BOISE, Idaho — If you were hoping the COVID-19 pandemic would cool off the hot housing market in the Treasure Valley, better hope for divine intervention now because the pandemic has given people another reason to move to the Gem State.
With more and more people being able to work from home and remotely, more people are looking towards Idaho as their next home, and it's only growing according to one real estate agent.
"People relocating to our areas prior to the pandemic was probably about half of what it is now," Chris Carpenter, a real estate agent from Keller Williams Real Estate, told KTVB.
He said since the pandemic began, he has noticed more and more people who were planning on moving to Idaho years from now change their timelines and move here much sooner since more employers are accepting of working from home.
"It would be safe to say that 40-50% of our clients that are moving here from a different state are coming here with a job and being able to keep that job that is allowing them to move here quicker and sooner than they were expecting," he said.
"It's not just California, for us personally, we've had Seattle, Portland, Denver and even Salt Lake," he added.
Mark Stevens, a Real Estate Agent and Partner with Amherst-Madison Real Estate Agency, estimates about 25% of their clients are doing the same but explained that remote work is being a rising factor for why more people are moving to Idaho.
"There's been a lot of good reasons to move to Idaho before this ever transpired but it's definitely something that gets voiced now more," Stevens said.
He added that remote work also has Idahoans shopping for real estate.
"There are people who live here in the treasure valley wanting larger homes because their homes are now not large enough if one or two members are working from home virtually," he said.
For some, like Jessica Matthews, the Executive Director of the nonprofit League of Dreams, moving to Idaho during the coronavirus pandemic was about the right timing.
"When my husband was offered a job here {in Eastern Idaho], we felt like it was just the right time to go, COVID had shut so many things down, people were moving, the market is hot, it was a good time to sell our home in California, it was a buy high, sell high situation but we felt like the timing was right," she said. "We love it."