Idaho Policy Institute (IPI) requests data for all eviction filings statewide annually. Evictions, also known as unlawful detainer, are defined in Idaho Code § 6-303. Data are obtained from the Idaho Supreme Court. Data for each eviction case include:
- Case numbers
- Plaintiff name(s)
- Defendant name(s)
- Judgment date
- Judgment or ruling
- Judgment amount
- Party awarded to
This study is adapted from research conducted by The Eviction Lab at Princeton University. The process of preparing data for analysis included:
Removing all cases for commercial evictions
This study’s focus is household evictions. All defendants with commercial names are excluded from analysis.
Removing serial evictions from dataset
- A serial eviction occurs when a household receives more than one eviction filing in the same calendar year. Cases with the same plaintiffs and defendants are considered serial evictions. In some cases, minor spelling and grammar discrepancies were corrected in order to identify serial evictions.
- Data on serial evictions determined the number of eviction filings per household.
- Only the most recent eviction filing for each household is included in the final statewide eviction data.
Each remaining case represents a single household’s most recent eviction filing. Cases were designated as formal evictions if the case was awarded in favor of the plaintiff only. All other cases are considered eviction filings with no eviction.
The formal eviction rate, filing rate, and evictions per day were calculated for Idaho and each county. Relevant census data are displayed along with eviction statistics on the infographic and interactive county map. All census data is from the American Community Survey, 5-year estimates.
- Formal eviction rate is calculated by dividing the number of households with formal evictions by the total number of renting households in the state or a county.
- Eviction filing rate is calculated by dividing the total number of households with at least one eviction filing by the total number of renting households in the state or a county.
- Average evictions per day is calculated by dividing the total number of formal evictions in the state or a county by 365.
The following limitations apply to this study
Households and landlords were identified using names of defendants and plaintiffs appearing on case records. Some households or landlords may have different names across multiple properties or eviction filings. For example, a landlord may file evictions for some units under the landlord’s name and others under their business’s name.
The exact circumstances of eviction cases are unknown due to limited data available to IPI about unlawful detainer cases.
The authors determined the data on judgment amounts were insufficient for accurate analysis.
This study was conducted by Idaho Policy Institute at Boise State University.
Recommended Citation
Larsen, B., Hall, M., McGinnis-Brown, L., & Crossgrove Fry, V. (2022). Idaho Statewide Eviction Study. Idaho Policy Institute. Boise State University.