Boise, Idaho and other, middle-tier cities are now facing the same growing pressures that top-tier cities face when it comes to housing affordability: NIMBYism, rising rents, and political red tape.
As with other smaller cities, the Great Recession hobbled Boise's construction sector, which has yet to recover, according to retired HUD administrator based in Boise, Gary Hanes. Fred Cornforth, CEO of the CDI/Idaho Development and Housing Organization, says the fundamental challenge of the housing crisis is that overbuilding is currently the only way to drop prices, while on the other hand, demand is so high that the ability to meet that need, as costs continue to rise, is "impossible," The Huffington Post reports.
“Have you considered the racket and the lights and the crowds and the traffic, and everything that’s going to happen to those of us who live here?” It is a familiar sight in America: the public meeting, the angry residents, the housing developer trying to explain himself over the boos. “Take the money you’ve got and get out of here,” one person shouts. A chant begins: “Oppose! Oppose! Oppose!” Except this is not San Francisco or L.A. or Boston. It is Boise, Idaho.
