Please help?!?! Moving/Housing Advice (Denver, Colorado Springs: for sale, rent, buying a house)

[sweetdecember82]

My husband and I are wanting to relocate to Colorado. The only problem is the housing situation. We want a decent-sized house (1500 sq. ft. give or take) a little on the outskirts of a town. He wants to be able to have a shop so having at least an acre to 2 is a must. Maybe I"m asking too much, but I would like for him NOT to have to commute too far to another town to work. I'm not having any luck finding this type of house ANYWHERE. Am I just not looking in the right places? Also, as far as work goes, he is a mechanical engineer. What are the prospects?? Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks

[Josseppie]

This is to general. What kind of town do you want to live in the outskirts of?

[sweetdecember82]

I'm so desperate to get out of where I am now, I honestly can say anywhere! lol ......If I had to say, from the Denver/Boulder area up to Fort Collins and in between. I've even looked into Colorado Springs but can't find anything in my price range (not exceeding $300 and that's a STRETCH).

[jazzlover]

Same old advice I give for every "want to move to Colorado" post: DON'T DO IT UNLESS YOU HAVE A JOB IN HAND. PERIOD. If you are fortunate enough to secure employment (and, even for people like engineers, that is no sure thing in this economy, and probably not for a long time to come), THEN look for housing someplace close to your place of employment. Any other plan--especially moving first and just hoping for a job to be available--is fraught with peril that could you live you financially devastated--AND still without a job that would pay a living wage.

[proveick]

Rent for the first year, pretty standard advice. RP

[Cupcake77]

Originally Posted by sweetdecember82

My husband and I are wanting to relocate to Colorado. The only problem is the housing situation. We want a decent-sized house (1500 sq. ft. give or take) a little on the outskirts of a town. He wants to be able to have a shop so having at least an acre to 2 is a must. Maybe I"m asking too much, but I would like for him NOT to have to commute too far to another town to work. I'm not having any luck finding this type of house ANYWHERE. Am I just not looking in the right places? Also, as far as work goes, he is a mechanical engineer. What are the prospects?? Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks

My husbands step father is a mechanical engineer with many years of exp and has been unemployed for over 2 years now. He can't find a job here and thinking of moving to New Jersey now to work.

[lovelived]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Same old advice I give for every "want to move to Colorado" post: DON'T DO IT UNLESS YOU HAVE A JOB IN HAND. PERIOD. If you are fortunate enough to secure employment (and, even for people like engineers, that is no sure thing in this economy, and probably not for a long time to come), THEN look for housing someplace close to your place of employment. Any other plan--especially moving first and just hoping for a job to be available--is fraught with peril that could you live you financially devastated--AND still without a job that would pay a living wage.

Sound advice for someone who isn't:

1. Already unemployed
2. Facing a layoff
3. Has not already suffered a financial disaster (bankruptcy)
4. Suffering from a lack of support (i.e. no friends or family to help)

You advice is only common sense, but it lacks any gray areas. From the way you're telling it Colorado is nothing but a bottomless pit for the unemployed. An economic wasteland filled with with woe and despair. People sitting in gutters cursing the day they moved there.

I've read the Co Business Outlook 2011 Forecast from UC Leeds --> HERE (http://leeds.colorado.edu/Centers_of_Excellence/interior.aspx?id=1852&ekmensel=c580fa7b_128_222_bt nlink - broken link)
Things aren't as bleak as you're painting it. Not all industries in Colorado are suffering. People need to make educated decisions and not let fear cloud their judgment.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by lovelived

Sound advice for someone who isn't:

1. Already unemployed
2. Facing a layoff
3. Has not already suffered a financial disaster (bankruptcy)
4. Suffering from a lack of support (i.e. no friends or family to help)

You advice is only common sense, but it lacks any gray areas. From the way you're telling it Colorado is nothing but a bottomless pit for the unemployed. An economic wasteland filled with with woe and despair. People sitting in gutters cursing the day they moved there.

I've read the Co Business Outlook 2011 Forecast from UC Leeds --> HERE (http://leeds.colorado.edu/Centers_of_Excellence/interior.aspx?id=1852&ekmensel=c580fa7b_128_222_bt nlink - broken link)
Things aren't as bleak as you're painting it. Not all industries in Colorado are suffering. People need to make educated decisions and not let fear cloud their judgment.

Well, boots on the ground experience will often trump swarmy business outlooks. Yes, some people do find jobs, but it is very difficult now, and competition is fierce for the few jobs that are available. And there are plenty of qualified, but unemployed Colorado residents eager to snap up what jobs are available.

By the way, on a recent trip to Denver, I saw saw plenty of unemployed homeless in downtown Denver, begging for some money to get back to somewhere--anywhere--rather than be on the streets in Denver. Those people WERE sitting in the gutters, or riding the Mall Shuttle for no other reason than the bus had heat.

[sweetdecember82]

Thanks for the advice. I have no intention of buying a house until we rent first and we sure wouldn't move without first having a job. I just wanted to make sure there would be the type of house we're looking for somewhere for us eventually. I used to actually live in Louisville (literally 20 yrs. ago, before Superior was even a town) and it just seems that the houses (everywhere around there) are sandwiched in so close together, to the point you can hand shampoo out to your neighbor through the window! Surely there's got to be decent houses where you don't have to share your backyard with 3 neighbors. Would there happen to be anywhere I can look into online that sells log houses for sale? That's my dream house but I can't find any that aren't like 30 miles out of town and aren't $500.

Cupcake 77......Where if you don't mind me asking does your husband's step father live?

[CosmicWizard]

sweetdecember82 wrote:

it just seems that the houses (everywhere around there) are sandwiched in so close together, to the point you can hand shampoo out to your neighbor through the window!

In some neighborhoods, neighbors pass joints back and forth through the window instead of shampoo.