Moving to Denver / Driving to Boulder? Buying house? (Aurora, Center: real estate, to rent)

[DanFromSoDak]

Hello all,

I'm very excited to have found this forum - I've spent several hours reading through some of the great discussions. I have a situation I was hoping for some help with:

My wife will be starting medical school at CU Dever, and she'll be spending time at the downtown CU campus, the Anschultz (sp?) medical campus in Aurora, and National Jewish. I will be starting graduate school at CU Boulder. We're trying to figure out what to do about housing. There are several factors that play into this:

1) We're both very financially secure (no debt), and anticipate making around ~$50k/yr (combined) while living in Denver.
2) My wife is a "small-town" girl, and is highly uncomfortable driving on major highways, so we were thinking of finding someplace VERY close to where she will be attending school.
3) We have successfully bought and sold real estate before ("flipping"), and as we anticipate being in Denver for many years, we feel that buying a house is preferable to renting.

So I guess I really don't even know where to start - I've been trying to familiarize myself with the Denver area, but there's a lot to take in all at once! I'd love to hear any generic suggestions on what we ought to do, but if I had to come up with some specific questions, I'd say:

1) What neighborhoods would be closest to CU-Denver/NationalJewish/Anschultz?

2) Is it reasonable to commute (daily) to Boulder from there?

3) Do these neighborhoods have any safe/clean single family homes in the sub-$200k range?

Thank you so much for your time!

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by DanFromSoDak

Hello all,

I'm very excited to have found this forum - I've spent several hours reading through some of the great discussions. I have a situation I was hoping for some help with:

My wife will be starting medical school at CU Dever, and she'll be spending time at the downtown CU campus, the Anschultz (sp?) medical campus in Aurora, and National Jewish. I will be starting graduate school at CU Boulder. We're trying to figure out what to do about housing. There are several factors that play into this:

1) We're both very financially secure (no debt), and anticipate making around ~$50k/yr (combined) while living in Denver.
2) My wife is a "small-town" girl, and is highly uncomfortable driving on major highways, so we were thinking of finding someplace VERY close to where she will be attending school.
3) We have successfully bought and sold real estate before ("flipping"), and as we anticipate being in Denver for many years, we feel that buying a house is preferable to renting.

So I guess I really don't even know where to start - I've been trying to familiarize myself with the Denver area, but there's a lot to take in all at once! I'd love to hear any generic suggestions on what we ought to do, but if I had to come up with some specific questions, I'd say:

1) What neighborhoods would be closest to CU-Denver/NationalJewish/Anschultz?

Anschutz (note spelling) is in Aurora, The others are in Denver. Although the whole campus is now called CU Denver or some such, the rest of CU Denver (AKA, UCD) is in downtown Denver. It is unlikely that your wife will be taking any classes there. The med school classrooms, so I have heard from my DD who is a physical therapy student at UCHSC, are in Aurora. Since the move to Aurora is very new, I don't know how much housing there is right near there. My daughter lives in SE Denver near the U of Denver. The neighborhood is called Universiy. There are single family homes there and in adjacent neighborhoods. I would suggest you google a map of Denver neighborhoods, or you'll go crazy trying to keep all this straight. Also use Google maps or Mapquest to see how far the Anschutz campus is from Nat. Jewish. I don't remember what my DD said about that. (PT just moved to Aurora in Jan.)

2) Is it reasonable to commute (daily) to Boulder from there?

It will take about an hour. You will have to decide if that is reasonable.

3) Do these neighborhoods have any safe/clean single family homes in the sub-$200k range?

Probably not. You may need to spend more like $300K and up, even for a fixer-upper.

Thank you so much for your time!

You're welcome!

[delta07]

The Anschutz campus is on the old Fitzsimons Army Base from what I have heard. This is NOT in a nice part of Aurora (although nice in relative in Aurora). I grew up in Aurora, and anything north of about Iliff is a rough area. Crime is very high, and gang activity is frequent. I would look into an area where your wife can take public transportation to the campus. I'm not sure if Light Rail goes that way or not yet.

I think the commute from Aurora to Boulder would be difficult as well. Like Pittnurse said, it would be about an hour. I think it would be more than that with traffic.

[DanFromSoDak]

Thank you both for the replies! I especially appreciate hearing that that part of Aurora is not safe - I was not previously aware of that.

If the consensus is that public transportation (or even a drive) is needed to get from safe housing to the Anschutz campus, what neighborhoods would you recommend? Again, my criteria would be: between the Boulder and Anschutz campuses (prefer closer to Anschutz), safe, and sub-200k. Ideas?

[delta07]

What about the new Stapleton area development? I'm not sure about housing prices, although I would imagine it may be more than $200K. It would be between the two areas, closer to Aurora, and it a very neat new area. I'm not real familiar with other neighborhoods in the north Denver areas. Perhaps others are.

[steveindenver]

Stapleton would be a good location but prices, even on the carriage homes and townhouses are at least into the 300's.

If you are into some sweat equity and can live with a neighborhood that still has some more interesting areas, Aurora may be the way to go. In particular some of the areas around Stapleton, generally to the south within a block or two are starting to be fixed and flipped.

I'm not saying I agree with the gentrification; but if I was in your situation wherein I needed fast access to Fitzsimmons and downtown in an area I could pay <=200k and build equity quickly this is where I would look.

From Quebec St at the west up to Montview down to 17th ave at the south and all the way out to Peoria qualifies for the above mentioned reasons. There is plenty of public transport along Cofax (the 15 limited is somewhat quick all the way) as well as a few alternative routes.

I live around this area now and if you happen to be in town when we are around I would be happy to take you on a tour and if you so desire introduce you to some folks I know and trust who have been selling and fixing in this vicinity for a while now.

The only part that is going to stink is your commute to Boulder. With the infill being what it is between Boulder and Denver now, traffic can quickly become a pain. Depending on your schedule you can do it in as little as 30 minutes each way. If you leave during rush times, 7:00-8:30 add more time. It's not L.A. or even Suburban D.C. but there is traffic.

[David Aguilar]

Originally Posted by delta07

The Anschutz campus is on the old Fitzsimons Army Base from what I have heard. This is NOT in a nice part of Aurora (although nice in relative in Aurora). I grew up in Aurora, and anything north of about Iliff is a rough area. Crime is very high, and gang activity is frequent. I would look into an area where your wife can take public transportation to the campus. I'm not sure if Light Rail goes that way or not yet.

I think the commute from Aurora to Boulder would be difficult as well. Like Pittnurse said, it would be about an hour. I think it would be more than that with traffic.

The comment in bold is ridiculous. Aurora is a city of 300,000 people, and to make a broad generalization like that is the same as saying about 200,000 of those people live in a rough area. Don't believe the hype and negativity preached here about Aurora. The unfortunate belief around here is that neighborhoods with homes more than 20 years old that aren't populated with the upwardly mobile or old money are "rough areas". Much of Aurora north of Iliff is quite nice, with solid, diverse middle class neighborhoods. I wish some of the people that cite the crime and gang activity would give some actual examples, I think that some just assume there is because of the diversity. It's highly unlikely you'll ever be a victim of crime in Aurora. Dan, when you come to Denver, give Aurora a second look and decide for yourself, it's probably the only place near Fitz you'd be able to purchase a decent home sub 200K. The hospitals themselves are quite safe, the "unsafe area" nearby is a couple blocks west and all that means is that some of the stores have signs/names in Spanish. Your commute to Boulder would suck however.

[DanFromSoDak]

Thanks for the feedback, David. Just out of curiousity, could you elaborate on how much my commute to Boulder will suck? Are we talking more than an hour each way?

[livecontent]

I have been looking at this issue where you should live. I am a frequent public transportation user and I am familiar with the system which I think can help you.

First I would consider what would be the best area to live if your wife was will be commuting to the Medical School at the Anschutz Medical Campus and National Jewish. National Jewish is on Colorado Blvd near 14th. Just down the road is the old medical campus, on 9th which have many clinics still open and the VA hospital for training. I have seen that the Medical Center runs shuttle buses back and forth to these two areas and will for a long time in the future and to get to National Jewish is just a short trip north to National Jewish.

So if you live somewhere on Colorado near the Old Campus, you will be in an ideal place for your wife to get from between National Jewish, the new campus and the old campus.

Housing can be very good in this area. You can look at homes in Congress Park, Hale and Hilltop which surrounds the old campus. There are nice bugalow homes west across the street on Colorado in East Congress Park, which may suite you. You can live farther down on Colorado near the Colorado Station or you can live north on Colorado in Park Hill. The buses run very frequently up and down Colorado Blvd. as it is a main street in the City.

Now getting you to the campus in Boulder would be easy from this area because you can easily get downtown either with the many local buses which Bisect Colorado, or go to the Colorado Station and take the light rail to downtown. From Downtown there are frequent buses, the B Local and the B express, which would get you to Boulder and runs right along the campus with a number of stops. In addition there is a bus DD which comes to/from Boulder down Colorado Blvd. to Colorado Station with a limited schedule.

Living this area is also good because your wife could also catch the Local 20, 15L, 15 bus which bisects Colorado and goes to the new campus. There is also a bus DM, a regional bus from Boulder that goes to Anshutz.

So for convenience for you and your wife, I would center my look for housing along Colorado Blvd. Your wife can avoid driving; You can live in a nice convenient area for both of your needs.

See the The Regional Transportation District Home Page for transportation schedules and maps. In addition, I would suggest that you contact the school about the shuttle bus from the 9th street old campus to the new.

I looked up the shuttle and yes it is available. http://www.ucdhsc.edu/admin/facilities/parking/docs/ShuttleSchedule.pdf (broken link)

The main page for transportation on the Campus is PARKING INFORMATION (broken link)

In addition there is a van on demand http://www.ucdhsc.edu/admin/facilities/parking/docs/VanOnDemandDescription.pdf (broken link)


Livecontent

[Shuffler]

Yes your commute from Denver to Boulder will suck, depending on when you're making the drive.