Star's Discount to Eagle Is Real. It's Just Not the Discount You Think.
September 10, 2026
September 10, 2026
If you are pricing out a new build in Star this fall, budget for an extra $4,500 you probably did not see in the builder's first quote. That number is not a builder markup. It is a city impact fee the Star City Council approved unanimously in April 2026, phased in over three years to pay for new parks and police equipment as the city pushes past 13,000 residents. Buyers comparing Star to Eagle on sticker price alone are already missing half the story. This fee is the other half.
Here is the part that surprises people who have been house hunting in both cities: the price gap between Star and Eagle is real, but it is roughly half the size the median suggests once you divide by square footage. That distinction changes how you should actually compare the two markets, and it changes what "affordable alternative to Eagle" really means in 2026.
Ask anyone shopping the west side of the Treasure Valley why they are looking at Star instead of Eagle and you will hear some version of the same answer: it is cheaper, and it is ten minutes up Highway 44. As of August 2026, Star's median list price sits at $639,000, according to Movoto. Eagle's median list price for the same month is $899,000. Do that math and Eagle looks 41 percent more expensive.
That gap is the one that gets repeated in conversation, in open houses, and in casual comparisons between the two cities. It is also the gap that tells you the least about what your money buys.
Price per square foot strips out the size difference and gets closer to what you are actually paying for construction, land, and finishes. In August 2026, Star's median list price per square foot was $283. Eagle's was $336, per the same Movoto data, itself down slightly from July as Eagle's market has softened modestly over the past year.
| Median List Price (Aug. 2026) | Price per Sq. Ft. | Days on Market | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Star | $639,000 | $283 | 78 |
| Eagle | $899,000 | $336 | 71 |
Run the percentage on price per square foot instead of total price and the gap drops from 41 percent to about 19 percent. That is still a real premium for Eagle, but it is less than half of what the headline numbers imply. If you have been telling yourself Eagle homes cost nearly twice as much as Star homes for the same house, the math does not support that. It never did.
If the per-square-foot gap is only 19 percent but the total price gap is 41 percent, the difference has to come from somewhere. It comes from size. Eagle's homes, on average, are simply bigger. Realtor.com data from May 2026 put the typical Eagle listing near 2,900 square feet, among the largest median home sizes anywhere in the Treasure Valley.
Star's newer subdivisions run smaller. In Heron River, the city's flagship master-planned community along the Boise River, homes typically fall in the 1,600 to 2,400 square foot range on lots between a tenth and a half acre. A few miles away in the older Starlight Meadows neighborhood, homes built between 1996 and 2002 run from about 1,064 to 2,241 square feet.
So the "Eagle premium" is not primarily a premium for better construction or a more desirable zip code. A meaningful share of it is a premium for more square feet and more land. That reframes the decision. A buyer choosing between a 2,200-square-foot home in Star and a 2,900-square-foot home in Eagle is not choosing between two tiers of quality. They are choosing between two different amounts of house, priced at closer to the same rate per foot than the headline numbers suggest.
The other piece of this comparison is moving in real time. On April 8, 2026, the Star City Council voted to raise impact fees on new residential construction, adding roughly $4,500 to the cost of a new home in the city. The park impact fee portion phases in gradually, at 80 percent in year one, 90 percent in year two, and the full rate by year three, so builders and buyers closing on new construction over the next few years will feel the fee ramp up rather than land all at once.
The vote followed a public hearing that ran more than three hours. The Building Contractors Association of Southwest Idaho argued the fee package went beyond what state law allows and hired an outside expert from Arizona to make the case. Star's mayor pushed back just as directly, aiming his frustration at the state legislature rather than the builders in the room.
"The legislature is failing us on every freaking single level in this state."
That is not a comment about home prices. It is a comment about who pays for growth. But the practical effect for a buyer is the same either way: new construction in Star now carries a cost floor that resale homes in established neighborhoods do not, and that floor gets slightly higher each year through the phase-in. It is one more reason the per-square-foot gap with Eagle, already narrower than the median implies, is likely to keep narrowing rather than widening.
If Star's per-square-foot pricing is closer to Eagle's than most buyers expect, the ongoing costs of Star's amenity-rich communities are worth pricing out too, since they factor into total cost of ownership the same way a mortgage payment does.
Heron River, built across roughly 575 homesites along the Boise River, is the community most often cited as Star's answer to Eagle's larger subdivisions. It includes The Club at Heron River, with a swimming pool, fitness center, tennis and pickleball courts, and a playground, plus more than 75 acres of preserved open space along the river. Homeowners pay quarterly HOA dues of $440, which cover common area maintenance, plus an additional $75 per quarter for fiber optic internet through a local provider. Residents in the Creekside section pay an extra $305 per quarter for landscape, fence maintenance, and snow removal. Add it up and a Heron River household without the Creekside add-on is looking at roughly $172 a month in HOA costs, a number worth folding into any side-by-side comparison with an Eagle subdivision's dues.
The headline median is the wrong number to anchor a decision on. A more useful comparison looks at four things together:
None of these numbers replace a walkthrough or a comparative market analysis on a specific address. But they get you further than "Star is cheaper" ever will.
Is Star still less expensive than Eagle overall? Yes. The total median price gap is real and substantial. The point is that the gap per square foot is smaller than the total price gap suggests, which matters if you are comparing two homes of different sizes rather than two homes of the same size.
Does the new impact fee apply to resale homes in Star? No. The fee structure approved in April 2026 applies to new residential construction. Resale homes already built are not subject to it, which is part of why new construction and resale pricing in Star are starting to diverge.
Will the per-square-foot gap between Star and Eagle keep narrowing? Nothing in real estate moves in a straight line, but a rising cost floor on new construction in Star, combined with Eagle's median price softening slightly year over year as of mid-2026, both point in that direction for now.
If you are trying to figure out what a specific home in Star or Eagle is actually worth once you account for size, lot, and HOA structure, that is exactly the kind of comparison Chuck and Laura Costa run for clients every week. Start with a free home valuation or take a closer look at what each city offers on our Star and Eagle neighborhood pages.
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