I'm not sure COS is for this New Englander - help me out. (Denver: new home, neighborhoods)

[JViello]

First off yes, I've searched and read till my eyes fell out and can't get a clear answer on some things.

I've been looking into COS as a possible relocation place.

I'm a native New Englander (CT) who's lived elsewhere in the nation for about 7 years and moved back.

I'm one of those "mindless lemming" evangelical Christians that seem to be so hated on this forum.

I also run a small service business that I would be relocating out there.

What I'm interested in finding is a place with conservative values (And I don't mean in the "Dancing is for the devil" way.) that I can raise my family and actually afford to have my wife stay at home.

I love the mountains, love the outdoors (Am always out and about in New England) and I love the Ocean. (Yea I know, no ocean.) And I'm not a big fan of humidity, but I do like "greenery" and not straight up desert too.

I'm a foodie, and love heading out to a new Indian or Thai place or getting deep into a plate at a family Mexican restaurant.

Here are my concerns and what's making me hesitate about COS in order of importance.

1. (the big one) The houses are simply ON TOP OF EACH OTHER. My goodness, you can reach out of your window and smack your neighbors wife on the rear in her own living room! .07 acres is smaller than my parking area where I am now! Here in New England we generally put our houses on 1-2 acre plots and even in the more dense cities, .25-.5 acres is common.

I love my land. I understand you have prairie land out East, but I don't want to drive 30 minute or live in rural nowhereville.

Are there neighborhoods in the 200-250K range that have lots on average .25 acre and larger? (.25 would be the BARE MINIMUM for me)

I don't understand why in an area of "openness" and wilderness you build your homes 3 feet apart.

2. Congestion. I'm in the Hartford CT metro and traffic is pretty much not an issue. Interstates abound and I can get wherever I want easy and efficiently. After living in Charlotte and Orlando, I simply do NOT want to go back to endless 4 land blvd's with a traffic light every 300 feet and two lane interstates that are parking lots.

What's the story on traffic there from someone who has experience Charlotte, Atlanta, or Orlando, Tampa type traffic?

I want to make sure I'm not getting a "bad traffic in COS" perspective from someone that used to live in a map dot.

3. Food culture. Living outside of my area over 10 years ago, I was stuck with the lack of Food diversity in the local stores. (Food Lion was the worst!)

Times have changed so I would like to know if you can now find things like below at your local grocery store.

I can go to my local grocery store and find all kinds of cheese sitting in the deli section. For instance, fresh grated parmesan cheese is all we ever have in the house. That sawdust you get in a can will never ever ever do for me. I also have my choices of meats such as sopressata, mortadella, chorizo or real Polish kielbasa (not made by some giant Kraft type factory) etc etc.

What about exotic vegetable and such like tomatillo's and yucca or plantains? For instance, on a whim I wanted to make some Tomatillo cocktail sauce for some fresh boiled shrimp so I just went on down to the local market and they had them.

I know I can import these things but it's just so much easier to walk into the grocery store and get it. Do you have "ethnic" sections in the grocery stores with Italian, Indian, Asian, Spanish foods like we do in all of our supermarket here?

What about restaurants? Do you have mom and pop ethnic places that serve Indian, West Indian, Italian, Irish, Brazilian etc? I suppose I wouldn't be against an hour drive to Denver if I wanted some of these things but it would be nice if COS had them too.

Oh and Denver is NOT in my radar. I don't want to live in a city that big.

Thanks in advance for your answers.

P.S. Most of the pictures in the sticky post at the top of this forum are deleted. It's a bit frustrating.

[reginhild]

1. Yes, most of the older homes will be on lots of .25 acre or larger. Homes from the late '90s and early 2000's will also often have .25 acre lots. More and more new construction that is near to town will only have .125 acre lots. You have to go out of town just a bit to get .50 acre lots with new construction now unless you are wanting to spend $500,000+. A good thing is there are lots of parks and open space in Colorado Springs. You can find lots of houses that back up to these areas giving you multi-acre play space. You might also want to look up Hwy 24 in Cascade and Green Mountain Falls for some .25 to .5 acre homesites with trees on the sides of the mountains. In the end, you will be more limited to .125 acre lots only if you are looking to build a new home and want to be in a high demand area like Briargate.

2. Traffic is light here compared to every other city of similar or larger size I have lived or visited. There are lots of roads throughout Colorado Springs that have 3 lanes going each way and generally not much traffic.

3. Supermarkets and specialty food stores abound. You can find a large variety here. We have places like Whole Foods, Spanish Markets, German Deli's, along with the usual multitude of big name supermarkets. There are also places to get game meats in the area.

Restaurants are a mix here. There are the upper end chain restaurants in Colorado Springs like the Melting Pot to middle end chains like Texas Road House to the ubiquitous places like Chili's. We also have some of the more unique chains (or more regional) like Chilpotle Grill, L&L Hawiann BBQ, Rhumby's Island Grill, African Bar & Grill, etc... We also have our unique local places mostly centered around Downtown and Manitou Springs. We have Indian, Thai, Italian, Mexican, German, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Phillipean, Irish, and possible others - Not sure if we have a Brazilian place.

[katzenfreund]

Just a note, I checked the photos in the sticky thread, the ones that were posted under "photographs - misc pics of CS" all seem to show up for me, except one, that I deleted.

[JViello]

Originally Posted by reginhild

1. Yes, most of the older homes will be on lots of .25 acre or larger. Homes from the late '90s and early 2000's will also often have .25 acre lots. More and more new construction that is near to town will only have .125 acre lots. You have to go out of town just a bit to get .50 acre lots with new construction now unless you are wanting to spend $500,000+. A good thing is there are lots of parks and open space in Colorado Springs. You can find lots of houses that back up to these areas giving you multi-acre play space. You might also want to look up Hwy 24 in Cascade and Green Mountain Falls for some .25 to .5 acre homesites with trees on the sides of the mountains. In the end, you will be more limited to .125 acre lots only if you are looking to build a new home and want to be in a high demand area like Briargate.

2. Traffic is light here compared to every other city of similar or larger size I have lived or visited. There are lots of roads throughout Colorado Springs that have 3 lanes going each way and generally not much traffic.

3. Supermarkets and specialty food stores abound. You can find a large variety here. We have places like Whole Foods, Spanish Markets, German Deli's, along with the usual multitude of big name supermarkets. There are also places to get game meats in the area.

Restaurants are a mix here. There are the upper end chain restaurants in Colorado Springs like the Melting Pot to middle end chains like Texas Road House to the ubiquitous places like Chili's. We also have some of the more unique chains (or more regional) like Chilpotle Grill, L&L Hawiann BBQ, Rhumby's Island Grill, African Bar & Grill, etc... We also have our unique local places mostly centered around Downtown and Manitou Springs. We have Indian, Thai, Italian, Mexican, German, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Phillipean, Irish, and possible others - Not sure if we have a Brazilian place.

That is all wonderful to hear. Thank you very much.

1 . I'm not looking for a new home or newer construction. Being from New England, old is as normal as new and it's all mixed together.

I have to say I've been doing searches on "that realtor site" and when I put .5 acre and better it narrows down to like 3 results inside a 5-10 mile radius of the city. Not sure what I'm missing.

We really don't do subdivisions here in New England like the rest of the country, and that leads me to another question.

I notice in other parts of the country that onces a subdivision starts getting "old" it becomes the "less desirable" place and folks tend to sell and "upgrade" to the latest "in" place.

It becomes a "oh, you live there" kind of thing. I don't want the stigma of living in "that place" just because it's older and I wanted more land.

2. That's what I figured really, glad to hear it. I don't mind blvds, so long as it's not like some of the places in Charlotte where there is a light every 300 feet and a median so you can't cross the road etc and it's just stop and go, stop and go...20 minutes later you traveled a few miles at best.

3. Good to hear about the specialty foods. Like I said, it's not the end of the world if I have to ship something in, but it's nice to know it's there.

Based on your reply, it sounds like I might have to come out and take a look - I'm just being cautious before pulling the trigger on a trip as it's not cheap and I already wasted a couple thousand wasting my time in Greenville SC after some disengenous and misleading posts about what I would find there.

Originally Posted by katzenfreund

Just a note, I checked the photos in the sticky thread, the ones that were posted under "photographs - misc pics of CS" all seem to show up for me, except one, that I deleted.

Here is another:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/color...ity-photo.html

It seems the pics from Averie-Jay are the ones missing photos, and it seems he contributed a lot of photos!

[reginhild]

Within the city, search for .25 acre and up and you should find quite a bit more. I recommend a .25 acre lot that backs up to open space or a park over a .5 acre lot in the city.

I rented when I first arrived with a fairly large lot - maybe about .4 acre - with lots of Bluegrass. The backyard was larger than the front and nice but... water bill was high in the Summer and I still had other backyards surrounding my backyard. Now, I have a .16 acre lot that has a three rail fence in the back that connects to a multi-acre park - much nicer views, less $$ maintenance, less water, and more area to play.

There are some great homes around that back up to trails, ridges, cliffs, parks, green space, etc... all throughout Colorado Springs. You might want to look in areas that back up to the Garden of the Gods for something truly unique.

For larger than .5 acre lots in the city limits, there are areas around Woodman Road with large lots before the city expanded there. You might also find some in the NW area up against the mountains - you will still find more in the .25-.5 acre range but many have backyards that are open to the trails and trees with no homes between their yards and the mountains.

Look for unobstructed views in your search and you will likely find some nicer places for having less crowding by neighbor houses.

Good article on buying Victorian homes in Colorado Springs: http://activerain.com/blogsview/7006...Victorian-home

If you are in the higher end price range, there are also very nice places in Broadmoor.

[reginhild]

Here are some Pikes Peak area MLS listings with pictures that give you an idea of having open space near your house:

http://idx.ppmls.marketlinx.com/temp...&MlsNum=515062

http://idx.ppmls.marketlinx.com/temp...&MlsNum=486742

http://idx.ppmls.marketlinx.com/temp...&MlsNum=476245

http://idx.ppmls.marketlinx.com/temp...&MlsNum=504689

Listings from this local MLS: http://www.ppar.com/public/propertiesppmls.asp
Map of realestate area codes around Colorado Springs: http://www.pikespeakrsc.com/ElpasoPPMLSareas.pdf
Note: if searching Colorado Springs city you are likely only searching these areas S/W, OCC, CEN, S/E, PWR, EAS, WES, N/E, BRI, and N/W

[gimme it]

do you get more land for your money in northgate and northwest compared to briargate?

[reginhild]

Originally Posted by gimme it

do you get more land for your money in northgate and northwest compared to briargate?

D20 areas of Northwest will likely be just as high or higher than Briargate. You just about can't buy any empty lots in D20 anymore - almost all have been bought by developers.

[JViello]

Originally Posted by reginhild

Here are some Pikes Peak area MLS listings with pictures that give you an idea of having open space near your house:

Property Media

Property Media

Property Media

Property Media

Listings from this local MLS: Property Search
Map of realestate area codes around Colorado Springs: http://www.pikespeakrsc.com/ElpasoPPMLSareas.pdf
Note: if searching Colorado Springs city you are likely only searching these areas S/W, OCC, CEN, S/E, PWR, EAS, WES, N/E, BRI, and N/W

Well, that explains a lot.

The listings you posted were 320K-365K. There was one for 275K and it was 3 feet off the neighbors house.

I was searching homes 250K and less. Most in that price range are on postage stamp lots. Even some of the ones you posted had very very small backyards I.E. 476245

For 350K, I would stay where I am. The whole idea of coming out West would be to lower the cost of living while trading current nice things for different nice things.

To give you an idea where I am coming from, right now I'm on a 1000 foot "ridge" overlooking the CT River Valley and DT Hartford on two acres in an older home with about 2200sf livable space. My home is only worth about 275K here. I COULD afford 350K there because of lower property taxes (I'm paying about $5800 per year now.) but that would mean putting my wife to work and that's what we are trying to eliminate.

Where I live the view is similar to this:



This is my back yard when I first purchased the home and was clearing land. It now is graded and goes clear past that shed with another 150' or so and to the left about another 75 feet. (yea that's my crazy Maine Coon cat in the wheel barrow. )



This is the property outline and neighborhood when I first purchased about 7 years ago as well:



So that's what I'm looking for. Space to not feel closed in. Somewhere the dog can run around, my kids can play football in the backyard, we can light fireworks for our 4th of July parties, have a fire pit etc etc.

This is in a small city of 50K 10 miles from DT Hartford (I'm in DT Hartford literally in 15 minutes) so I'm not out in the boon docks. I would like to stay that way if possible.

Maybe it's not possible outside of New England?

Decisions decisions.

Maybe I just need to start working Saturday and 12 instead of 10 hour days in my business here. But then family life goes bye bye.

I appreciate the help, and perhaps that gives you a more clear picture of where I'm coming from and looking for.

Best,

Jay

[redsoxgurl]

I also from New England (lived in MA and my dad lived in CT) and I am going to give you my take on things. I think you can find what you are looking for but not IN colorado springs. You would really have to look at the suburbs of colorado springs (if that is what they are called) like widefield and divide (I've only lived here 6 months so unsure of other areas) I personally find a lot of connection to woodland park and cascade, there is tons of land there and trees.

The traffic is nothing next to charlotte except that you do have a mixture of drivers here so you may think they are crazier in that sense. The first week I was here I said to my friend, I would take boston driving any day over this. That being said, once you get used to it, it really isn't bad. The grocery store is way more expensive here because they have to fly in the food. You can find anything you could ever dream of wanting at whole foods but it's still more expensive. I recommend the farmers markets for anything fresh. Utilities are less expensive here as well.
Hope this helps a little!