, so landlords are cutting discounts and raising rents.
What is the average rent in Boise, Idaho?
Typical rent in Boise was a record $1,900 in September 2026, up 8.5% from a year earlier, according to RentDataNow data built on the Zillow Observed Rent Index. Nationally, typical rent rose 2.9% over the same year.
Is Boise rent higher than the national average?
It's close. Boise's typical rent of $1,900 in September 2026 was just under the US typical rent of $1,932, but it's rising nearly three times as fast, up 8.5% in a year compared with 2.9% nationally.
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Jennifer Han is the editor in chief of RentDataNow, covering rent trends, housing costs, and more. She was a real-estate agent before she moved to writing about the market.
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