Planning a move to Boulder (Fort Collins, Longmont: rental, condos, how much)

[Stolicakes]

My boyfriend and I are planning on moving to Boulder next fall for law school. We are currently in NC so it would be a BIIIIG change. I've gone to Colorado a few times snowboarding and fell in love with it so its very exciting to entertain the idea of moving out there! I was wondering if anyone could give me advice on moving across country or information on neighborhoods near CU law. We think we would like to rent a house or try and buy a cheap (less than 100,000) condo...we really would like to have a yard because we have 2 dogs. Any help would be amazing! Thank you!

[nelumbo]

You are not going to find a condo for less than $100k in Boulder. Maybe an older 1B/1BA for 150k....if you are willing to live in another city (maybe 10+ miles away), the prices will come down, but I'm not sure that you can find much at all for less than 100k.

Renting is cheaper than buying in Boulder - what kind of budget do you want to have for a house? There are a lot of rental small ranch homes just south of the law school , south of Baseline, between Broadway and rt 36. I don't know exactly how much they are, but I'd hazard a guess that they start around $1200-1500/month + utilities...

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by nelumbo

You are not going to find a condo for less than $100k in Boulder. Maybe an older 1B/1BA for 150k....if you are willing to live in another city (maybe 10+ miles away), the prices will come down, but I'm not sure that you can find much at all for less than 100k.

Renting is cheaper than buying in Boulder - what kind of budget do you want to have for a house? There are a lot of rental small ranch homes just south of the law school , south of Baseline, between Broadway and rt 36. I don't know exactly how much they are, but I'd hazard a guess that they start around $1200-1500/month + utilities...

I think that is about right. I cannot imagine any condo for $100K even in Louisville or Lafayette. Even Longmont, for that matter.

[Stolicakes]

Thanks guys!

I've found a few listing for condos under 100k (only like 3) but here is one of them:

2702 Valmont Rd 108 Boulder, CO 80304 MLS ID#551298
listing price $84,900
1 Bed, 1 Bath
400 Sq. Ft.

Is this a bad area? We have a lot of money saved and some stocks and bonds that can be cashed to facilitate this move but we would like to live under our means if at all possible to be able to continue saving.

Also how is the night life in boulder? Also what are the closest suburbs to the law school?

Thank you so much for your help ya'll its great!

[Stolicakes]

3250 ONeal Cir 26

Boulder, CO 80301

MLS ID# 549011


theres another one...hows that area? this one is like 105 and super cute.

[Katiana]

Measure off 400 sq ft (20' X 20') before you put down a contract on that one! You could barely get a bed and a table for eating in there! The neighborhood is OK.

I'm not sure where O'Neal Circle is.

Night life in Boulder is fine. Closest suburb is Louisville. Very family oriented. Probably not what you are looking for.

[Stolicakes]

Well we actually do want a more family oriented neighborhood. We are pretty sick of living in a college town that is parties 24/7 ...its definitely not our scene..we would like a quiet place with lots of trails for the dogs (a chihuahua and an aussie) and we don't need too much space inside...its the outside were looking for.

[Noahma]

remember, Condo's are very hard to sell.

[nelumbo]

The 400 sq foot one is likely a studio (I suppose you could somehow manage to cordon off a bedroom, but that would make the space intractible).

ONeal is in that area with lots of condo complexes just east of 30th and north of Valmont, near that trailer park. The Bound bus runs to the law school down 30th, and would be convenient to the ONeal address - but really, anything with that low a price is likely to be a studio or a unit with some kind of issues. You can get more space for less money renting, and if you are only staying for a few years for school, buying a tiny condo is perhaps not going to be a worthwhile investment. There is a bit of a glut of condos right now, at least judging by the high vacancy rate in the new condo complex next door to me - they finished building it a few years ago and still have about 1/4 vacancy.

There aren't any *bad* areas of Boulder, but there probably are bad houses/units/apts.

[mdp_az]

Check out Longmont and Niwot. You should be able to find a lot more house for the money, and the drive in to CU would be about 15-25 min depending on how far into Longmont you go.

I haven't been out there for 5 years now, but I wonder if there are any condos and townhouses near the mall in Broomfield now. If so, that's another area that might be worth looking at.

I moved "home" to NC from Fort Collins 5 years ago, and though I'm glad to be home, I sure do miss Colorado. In fact, I'm trying to work out a deal w/ my employer right now that could take us back to the Front Range sometime in 2008! Enjoy your move and your new life in Colorado...it'll be a blast!