Love/Hate Firestone/Longmont? (Denver, Aurora: relocating, real estate, housing)

[Hey-Odd]

I got a big kick and some really great information by reading the all the posts on "Best/Worst places to live." Havng relocated here from GA only a few weeks ago, we're trying to replicate at least the size house we had before (GA has incredibly affordable housing, many of you have probably heard). So, for about 100K more than we sold our house for, we'll do OK, but it looks like the Longmont area -- more likely Firestone -- is it for us. We'd love Louisville, but we're already priced out. (We're both in the tech industry so we make decent salaries, but in addition to our two young kids, we have a baby on the way. I plan to work again soon, but I don't want to be "forced" to work just to keep up with a mortgage we can barely reach.) We'll also look at Erie, because I keep hearing how many young families like us are there.

ANYWAY, I'm glad to hear that Firestone pretty much came in under the radar on the aforementioned thread!! (Unless it's considered one of the Front Range 'burbs -- is it?) Anyway, I know Firestone and Longmont have been mentioned in this forum before, but does anyone have any STRONG feelings in either direction about the area? My impression is it's a fairly benign, maybe unexciting but close enough to Boulder, Denver, and Ft. Collins for excitement, fairly safe, family-oriented place with decent schools. Am I right?

[BigCheeze]

Firestone is a nice area. It has it's pluses and minuses, just like every where else. If you are into decent built track-style homes, a growing area, a number of schools (including 2 charters now), generally friendly people, and a pretty "vanilla" area then Firestone is great. Bad part is to expect little to no home value increase (but no decrease either)... too many new homes being built in the area, and a number of resale homes on the market.

You can get into Longmont in about 20 min's, Loveland in about 30, Ft. Collins in about 45, Cheyenne in about an Hour, and downtown Denver in about 30.

They are building a lot more shopping in the area (last I heard, but not offically they are building a Super Target right off the freeway where we have an American furniture warehouse). We currently have 2 large grocery stores, 3 or 4 starbucks plus 1 or 2 local coffee shops, a DQ, several national pizza places, Blockbuster, about 7 liquor stores, a couple of bars, an Ace Hardware, several Chinese places, all the major Fast Food places right off the freeway, a couple of gas stations, and several other restaurants. In a year or two we will have all of the cookie cutter "new town" convinces in place.

We live there, we like it, but once we feel we can sell our house for enough more than we owe on it, we will likely move out side of the City limits to some unencorporated Weld County area and buy a house with no HOAs, and at some decent property (like 1 - 4 acres). One thing we want to make sure of though is we don't get too far from the charter school where our kids go, as I have been very impressed with it and don't want to loose it.

I think the area is very good for Colorado Newbes (we've only been here a few years now) as it's a safe place to live where things are close enough that you won't have problems getting what ever you need, and will allow you to find something more interesting if that's your thing.

[qatcat]

Hey Odd

Same boat you are. We are relocating from Georgia and looked all over the place. We were not able to find anything for the 400-450k range we would be happy in. I had initally looked in Golden, Evergreen and Arvada but everything we were liking was 600k +

When we went to Firestone we were able to find basically everything we wanted in a home in a nice development and decent lot. The drawback being my wife's commute to Aurora or possibly Denver.

I didn't think I'd like Firestone/Frederick area but I really took a liking to it once I got a chance to look around. We made an offer on a home and hope things work out..

[Hey-Odd]

Excellent! I hope things do work out on your offer. Where in GA are you from? We're from Suwanee, a northern suburb of Atlanta. We lived there for 11 years, but it was just time to leave. Without me working, here we're in the 300-350k range, and like you said, everything in all the other areas we like is 500-600k and above. I don't particularly want a mortgage like that even if we COULD afford it!

Big Cheese's post is excellent -- exactly the kind of info I was looking for. One thing that concerns me is the little to no home value increase. We were victims of that back in GA -- not NO increase, but not that great. And there were plenty of areas around us that did appreciate very well, we just unluckily picked one that didn't. I'd like to avoid that again, but. . . looks like it's a risk we'll have to take. I'd like to think that as the area grows, the home values will too. But, as BC mentioned, that means more new homes which means less value growth for existing homes. Then again, it seems like the Longmont homes are on average more expensive than Firestone homes -- wouldn't that be due to Longmont's growth? Sigh. . . Any realtors care to weigh in on this subject? Can we expect some decent appreciation in the Firestone area in the next several (or many) years?

[qatcat]

Originally Posted by Hey-Odd

Excellent! I hope things do work out on your offer. Where in GA are you from? We're from Suwanee, a northern suburb of Atlanta. We lived there for 11 years, but it was just time to leave. Without me working, here we're in the 300-350k range, and like you said, everything in all the other areas we like is 500-600k and above. I don't particularly want a mortgage like that even if we COULD afford it!

Big Cheese's post is excellent -- exactly the kind of info I was looking for. One thing that concerns me is the little to no home value increase. We were victims of that back in GA -- not NO increase, but not that great. And there were plenty of areas around us that did appreciate very well, we just unluckily picked one that didn't. I'd like to avoid that again, but. . . looks like it's a risk we'll have to take. I'd like to think that as the area grows, the home values will too. But, as BC mentioned, that means more new homes which means less value growth for existing homes. Then again, it seems like the Longmont homes are on average more expensive than Firestone homes -- wouldn't that be due to Longmont's growth? Sigh. . . Any realtors care to weigh in on this subject? Can we expect some decent appreciation in the Firestone area in the next several (or many) years?

we were in warner robins.. down south. I actually coached the other baseball team that didn't make it!!! It appears to be hurting in Colorado specifically the new housing. New builders are throwing out all sorts of incentives but beware. We got a deal we can't refuse in the Lonmont area. There were quite a few so while we made the offer we can fall back on a number of options if this doesn't pan out. Keep looking!!

[Hey-Odd]

No kidding?!?! Many of my family members are in Warner Robins! Know anyone with any of these last names: Nettles, Northenor, or Tyson? If so, send me a direct message. I guess we don't have to regale the rest of this forum on what a small world it is!!

Bummer on your little league team! But still a cool thing for WR!

[Katiana]

To answer a question in your first post, Hey-Odd, Firestone both is and isn't considered a Denver suburb. When we came here in 1980, Firestone was considered a small town out in the country. I would take that 30 min. drive to Denver with a grain of salt, too. I just ran a mapquest on the distance/drive time from there to my old office in downtown Denver, and it is 31 miles, 38 min. 23 miles of that is on I-25. Sometimes you can go 60+ mph there, and sometimes half that. It gets worse as you get closer (obviously).

I am no expert on real estate, but Weld County has one of the highest forclosure rates in the nation, which probably contributes to the price "bust". There was an article in the Boulder Daily Camera yesterday (I think) about housing prices and how they are not expected to appreciate much till at least 2009. Of course, all the prognosticating is based on known factors, and something unknown could happen to change all that.

[BigCheeze]

A lot has changed since 1980, and I don't know if Firestone is or isn't a Denver "suburb", if that even matters to anyone?

I can tell you from experince that most of the time you're looking at about a 30 min (give or take 5) to get to Downtown Denver. I used to work there, and did the commute. Most of I-25 is 75mph between here and there (I think Thorton is where is slows to 65mph, and then to 55mph right on the outskirts of Denver). So you can make good time on that part of the highway. Now, when you have an accident, or a blizzard, I wouldn't expect to get anyplace (possibly even out of your driveway) in 30 min's.

I believe Weld county did have one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation, but that was largely due to bad loan practices, and was mostly in the Greeley area. I don't think there was much problems with it in the Southern end of the county (such as the Firestone area). However there wasn't a lot out here until the last few years. When we moved into Firestone about 3 1/2 yrs ago there was 1 grocery store and 1 stop light (might have been 2) in the entire city. That is not true any more.

I do however think it's VERY important to understand that the value of housing in this area is not likely to go up quickly, so make sure any loans you get are based on sound lending practices, and you stay away from ANY loans that are based around the idea that the property value will increase.

*EDIT -
Here's a listing of Zip's for foreclosures - 500 Top foreclosure zip codes - Jun. 19, 2007, Greeley is now way down, Denver has 2 zip's in the top 10 though, and Longmont is also way down towards the bottom.

[Katiana]

This is the OP's question:

(Unless it's considered one of the Front Range 'burbs -- is it?)

A lot has changed since 1980, and I don't know if Firestone is or isn't a Denver "suburb", if that even matters to anyone?

Apparently it matters to the OP. And yes, of course a lot has changed since 1980. I don't beleive I implied otherwise.

When we moved into Firestone about 3 1/2 yrs ago there was 1 grocery store and 1 stop light (might have been 2) in the entire city. That is not true any more.

Which supports what I said about it being considered a little place out in the country. If that's what they had in 2004, imagine what it looked like in 1980.

[gpraceman]

Originally Posted by BigCheeze

*EDIT -
Here's a listing of Zip's for foreclosures - 500 Top foreclosure zip codes - Jun. 19, 2007, Greeley is now way down, Denver has 2 zip's in the top 10 though, and Longmont is also way down towards the bottom.

I was surprised to see Parker on that list Pretty far down, but on the list none-the-less.