Considering a move to Boise...

U.S.A. Idaho

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Hi! My DH and I are considering a move to the Boise area for my DH's job.

I'm an ER nurse and very much want to stay in ED nursing. Can anyone tell me about salaries (here in Chicago I'm close to $23.00/hour before differentials, w/one year under my belt as an RN).

I'd also like to know about nice places to live. We'd like to have a fairly nice house, 3-4 bedrooms on some acreage if possible, or be close enough to an area where I could keep a horse. Any areas to steer clear of?

How are the schools there? Is public school OK or do we have to think about private schools, depending, of course, on where we live.

Thanks -- appreciate the input!

Wow! Glad I happend upon this thread. I am going to Boise in two weeks to check things out. We won't be able to move until Dec. though, as that is when DH graduates from nursing school. By the sounds of it, this is the right place for us. A lot of nursing job opportunities (I am a NICU RN and he is interested in Psych). Also cost of homes is a LOT better than where I am.

What do wages range? Are there any sign on bonuses currently? I was told St. Lukes was offering $!0,000 and relocation in 2002.

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St. Al's and St. Luke's offered a substantial sign -on in 2002.

I don't believe that program is still in effect although there might be a smaller package now.

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.

I just read this whole thread. I grew up in SW Oregon. It was a wonderful place with fairly inexpensive land and homes and lots of outdoor sports. Around 1989, as the mills were closing down and all my friends parents were losing their jobs, people started moving there. Mosty from Cal. The price of land shot up and pretty soon working people could not afford to live there. Only a few of the people I went to high school live there now. They are the children of people who owned important businesses in town. They are the only ones that can afford to live there.

I have visited Boise several times. The last time was a year ago. I found houses to be very, very expensive comparied to here in Wisconsin. Idaho is beautiful and the people were very nice but the cost of a decent house with a little land was way more than I could afford as an RN.

Here in Wisconsin we purchased a nice 4 bedroom, 2 bath house on 40 acres, half wooded, half pasture 1/2 mile from the Black river for $82,000. We also got a two car garage and a nice pole shed set up for horses and room to store toys. We live 15 miles from a national forest. New grad starting wages are WAY higher than Idaho. New Grad nurses start at $27.70/hour before differentials at Meriter Hospital (http://www.meriter.com). Working night shift on weekends can get you $7/hour more in differentials.

I love Idaho and would move there in a heart beat if I could get anything like the property and wages that I could get in Wisconsin.

I suggest those considering moving to Idaho should consider Wisconsin.

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Wisconsin is NOT Idaho. I grew up in the midwest and DH grew up in WI. Taxes are HIGH in Wisconsin. In-laws still live there. Not everywhere in WI is cheap. If you live in the middle of nowhere of COURSE it is cheap there. Try buying a house on a lake by Eau Claire-you could buy a LOT(not house and lot ) on a nice(not green, fishing lake)lake for $250,000 starting.

i also prefert he weather in Idaho-mild but still 4 seasons.....

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
Wisconsin is NOT Idaho.

** No, you are right, it's not. However unlike Idaho Wisconsin does not have hoards of Californians wanting to move to it and turn it into another California North as they have with SW Oregon.

Not everywhere in WI is cheap. If you live in the middle of nowhere of COURSE it is cheap there. Try buying a house on a lake by Eau Claire-you could buy a LOT(not house and lot ) on a nice(not green, fishing lake)lake for $250,000 starting.

*** I suspect that a lot on a lake in Idaho would be a lot more. Don't get me wrong. Idaho is a wonderful state, at least for now. I hope that what has happend to SW Oregon does not happen to Idaho but it looks like its headed that way.

I am the kind of person Idaho loves. I go there, spend lots of money, then go home :)

i also prefert he weather in Idaho-mild but still 4 seasons.

*** So do thousands of Californians who are selling their property by the square foot for big bucks and moving to Idaho.

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Wisconsin is NOT Idaho.

** No, you are right, it's not. However unlike Idaho Wisconsin does not have hoards of Californians wanting to move to it and turn it into another California North as they have with SW Oregon.

Not everywhere in WI is cheap. If you live in the middle of nowhere of COURSE it is cheap there. Try buying a house on a lake by Eau Claire-you could buy a LOT(not house and lot ) on a nice(not green, fishing lake)lake for $250,000 starting.

*** I suspect that a lot on a lake in Idaho would be a lot more. Don't get me wrong. Idaho is a wonderful state, at least for now. I hope that what has happend to SW Oregon does not happen to Idaho but it looks like its headed that way.

I am the kind of person Idaho loves. I go there, spend lots of money, then go home :)

i also prefert he weather in Idaho-mild but still 4 seasons.

*** So do thousands of Californians who are selling their property by the square foot for big bucks and moving to Idaho.

I moved to Idaho from Cali and believe me it will never be a "California North". Personally, I don't like it here. So I'm going to finish up my education and as soon as I am done I'll be moving back to Cali. And as far as tons of Californians selling their houses, making alot of money and moving, can you really blame them? Cali is expensive to live and some people decide it's not for them anymore. It gets really old hearing people talk about how Californians are ruining everything.

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.

And as far as tons of Californians selling their houses, making alot of money and moving, can you really blame them? Cali is expensive to live and some people decide it's not for them anymore. It gets really old hearing people talk about how Californians are ruining everything.

*** There are very real reasons for the complaints about Californians ruining everything. They have done so in places that they move to in large numbers. The problem is not that they move to places like Idaho and SW Oregon. The problem is that after they get there they want to turn it into northern versions of Ca. I strongly suspect that the laws banning such things as bear hunting with hounds could have only been passed with large numbers of Californians voting for it.

Personaly I'll take hoards of locusts.

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Specializes in Not specified.

Rather than complain about "californians", which is an etheral way to describe any outsider, you should really be complaining about property owners (who were originally Idahoans) getting greedy and raising the prices of their properties for these outsiders. You should blame all the people who shop at Wal-Mart and all the big box stores that are cropping up in what used to be rural areas of Idaho--developers aren't going to build malls and Wal-Marts if nobody shops at them. And I bet you anything that most of the people who shop at Wal-Mart are native Idahoans who can't afford to shop anywhere else because they have such low paying jobs due to the depressed job market in Idaho.

I grew up in rural North Idaho in a small town of 300 people and I have heard people blaming "californians" for everything my whole life. It is a cop-out and an indicator of your intelligence and level of sophistication when you start blaming the "californians". Like I said before, blame the greedy property owners who artificially inflate the property values and the cheap shoppers who would rather shop at Wal-Mart than at the local mom and pop on the dirt road that has been around for years.

But don't despair! The job market and culture of Idaho overall is pretty depressed and will continue to be for years to come, which will only serve to keep most outsiders away. Idaho still has a pretty bad reputation on the national level, which few in the state have done anything to combat.

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:wink2:

It gets really old hearing people talk about how Californians are ruining everything.

I so agree!

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Corrections/Psych, Med-Surg.

CoryRN,

All the folks we know in your neck of the woods that don't want people moving in only say, "We don't want Californians". Not that they don't like Californians as people..........it's just that they have come in and driven the prices of land to a PHENOMINAL RATE, since they could get twice (or better) the property for the same price they paid in California. Had they been smart, they would ahve been willing to only pay a fair price for what they have bought up, and not driven the price to such outrageous amounts. The native Idaho folks we know just see their Idaho turning into another high-priced place to live like California, not their simple, fairly priced world. That is understandable to a reasonable person.I know I cannot afford to move out there, pay some horrendous price for an acre, then pay to build a home too!!! I looked at the paper, and found a "great deal" (NOT!), on an older manufactured home for $189,000 ( on a small lot no less)!!!!!!!!!! Can't blame folks for being upset. It aggravates me that I can't afford to go there and buy a place in the mountians because I don't have $500,000 to do so. Once they find out we are not from California (come to help drive prices through the roof where nobody else can afford them) they are very gracious and welcoming. In fact they are BEGGING us to come there to live. I had a phone interview with St. Luke's not long ago and the nurse manager talked to me for 120 minutes. They have called the house several times since, wanting me to head out there.....and I won't have a year in as RN in hospital until this coming June.

Take care and best wishes.

Tammy

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Boise is a great place to live. We have quite a few hospitals in the area that you could possibly work at. My mom is an RN at St Luke's and loves working there. If you need any info on any properties or maybe want to talk to a Realtor check out this helpful website. www.move2boise.com

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I am sorry but as a veteran ED nurse with over 25 years experience (20 of those at Saint Alphonsus) I can state beyond a shadow of a doubt Saint Alphonsus Emergency Department is an absolutely HORRIBLE place to work.This place seriously wants to work you to death with forced overtime, ever increasing call shifts, ever increasing mandatory classes that you must take on your own time many that are political and CYA in nature (in fact more often then not you are forced to use your PL vacation time to take mandatory classes) and have no bearing on how I do my job and absolutely no lunch breaks.This place flat out refuses to hire the appropriate number of nurses for staffing needs.Complete disconnect between the administration and the "worker bees".I have worked in many larger urban EDs but nothing as miserable as this.They seriously would like you to pull up a camper and live there.STAY AWAY FROM THIS ED IF YOU VALUE YOUR SANITY.

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