Drive the intersection of State Highway 16 and State Highway 44 in Star on any given night this year and you'll find flaggers, reduced speed limits, and a highway that's still very much becoming a highway. Crews shifted the SH-16 and SH-44 intersection east on August 13, 2026, moving traffic onto new interchange ramps for the first time since construction began there in August 2025. It's one milestone in a project the Idaho Transportation Department says won't fully open until 2027.
That timeline matters more to Star home shoppers than most listing descriptions let on. Buyers comparing Star to Eagle usually explain the price gap with the obvious story: Eagle is the established, higher-end address, and Star is the newer, more affordable alternative nearby. That's true as far as it goes. But part of what you're actually buying in Star right now is a home next to an unfinished freeway corridor, and that has a shelf life. Once SH-16 opens as a limited-access route between I-84 and SH-44, the daily friction that's currently baked into Star living goes away. Buyers who understand the difference between a permanent value gap and a temporary construction discount are in a better position to time their move and set realistic expectations for what they're signing up for in the meantime.
What the price gap actually looks like right now
A January 2026 metro-wide new-home price report grouped Star with South Boise, South Meridian, West Boise, and North Meridian as mid-range submarkets for both median price and price per square foot, calling them typical family-oriented suburbs with newer construction and solid commuter access. Eagle landed in a different tier entirely, grouped with Northwest Boise, Northeast Boise, and the foothill and river-adjacent areas that command a premium for lifestyle factors like views and access to open space rather than just square footage.
As of August 2026, Star's median list price sat at $639,000, up 5 percent year over year, with roughly 492 active listings on the market. That's a meaningful number, but it still lands below what Eagle's premium tier commands. Star's own home-values data points to why buyers keep showing up there anyway: newer luxury communities in town have pulled in people who found themselves priced out of Eagle, while a steady stream of first-time buyer subdivisions keeps the entry-level end of the market active too.
Here's the part that doesn't fit neatly into either the "affordable suburb" or "growing pains" narrative on its own. Star's price advantage over Eagle exists partly because Star is still mid-construction on the piece of infrastructure that would otherwise close some of that gap. Buyers aren't just getting a lower price. They're getting a lower price in exchange for living through the last stretch of a multi-year freeway build.
The corridor, segment by segment
State Highway 16 isn't one project with one finish line. It's several contracted segments, each with its own completion date, and understanding which segment touches a specific address matters more than the headline "2027" figure.
| Segment | Status as of late 2026 | Contracted completion |
|---|---|---|
| I-84 System Interchange & Franklin Road Interchange | Under construction, ramp embankments and bridge abutments underway | January 2027 |
| Ustick Road to Chinden Boulevard | Concrete paving complete on Ustick ramps, wall abutment work ongoing | Fall 2026 |
| SH-16 & SH-44 Interchange (Star) | Traffic shifted onto new ramps August 13, 2026 | Corridor-wide target 2027 |
| SH-44 to Beacon Light Road | Future phase, widening to four lanes with median barrier, overpass planned at Floating Feather Road | Not yet scheduled |
The acceleration itself has a name and a funding source worth knowing. Idaho Transportation Department credited the earlier-than-planned 2027 finish to Governor Brad Little's Leading Idaho Transportation Expansion and Congestion Mitigation program, which lets ITD move faster on projects that would otherwise take years longer to fund. That's useful context for buyers wondering whether "2027" might slip. So far it's moved up, not back.
What construction actually costs you day to day
This isn't background noise. In late May 2026, ITD shifted traffic on SH-44 between Short Road and Moyle Avenue for four straight nights so crews could rebuild the center of the highway, with work running 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. and the new lane configuration holding through late summer. The August 2026 ramp shift at SH-16 and SH-44 came with its own stretch of nighttime flagging and reduced speeds. ITD has been clear that most work happens with at least one lane open in each direction, but delays, detours, and speed reductions are part of the deal until the interchange is finished.
If you're evaluating a specific listing in Star, the honest question isn't "is there construction nearby." At this point in the timeline, the honest question is which segment of SH-16 or SH-44 sits closest to your daily route, and whether that segment is scheduled to wrap in the next few months or the next year. A home near the Ustick-to-Chinden stretch is closer to a fall 2026 finish line than one near the I-84 system interchange, which isn't contracted to finish until January 2027.
Growth hasn't paused for the highway
Star isn't waiting quietly for SH-16 to catch up. The city continues absorbing new residents fast enough that it recently named a new elementary school, Independence, evidence that local capacity planning is still very much in motion alongside the road work. Further north, larger planned communities have already built their own connector roads out to SH-16 in anticipation of the corridor's completion, a sign that developers are betting on the finished freeway even while it's still under construction around them.
That combination, active growth plus active construction, is exactly why the price gap to Eagle is worth watching rather than assuming it's fixed. Once SH-16 opens as a genuine limited-access freeway linking I-84 to SH-44, commute mechanics for Star residents change in a way they haven't for years. Nobody can promise what that does to prices. What the record shows is that this kind of infrastructure milestone is the sort of thing that recalibrates how a submarket gets valued relative to its neighbors, and Star buyers today are effectively purchasing ahead of that recalibration.
Questions worth asking before you write an offer
When does the SH-16 corridor actually finish? ITD's official target is 2027 for the entire corridor, with the I-84 and Franklin Road segment contracted for January 2027 and the Ustick-to-Chinden segment for fall 2026. The Star interchange itself started construction in August 2025 and reached a major milestone in August 2026.
Will construction block access to my neighborhood? ITD's stated approach keeps at least one lane open in each direction through most of the work, with nighttime closures, flagging, and reduced speeds handling the rest. Ask your agent whether a specific listing sits near a segment with an active nighttime work schedule before you assume your commute will be unaffected.
Should I wait until the highway is finished to buy in Star? That's a personal calculation between today's price and the disruption you're willing to live with for a year or two. It's not one this post can answer for you, but it's the right question to be asking instead of treating the current price gap to Eagle as fixed. You can sign up directly for ITD's project alerts by texting HIGHWAY16 to 1-866-483-8422 if you want firsthand updates on closures near a home you're considering.
Star's story right now is a city growing faster than its road network, closing that gap in real time, with a firm state-funded deadline attached. If you're weighing Star against Eagle, Meridian, or anywhere else in the Treasure Valley and want a read on how a specific listing sits relative to these construction segments, that's exactly the kind of on-the-ground detail Kent Davies works through with relocating buyers every week. Download the free relocation guide to start mapping out which Treasure Valley timeline fits your move.
