We (sister and I) were saying the same thing on my last visit to the pan handle this past summer. They're (sister and bro-in-law) are only up there via retirement. Their property value has increased almost 50% since they got there.
A good friend of ours lives in Boise. I was last there in 2001. She lives in the foothills on the way to Bogus Basin. Those too, I understand, have gone up like crazy. She said if she had to do it all over again, she'd be living in a place a fraction of the size she's in now.
It seems that no matter where you are (at least in the West), if you don't jump in on a house when the "gettin's good," you either a) can't afford it, or b) can't afford to move out of your existing house, and stay in the area.
Something is not right.
We were really blown away in the Boise Eagle area. Have friends up there and even they didn't know how people working in the Boise area could afford the home prices. They told us if you can make $15. an hour in Boise your doing pretty good. Yet most all the nicer homes there are now going for anywhere between $375,000 and $700,000. We went and looked. It was amazing. We saw some nice homes for about half a million, but no way I could work there for what the wages are in Idaho, and afford those prices.