Best places to rent in Cos; interested in great schools (Colorado Springs: rentals, mortgages)

[Skycastle]

Hello Everyone,

My family is seriously weighing a move from Plano, TX to Colorado Springs. I research a lot but I feel unsure of which neighborhood would best suit our family. Buying a home in a brand new city seems like a lot of pressure, too. I lean toward renting for a year to get a feel for the city. We like NW COS online. Academy-20. Can you recommend specific neighborhoods or an online rental resource aside from Realtor.com? Would like to spend around 3k/month.

Thanks so much!
S

[Sonic_Spork]

D20 is very highly rated, the two most touted districts in this area tend to be D20 and D12. Also, that is where a lot of the more expensive housing can be found.

But "the most expensive housing" is very relative. For 3K a month you can rent pretty much anything you want. In fact you might have a hard time even finding something that costs that much...some of the really, really super nice homes I looked at (not seriously, because my budget was lower, but just for the fun of looking) were in the 2K range.

I would advise doing a Google on a map of zipcodes and familiarizing yourself with a few that interest you, and then hit up Rentals.com and check by zipcode, #of bedrooms, etc. There are other sites like padmapper.com and ppar.com but for rentals, that site did right by me. You can also look at Hotpads, and I do like the format of that site but beware that any listing you are interested in there needs to be tracked back to its original source and researched independently. Because some of the ones there are outdated, and it pulls from a number of other sites' listings.

Excellent plan to rent for a year. It's the best way to do it.

Other considerations:

Do your kids have any special school needs? I don't just mean "special needs" but like even programs...my son needed Orchestra in middle school, not all districts do that.

Proximity and commute to place of employment. North/south commutes tend to be easier than east/west ones here.

Geography...the north and west will be subject to possibly more snow, definitely more hilly when it does snow...will you be comfortable driving in those conditions? Lots of people love to be up against the mountains. Home sweet home for me was the plains. We have all of the above and quality schools can be found in either.

As for neighborhoods, are you OK with a nice house in a suburb setting? Smallish yards, neighborhood amenities? Do you want land? Trees? Those things will influence your pick.

This forum is an awesome place to gather info, folks here will be happy to answer any question and help you out. Best wishes!

[Jcelmer]

ppar.com and militarybyowner.com are good for rentals. Sonic is right, your budget is extremely healthy.

[otowi]

You can get a great home in a great neighborhood for far less than 3k/month in this city. You could put that money instead into charity, savings, travel, etc.

[Sonic_Spork]

Originally Posted by otowi

You can get a great home in a great neighborhood for far less than 3k/month in this city. You could put that money instead into charity, savings, travel, etc.

Or, if you want and expect to buy a home in the future, the savings can go towards that. I think nowadays if you don't get a VA loan, most mortgages do require a significant down payment, yeah?

But regardless you can certainly find a lovely home for much less than 3K.

[Terytee]

As echoed by previous posters, you can easily rent a single family home, (3bdrooms, 2bath, 2 car garage), for $1200-1500 per month - of course that all varies on the neighborhood, the home, and the landlord.

[Bamagem]

Colorado Springs Rental Properties - Official MLS Listings - PPAR.com

Is another option for searching rentals. Good luck!