stuckinnj (Denver, Colorado Springs, Aurora: best cities, sales, apartment)

[stuckinnj]

My husband and I are seriously thinking about moving to CO. We have lived in NJ most of our life and are getting fed up with the high cost of living here and the lack of quality of life. I have heard great things about CO and really want to make the move. I don't know enough about CO to know where the best places are to live. We also have a 3 yr old daughter and want to move to an area with the best school district. Based on my research I have found that district 20 is the best which would be in Colorado Springs. My questions are the following:

1. Where/What are the BEST school districts in CO and what cities would they be in?

2. I prefer being as close to Denver as possible - so what are the best towns to live in that are a suburb of Denver. Again which one of these places has the best schools?

3. One consideration is moving to Colorado Springs based on the great school district. How is it living there? Is there a lot to do? Is it more of a town with younger people (and by that I mean in the mid 30's) or is it a diverse age group?

4. Just how cold does it get in the winter and how hot does it get in the summer. I heard the humidity is less in CO - is that true?

5. What are the most affluent areas to live in?

6. Does anyone know of apartmental/townhouse rentals that would consider tenants with less than stellar credit?

7. People keep saying the quality of life is so much better in Denver/Co. How so specifically?

8. We are in our mid thirties with a child - based on demographics what are the best cities to live in. People keep mentioning Denver Metro area - but what cities specifically near Denver are great to live in and why?

Thanks in advance

stuckinnj

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by stuckinnj

My husband and I are seriously thinking about moving to CO. We have lived in NJ most of our life and are getting fed up with the high cost of living here and the lack of quality of life. I have heard great things about CO and really want to make the move. I don't know enough about CO to know where the best places are to live. We also have a 3 yr old daughter and want to move to an area with the best school district. Based on my research I have found that district 20 is the best which would be in Colorado Springs. My questions are the following:

1. Where/What are the BEST school districts in CO and what cities would they be in?
A: Several in COLO SPGS, and quite a few in Denver metro area, which includes quite a few cities in that region.

2. I prefer being as close to Denver as possible - so what are the best towns to live in that are a suburb of Denver. Again which one of these places has the best schools?
A: As I recall from reading thousands of threads here over the past 5 years: Jefferson County, Douglas County, Cherry Creek School District, Boulder Valley district, St Vrain district, Louisville area, S. E. Aurora area, Highlands Ranch and Littleton areas, etc.

3. One consideration is moving to Colorado Springs based on the great school district. How is it living there? Is there a lot to do? Is it more of a town with younger people (and by that I mean in the mid 30's) or is it a diverse age group?
A: A heavy military presence; a fair number of things to do but nothing like the Denver area; diversity of ages; fair number of military retirees who are here for the weather and be near the USAF Academy or Fort Carson; votes consistently conservative; all in all a good place and a tad cheaper than Denver.

4. Just how cold does it get in the winter and how hot does it get in the summer. I heard the humidity is less in CO - is that true?
A: We have low humidity most of the year, making it feel very comfortable at temperatures which would cause you feel chilled to the bone back east. Front Range cities get into the upper 80's and low 90's, but nothing like Phoenix in the summer with it's 105F bakery for months. Millions like here, it's really okay, don't sweat the weather. We've had a lot less snow this winter than DC, NYC, etc. The big snow is up IN the mountains, Vail, Aspen, Steamboat, Gunnison, Telluride, etc.

5. What are the most affluent areas to live in?
A: Cherry Creek, but there are others almost as ritzy. The foothills can get a bit pricey too, as can Boulder due to it's zoning rules.

6. Does anyone know of apartment/townhouse rentals that would consider tenants with less than stellar credit?
A: Not by area of expertise.

7. People keep saying the quality of life is so much better in Denver/Co. How so specifically?
A. Year round outdoor sports. All five pro sports. Lots of museums, live music, shows, festivals, culture, dry weather, light rail system, healthy and well educated populace, no rough areas like Newark, or other old east coast cities with major ghetto's.

8. We are in our mid thirties with a child - based on demographics what are the best cities to live in. People keep mentioning Denver Metro area - but what cities specifically near Denver are great to live in and why?
A: S. E. Aurora, Highlands Ranch, Littleton, Golden, Boulder, Louisville, and quite a few more. There are threads on all of them in the Denver and/or Boulder forums.

Thanks in advance

stuckinnj

I'll put the "short story" for each question, above, in red.

Tell us more about yourself, especially your price range, whether renting or buying; job prospects, etc. The more you tell us the better chance that our regulars can help you.

[davidv]

School districts in Colorado are radically different than their eastern counterparts. In places like NJ, school districts tend to be pretty small and encompass only a single township. Colorado's districts were reorganized and consolidated in the 1950s, so the districts are much larger and, in many cases, encompass an entire county.

There are a few districts that many people would consider to be excellent from top to bottom. You mentioned Dist. 20 in Colo Spgs, but Cherry Creek Schools, Douglas County Schools, and Littleton Public Schools all in southern metro Denver fit the bill, as does Boulder Valley Schools in the Northwest part of the metro area.

Other districts like Jefferson County Schools and Adams County Dist. 12 have excellent schools in some areas and some below average to poor schools in others. It depends on where in the district you live. Even the districts which many people consider to be below average (like Denver Public Schools) have a few excellent schools.

Additionally, Colorado has an open enrollment law which allows any student to apply to and attend schools in other districts for free on a space available basis. The policies for attending an out of area school vary by district.

One of the best ways to get a feel for your child's education is to look at the quality of the high school. Excellent high schools are generally the result of the excellent middle schools and elementary schools that feed into the high school.

Some of the best high schools in the Denver metro area are:
Cherry Creek HS, Cherokee Trail HS, and Grandview HS (Cherry Creek Schools), D'Evelyn HS (Jeffco-Magnet), Dakota Ridge HS and Ralston Valley HS (Jeffco), Fairview HS and Boulder HS (Boulder), Arapahoe HS and Heritage HS (Littleton), ThunderRidge HS and Rock Canyon HS (Douglas), Denver School of Science and Technology and Denver School of the Arts (Denver-Magnet). These schools are considered excellent by most people. There are several very good high schools just below these as well.

[Mike from back east]

I hear ya David, but it doesn't seem uniform across the state of COLO. Back in Fairfax County, VA, we had one district for a county of 1M people; here in El Paso County, CO, we have 20+ active districts to serve 600K people.

I've a 2007 list of FIFTY school districts in El Paso County, though I'm told many have since consolidated. If someone has a definitive answer on that please update us. Still, there are a number of excellent school districts in the area of COLO SPGS and El Paso County, CO.

[gmm_24]

4. Just how cold does it get in the winter and how hot does it get in the summer. I heard the humidity is less in CO - is that true?

It can be in the negatives here and get very cold. We can have snow in March and April, Sept and Oct. Keeps life interesting. You can leave the house with no jacket and later it can drop 20 degrees and you are sorry you forgot to bring one.
In the Summer it can be in the 90's and being a mile closer to the sun it can be brutal. Yes we have less humidty so shade is cooler.


7. People keep saying the quality of life is so much better in Denver/Co. How so specifically?

It depends on each person and what they like to do. It is a slower pace here, people are friendlier, but there are less things to do here then on the East Coast due to being landlocked. There you can get in the car and in a couple of hours be in another state doing something different, here you do things here because daytrips happen in the state.

You do not seem to know much about here, so I strongly suggest you visit. Most of the people I have met here who complain about it, are from the East Coast. My mom was one of them. It is very different from what you are use to in the terms of convienence, trees, ocean, weather and etc.
This state is quite brown a good portion of the year, fairly flat, big open spaces of nothing away from the cities. This can be a bit of a shock for people coming from either coast. It was for me when I got off the plane at DIA

The Springs is an hour to 90 mins South of Denver depending on traffic.

Cost of living is cheaper here but we do have things that cost more, sales tax, car plates and etc. Plus we pump our own gas

I was born and raised in NY so I will say again...... visit here first. Also make sure at least one of you has a job. Like everywhere else our economy is not the greatest right now. So the job market is a bit tougher for everyone.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by gmm_24

You do not seem to know much about here, so I strongly suggest you visit. Most of the people I have met here who complain about it, are from the East Coast.

I've always wondered why one would think of moving somewhere if one's never been there at least several times and gotten to know it quite well. However, I guess our forefathers did it all the time.

[gmm_24]

Ahh but our forefathers could not jump on a plane, rent a car and get the lay of the land. They had to pack up their wagons and go for weeks to get to a new area, then they could just stake their claim on a piece of land, not worry about paying taxes, having a job and etc. Try that now and you are a squatter


Stuckinnj the weather for my area tomorrow High of 18, Low of -10 they say it is going to snow.
Tues High of -4 and Low of -18, yippee I can't wait, lol.