Contemplating Colorado... (Denver, Fort Collins, Boulder: middle-class, day care, how much)

[JonnyTrees]

Currently live on Long Island, NY and have always dreamed of moving to Colorado.

In order to compare expenses can you give me an indication of the following:
What would an elementary teacher with 10 years experience make in greater Boulder?
How about a research/project engineer with 10 years experience.
How much does full time day care at a legitimate center cost per month for an infant and toddler?

How much does a nice house cost with at least 0.5 acre in a reputable school district cost? Nice house = 4 br , 2.5 bath, all recently updated with 2 car garage. How much are the typical property/school taxes?

Any people out there who have lived on LI and moved to Colorado, please share your experiences.

Thanks.

[Mike from back east]

Jonny: We do have some New Yorkers on here, hopefully they'll speak up.

Did you want Boulder city itself, which is rather expensive, or the nearby area, which is more affordable and excellent?

Or are you looking at all cities in the Denver metro area?

s/Mike

[JonnyTrees]

Surrounding areas of Boulder would be fine, but would want to be able to shoot into the city fairly quickly to take advantage of it..

Just looking to get a handle on how the major living expenses vary from what I'm paying now. I imagine a much better QOL in Colorado than NY, though not sure about the salaries. My property taxes right now are 10k to give you an idea.

[qfrost]

You can also check out any number of online cost-of-living calculators comparing costs of major expenses (housing, groceries, etc.).

[Mike from back east]

Jonny; go into the index and look at the threads on Longmont, or use the search tool.

Expect to save $7k on property tax vs NY. State income tax is 4.9% too.

Salaries will not be near the big-apple levels, but it's relative.

IIRC, teaching experience in other states does not fully carry over in CO, but I'm going on memory; I've read just about every posting ever made in the COLO forums since this site started up, that's over 150,000 posts. There's a lot here. Look up the threads on Teaching in Colorado, might be in the Denver index of threads.

[WhereTheSidewalkEnds]

I can't say what teachers make, but I can say that it seems most of the districts are cutting teachers. I recently read somewhere (might have been the Longmont paper) that St. Vrain will actually be hiring.

[TungstenIron]

Here-

Teaching Jobs

[CosmicWizard]

Regarding teaching salaries: My wife had 15 yrs teaching in Virginia. She got hired in Grand Junction-CO but was given only 10 years on the pay step scale. The pay cut was approximately 20%. I believe the specifics vary from district to district. Not sure how it would be handled in Boulder. The bigger issue is likely to be finding an open position and getting hired.

[Katarina Witt]

You can find Boulder Valley's pay scale by digging around in this website:

Boulder Valley School District

Some nearby districts pay more. If you are thinking of moving to Boulder, don't limit yourself to the BVSD for jobs. Apply all over.

[JukieF]

I agree about teaching jobs being few and far between. The same thing is true for engineering jobs. We had to leave Colorado last year because my husband (a skilled EE with 25 years experience) got laid off and couldn't find another job in the entire state. It's a big change from when we moved back to Fort Collins (ironically, from Rockland County, NY) in 2000. Then he had his pick of jobs.

What part of LI do you live in? My hubby grew up there. I know some areas are a lot more expensive than others. But the city of Boulder is out of reach for most middle-class families. A decent house in the city limits is incredibly expensive. My sister has lived in Boulder for many years. She's a professional, as is her husband. They have never been able to afford to buy property there.

But... having said that, if you can find jobs in the area, you should definitely move if you can. The quality of life is a million times better in CO, IMHO. The Island is so crowded and awful. My BIL still lives there, and he's dying to get away. My husband had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, from CO, although I must say we were lucky that he landed a job in New Hampshire.