Big Family Looking to Make a Big Move (Denver, Colorado Springs: insurance, house)

[gmm_24]

Well Silver your name is generic and you did not indicate a sex, so I figured you to be female since I am lol.

What is the coldest it gets in Iowa?
You average 16" of snow a year?
What about snow drifts?
Snow drifts are something I hate here, it can snow a foot or two and the wind turns it into 5 or 6 feet in some areas which has caused us to get stuck in our own driveway
but I live in the country and my driveway is a quarter mile long. Not possible to shovel that.

I have a friend who lives in ID, they like it there. I think you should avoid the mountains, probably like here they get more snow.
He says the weather is pretty good there. I know they have been warmer then us at times, he said they do not get that much snow in his area.

Also check the square feet of the houses, all the ones Mike had found on that site were tiny about 1600-1800 square feet, only two were 2000+. I had 2 relatives live in our basement for a year 1600 sq feet with 6 people can feel like a sardine can!

I hope you can find a place you all like, once you narrow your area maybe one of you can fly out and look around instead of driving a far distance. I did before we moved out here.

[TravelingSilvers]

Thanks for reply. And no worries on the assumption.
Well we Average 17" of snow a year. It was below 0 a few days last week and will be like that a few days this week.
Snow drifts can get pretty high, but not terribly. Plus we live in the smack dab middle of the city.
We live in a small house now. All of our bedrooms are small and none of them have closets. Actually there's only 2 actually closets in the entire house.
We are definitely looking for something nice sized. Bigger is better, until it becomes too costly.
Yeah we noticed on the East side of ID they get quite a bit of snow. So we're looking more West to SW.

[delta07]

Originally Posted by TravelingSilvers

Thanks for the replies all.
I've checked out Bend. Looks nice, but gets more snow than we do now and we want to get away from that. Stats say it gets avg. of 32.5"/year that's twice what we get now almost.

As for Arizona. That's too hot for my liking and honestly don't want to move anywhere with rattlesnakes and scorpions. We're an outdoorsy family and that's just not something I want to worry about. Even though we have copperheads and timber rattlers here.
Plus was down in Texas last year and our Aunt said she had to kill about 4-5 scorpions in her house the year before, lol, forget that.

We're actually looking in the Boise Area. Looks like a very nice City. The foothills may not be Mountains, but they look like it to an Iowan, lol. Also way less crime there than where we are now. Houses seem cheap and really nice compared to what's around here.
They get alittle more snow there than here, but Jan. avg. low temps are warmer than here.

But We're still looking. I still would like to find someplace in OR or WA that doesn't get ALOT of snow or ALOT of rain.

I'm not sure where you are getting your snow information from, but it's definitely not true! Bend does get snow, but definitely not 32" in an average year, especially not at any one time. When you look at the City-Data.com statistics, Denver actually gets more snow that Bend. Now the Cascade Mountains, which are just to the west of Bend get a ton of snow, but in town, especially out a little further east (where homes are affordable), we don't get much at one time. I've experienced my worst blizzard conditions living in the Front Range and mountain towns of Colorado. I'm definitely not here to sell Bend, because it's a hard place to live, especially if you need to rely at all on the local economy for a job. However, that statistic is very misleading.

Trying to find a place in Oregon that doesn't get a lot of snow or a lot of rain in the winter is going to be tough. West of the Cascades you get rain and lots of overcast, gloomy skies. East of the Cascades you get more sun but you also get snow. It's not a ton at any one time, and certainly nothing like midwest winters (my husband grew up on Lake Erie). But Colorado, still has better weather, IMO, especially if you want some snow and lots of sun!

[Dewmik]

Google Castle Rock. If your intrested I know of a great house close to down town that will fit your needs.

[TravelingSilvers]

Yeah Delta, the stats I was looking at are different than city-data's.
I was using "bestplaces" to find out my information. I used that because it seemed accurate for my town, so I assumed the other towns data should be correct.
I actually have a few houses in Bend bookmarked that I am still looking at.

As for Castle Rock; I hope you're talking about the one in Colorado. It's still too cold there, City-data states they get a good bit of snow still in March-April. And the lows in Jan. are a tad colder than here.
So as beautiful as CO is and I would love to move there, it's just a bit to cold still for the parents.

Thank you much for the replies. Any and all information is very much appreciated.

[delta07]

Originally Posted by TravelingSilvers

Yeah Delta, the stats I was looking at are different than city-data's.
I was using "bestplaces" to find out my information. I used that because it seemed accurate for my town, so I assumed the other towns data should be correct.
I actually have a few houses in Bend bookmarked that I am still looking at.

As for Castle Rock; I hope you're talking about the one in Colorado. It's still too cold there, City-data states they get a good bit of snow still in March-April. And the lows in Jan. are a tad colder than here.
So as beautiful as CO is and I would love to move there, it's just a bit to cold still for the parents.

Thank you much for the replies. Any and all information is very much appreciated.

You might want to post this question on the OR and WA forums then to get useful information. It sounds like you are leaning against CO due to the snow. If that's the case, Central Oregon probably isn't for you either.

[TravelingSilvers]

Yeah looks like I better head over to the ID, OR, forums.
Maybe after the parents are taken care for we'll move down to CO. I don't mind the cold and love the snow, but the parents old bones don't, lol. Even though the places I'm still looking aren't all that warm.
Thanks for the help all.

[delta07]

Originally Posted by TravelingSilvers

Yeah looks like I better head over to the ID, OR, forums.
Maybe after the parents are taken care for we'll move down to CO. I don't mind the cold and love the snow, but the parents old bones don't, lol. Even though the places I'm still looking aren't all that warm.
Thanks for the help all.

Just something to consider... the cold in Colorado, IMO, is vastly different from the cold in the Midwest. The dry climate and sunny skies really don't give you that bone chilling cold until it gets down to a certain temperature. Granted, I would never call Colorado warm in the winter, but I've spent time in Washington and Oregon (western side of Cascades) in the winter and with the constant dampness, overcast and drizzly skies, 50 degrees in that climate feels bone chilling cold to me! I would much prefer 6 inches of snow and sunny skies, which is why we live in Bend and not Portland or anywhere else west of the Cascades. The snow in Colorado and Idaho is way drier than the snow you get in Iowa.

If you are looking for a place that your retired parents can live comfortably in all seasons, you should probably consider the Southwest, California, or the Southeast. OR, WA, and ID are definitely not warmer than CO.

[CosmicWizard]

delta07 wrote:

Just something to consider... the cold in Colorado, IMO, is vastly different from the cold in the Midwest. The dry climate and sunny skies really don't give you that bone chilling cold until it gets down to a certain temperature. Granted, I would never call Colorado warm in the winter, but I've spent time in Washington and Oregon (western side of Cascades) in the winter and with the constant dampness, overcast and drizzly skies, 50 degrees in that climate feels bone chilling cold to me! I would much prefer 6 inches of snow and sunny skies, which is why we live in Bend and not Portland or anywhere else west of the Cascades. The snow in Colorado and Idaho is way drier than the snow you get in Iowa.

Your statement lends support to Mark Twains assertion that...The coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco. Even though the coastal and the Williamette valley temperatures tend to be warmer than the inland areas to the east, there is a persisitent greyness and dampness that makes the temps FEEL much colder. I recall spending a week in Eugene in the late 70s during the month of January. Even though the temp was 20-25 degrees warmer than Nelson - BC were I was living at the time...I nearly froze my butt off. I was not accustomed to feeling the bone chilling effect of the dampness.

[TravelingSilvers]

Cool thanks for that's tip.
I posted this same post (almost) in the Boise forum and got almost ALL, negative replies pretty much telling me we can't afford to live there. Bunch of Stuck up people I guess over there.
Makes me want to start looking in CO again.