Moving with kids: Boulder? Lyons? Evergreen? Louisville? (Denver: home, public schools)

[chaite]

Hi everyone!

I'd really appreciate some feedback. My husband is applying for a job in Denver so we may be moving to the area with our two kids - 6 and 9. My husband works from home so it's not necessary that we be right in Denver. He will only visit the office occasionally. Right now, we have been looking at Boulder, Lyons, Louisville and Evergreen.

These are the things that are important to us:
1. Schools - we want great public schools through high school. I've heard that most schools in the area are great.
2. Beauty - we love the outdoors and would love to be somewhere beautiful with lots of outdoor opportunity.
3. Nice and down to earth people - We would love to be in a community of just nice, decent and fun people. We probably don't want to be with a highly conservative group of people. I'm more liberal, but not "in your face" about it. I respect other people's right to think what they want, etc. We just want nice and friendly people to live near who feel the same.
4. Kids - we would love to have a great group of kids for our kids to meet.
5. Food - I would love to be near great restaurants. I'm a foodie.
6. Not big-box: we like being close to larger chain stores, but we don't like having that be our only option for shopping or restaurants.

So that's our wish list.

As for price, I'd say that we would be comfortable paying up to 7k for a home. Ideally 5k or less.

I've found some great threads about Boulder but not too many about Lyons - if someone has specific info on Lyons that would be so helpful.

Thank you so much!

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

I think you mean $500k to $700k?

[chaite]

Yep - 500k to 700k. Thanks for the catch.

[davebarnes]

You already chose.
Boulder.

[chaite]

I did mention 500k or less. 700k would be really high for us, but it might be manageable. If anyone has input to the other areas, that would be great. Thanks.

[chaite]

Hi, not sure if writing here will bump this post up, but I haven't really received any info yet and I'm hoping to hear back from some of you.
Thanks!

[mic111]

Hi Chaite,

I think the reason your not getting any traction on your post is that you aren't really asking for anything that there aren't thousands of posts on. No one asks for bad schools, an ugly area, mean people, lousy kids, bad/chain restaurants, (I have no idea what your asking for in terms of stores - not big box but larger chain stores is confusing to me. I think they are the same thing.) etc. with a budget of less than $500K up to $700K.

Hints: Your budget it too wide, your criteria is too generic and you have no anchor location for work. Hence you could pick anywhere and get your criteria met at the same levels. Throw a dart or pick a town out of a hat and your good. Better yet visit all the towns on your short list and then come back and ask more specific questions.

[brown_dog_us]

We moved to South Boulder this summer and love it. My kids (7 & 10) have found a lot of friends and are so active they are flat wore out every night. You can find a home in this area within your budget, but it won't be a dream home and will probably need some work. The schools are excellent. There aren't a lot of great restaurants close by (except for Southern Sun and Under the Sun), but Pearl Street is close enough for us.

fwiw, this is what I thought of the other areas you listed:

Evergreen: Very nice with great schools. Lacked places to eat, was too conservative for us, and was too remote for us.
Louisville: Another very nice place. We wanted to be close to the mountains for running, so Boulder won out. I also felt like Louisville was a bit vanilla.
Lyons was too far north and remote to be considered. We needed to be closer to Denver for jobs and the airport.

[Micktooth]

We moved to Louisville 7 years ago and couldn't be happier. The local schools are all good from pre-K up through HS. There are a lot of trails to hike, bike, run etc. and the foothills are just a short ride away.When we moved here, we only knew 2 people, now we have so many amazing friends, in fact 10 of us are taking a trip together next month! We recently moved into a new subdivision and there are children everywhere. Our kids never had issues when it came to making new friends. Downtown Louisville has several nice little restaurants. These are not high end,but very good and locally owned. It's so much fun to sit out on the patios with a beverage of choice Finer restaurants can be found close by in Boulder or Denver. I think Louisville will fit your needs, come on out and visit, I think you will love it!

[chaite]

So good to hear! Thank you. It sounds like I can't go wrong with either Boulder or Louisville. In some ways, Louisville might be a better fit for us. I'm so nervous about transitioning with our kids and making new friends (for them and us!). We're going to fly out to scout things out for ourselves in October so we'll get a better feel once we're there.

Thanks again!