Boise Named #1

Making the cut once again! This time it’s Boise turn to show up as number one on a ‘best of list’. This time Boise has been named overall winner and top dog in the west by Outside Magazines August is 2010 Best Towns Survey issue. The issue has yet to hit the newsstand for closer inspection but it is my understanding after reading the short blurb in the Idaho Statesman that the following criteria was taken into consideration : quality of sporting life, cultural vibrancy, resiliency of economy (huh ?) and stability of housing market (really big huh??). Second place went to Carbondale, Colorado.

On Friday August 23rd Barbara Corcoran was doing her ever interesting piece on the Today show where she lists good property deals in different parts of the country and lo and behold she presented a lovely home for sale in Meridian – a McMansion complete with a pool and half a dozen bedrooms. What was most interesting about the segment was her comment that the Boise/Meridian area was doing well because of stable employment…what do these people know that we don’t know? Granted at an average of about 10% unemployment in Idaho there are places in country that are in worse shape but I don’t think we are stable…

Especially after Idaho made another auspicious list – Idaho is the state cutting the highest number of state jobs. Idaho has reduced its state employment by 6.9% between June ’09 and June ’10 easily leading the nation in state job cuts. Second place on this list was Hawaii trimming its employments roles by 4.5%. Local government jobs are up 2.7%.