family moving from CA to CO....advice needed! (Denver, Lakewood: real estate, to rent)

[misstheseasons]

Hi everyone,

I'm in California now and we're planning to move to Colorado this year. Our work requires us to be near a big city, so short commute is important. I have a 3 month old and a 20 month old, so good schools and safety are also very important. Mountain views would be GREAT. Right now where I live houses are soooo close together s othere's no privacy, so big lots and/or privacy would be ideal. Our budget would be between 200,000 - 300,000, but my husband loves fixer-uppers, too.

It's most likely that we're going to rent first for like a year to get a feel of the cities around, etc., but any advice now is greatly appreciated because, well, Colorado is big, so we want to narrow it down (as far as where to rent and then ultimately buy a house).

Another quick question, is Colorado, like the city area, for example, diverse? I'm orginally from NJ and I love the diversity of the people. Hoping Colorado people are open minded and do have some diversity. I would like that to be an aspect in my kids' upbringing

thnx

[Mike from back east]

I think most of what you seek can be found in the Denver Metro Area (DMA), which is 3M+ people.

Denver is a finite core city of about 600K, with many contiguous incorporated "cities" all around it, commonly considered suburbs.

Better views are found west of the core city, same for your price range.

Most school districts in the DMA are excellent.

We always suggest renting 6-12 months before buying, as there is so much to see and choose from.

Yes, a bit diverse, politically moderate with the outer areas more conservative.

Lots to do in DMA, all five pro sports, tons of events and festivals.

If you tell us the job location we can help zero in on great 'hoods. Other info about your favored activities, hobbies, likes, will help us.

[wanneroo]

Colorado is "big", but the actual land area that 90% of the population lives in, is a small fraction of the total land mass. They are all clustered along the I-25 corridor and the largest blob is the Denver area which is fairly spread out for the total population.

Everyone usually has their favorite suburbs of Denver, but to me, most of them are the same with good and bad neighborhoods, schools and all the rest. Probably my least favorite part is extending from the NE quadrant of Denver out to the airport and everything in between and beyond a bit. It's more industrial focused of all of Denver. My own personal preference is the southern suburbs over the north.

Diversity? I would say there is less of that trendy stuff in Colorado than in the coastal cities. Mostly in Colorado you have your average American 2.3 kid suburban households in the burbs, polished gen xyers in the city, conservative farmers/ranchers/miners on the prairie, pseudo intellectual eco fair trade granola progressive socialists in The Peoples Republic of Boulder, ski bums/wealthy people/trustafarians in the mountains and illegal aliens here and there. That's your diversity in Colorado.

[misstheseasons]

hmm...ok, lots of info here...thanks, definitly good stuff to consider

What are good cities to the west of Denver that are family friendly and with some nice views? (I'll be working in Denver definitly)

Also, is there any lakes nearby?

[misstheseasons]

Saw reference to CO being "brown"....I understand that, 'cause of the terrain, etc....but does that mean that there's not greet at all? Grass, trees around Denver???? (wondering about parks)....

thanks again for the replies

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by misstheseasons

Saw reference to CO being "brown"....I understand that, 'cause of the terrain, etc....but does that mean that there's not greet at all? Grass, trees around Denver???? (wondering about parks)....

thanks again for the replies

What it means is that Colorado as a whole is arid, and even the lower elevation areas have relatively short growing seasons--140-160 days in most of the metro areas. In the lower elevations, the snow does not generally stay on the ground long, so from about mid-October to the end of April, the color is "brown."

Get this straight: The climate in Colorado is NOTHING, I repeat, nothing like California. Temperature patterns, precipitation patterns, winds, storms--everything is different.

The only thing that metropolitan Colorado shares with California is its embracing of suburbia, sprawl, traffic, and all of the crap that goes with it. In that sense, Colorado's metro areas are just a smaller version of metropolitan California, but doing their best to become like them in all of the bad ways.

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by misstheseasons

hmm...ok, lots of info here...thanks, definitly good stuff to consider

What are good cities to the west of Denver that are family friendly and with some nice views? (I'll be working in Denver definitly)

Also, is there any lakes nearby?

West of Denver is essentially a number of incorporated towns extending an urban sprawl to and into the foothills. Depending upon where you will be working in Denver, there are urban corridors that can allow you to live in the suburbs and commute reasonably in to Denver. Your budget will be a large factor as to the areas where you will find housing ... for example, you will not generally find SFH properties in the foothills in your range.

"Nice views"? not sure what you consider "nice". Keep in mind that Denver is on the plains, somewhat removed from the foothills and most certainly not in the mountains. You can get foothills locations where you have a view of the cityscape and the plains, or some locations with views of the foothills.

"Lakes"? Small lakes are in the Denver Parks, like Washington Park. Suitable for a small dinghy or canoe. Larger area lakes would be Cherry Creek or Chatfield ... with swim beaches, boating, fishing. Yet larger lakes would be irrigation res's out on the plains, or Lake Dillon an hour West in the mountains.

[naturegirll]

One of my neighbors moved to CO from CA almost a year ago.....she spent way to much money on a garden/trees ("adding some green to the yard") that never grew, and still is baffled that it takes her almost an hour to hard boil eggs....

Renting first is a great idea, once you get here and can look around you'll be glad you did it that way......

[livecontent]

You can easily find homes within your range of 200-300K in the western suburbs. Some will be older; many will be newer; some will be in good shape; some will require some fix up but there are many homes available. Do a search in the Real Estate Guides and you will see that good homes are available in that price range. You will find homes on larger lots in these older areas as older lots were more available in years past--I only mean perhaps back to the 1960s.

There are more reservoirs, lakes and creeks on the west side suburbs, as you can see from the maps. The land has more change in elevation as it approached the foothills with more areas of trees. All the westside suburbs are diverse; have more natives and long term residents; have good established neigbhborhoods. These areas are very convenient for commuting into Denver, especially downtown.

I would suggest you look at Wheat Ridge, Lakewood, Arvada, Golden. You will find these cities have many parks and open space that connect up to the vast natural resources of the foothills. In addition, they have good schools under Jefferson County.

Do not make the mistake and assuming that the only good suburbs are the newer ones to the south--that is wrong. All the suburbs have great places to live with good choices. In addition, do not assume that the City of Denver is not the best place to live; as Denver has many areas and neighborhoods that are some of the best places to live in the area, if not the best places to live in the area. In some areas of the country people move out of the cities and escape to the suburbs. In the Denver area, many people choose to live in the thriving, clean safe city of Denver.

Livecontent

[CO.Native.SW]

Originally Posted by wanneroo

Colorado is "big", but the actual land area that 90% of the population lives in, is a small fraction of the total land mass. They are all clustered along the I-25 corridor and the largest blob is the Denver area which is fairly spread out for the total population.

Everyone usually has their favorite suburbs of Denver, but to me, most of them are the same with good and bad neighborhoods, schools and all the rest. Probably my least favorite part is extending from the NE quadrant of Denver out to the airport and everything in between and beyond a bit. It's more industrial focused of all of Denver. My own personal preference is the southern suburbs over the north.

Diversity? I would say there is less of that trendy stuff in Colorado than in the coastal cities. Mostly in Colorado you have your average American 2.3 kid suburban households in the burbs, polished gen xyers in the city, conservative farmers/ranchers/miners on the prairie, pseudo intellectual eco fair trade granola progressive socialists in The Peoples Republic of Boulder, ski bums/wealthy people/trustafarians in the mountains and illegal aliens here and there. That's your diversity in Colorado.

Your "joke" about the diversity in CO is completely off base. Denver, which is the only really big city in CO has pretty good diversity, especially for a city in the southern Mountain West. The only city in the southern mountain states with a better diversity than Denver would probably be Vegas.

Denver and most all of colorado has large Latino American and immigrants populations. Denver has a pretty decent size of African Americans (about 10%) and most are in northeast denver, with some decent populations in southeast denver as well. Asian americans are a lot less. However, there are significant populations of Asian americans in the east westminster, twin lakes, southwest denver, south denver, and southeast denver areas. Also, Superior up near Boulder has a larger Asian population. So, the denver metro area is the main hub of diversity in CO, but its pretty diverse for a southern mountain west city.