Moving back to the Front Range after living in small towns & cities for the past 17 years

[vegaspilgrim]

Have you ever considered moving to Reno? It's about a half day's drive south of Bend. Population of the greater Reno/Sparks metro area is approx 300k. I lived there for less than a year. The unemployment rate there is dismal, but if you do have good jobs there it sounds like you and husband would enjoy it a lot. Reno has all the suburban creature comforts & amenities you would expect, and due to the casinos/tourism industry it offers a little taste of some things you'd only expect much bigger cities to have. Extremely easy and convenient to get around town, traffic is a joke compared to Denver. Home prices (due to depressed housing market) are much cheaper than the front range, and there's no state income tax. Outdoors recreation in the Sierras is much more convenient to Reno than in the front range blob. Where I lived, in a new subdivision in south Reno, I was literally 23 minutes parking space-to-parking space from my house to Mt Rose ski area, which is a great locals area similar to Loveland. Approx 40 minutes door to door to the north shore of Lake Tahoe. I'm not moving back there any time soon, as Reno sucks for young singles, but it's great for middle aged married couples.

[delta07]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

Longmont / Niwot and now Louisville are all part of the North Denver Blob

From your previous experience and desires (be closer to DownHill,,, and... if you still think you could live on the front range of CO...THAT would be VERY tough for me), I would look to western perimeter of Colo Springs.

I Recently was there(CS), and found it's access to skiiing much improved over coming from Ft Collins / Loveland. (my previous home of 25+ yrs).

The increased population in the suburbs of both Denver (and points north) and CS are pretty staggering.

I just talked with a person visiting WA, who had retired from AZ and moved to Nunn, CO

"Watch Nunn Grow"... is finally coming to fruition (about 40 -50 yrs late). You can guess how badly crowed the North Front Range is, for people to move from out of state to Nunn. (of course it is like paradise compared to some of AZ, but.... )

I have to admit, I had to look up Nunn as I've never heard of it (even living 5 years in Fort Collins)! I'm definitely afraid of the suburban blob. Not sure about Colorado Springs though. I spent some time there in high school and I never liked it. Of course, I'm older now and things have changed so it's worth looking at again. I do like the area west of the Springs.

Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim

Have you ever considered moving to Reno? It's about a half day's drive south of Bend. Population of the greater Reno/Sparks metro area is approx 300k. I lived there for less than a year. The unemployment rate there is dismal, but if you do have good jobs there it sounds like you and husband would enjoy it a lot. Reno has all the suburban creature comforts & amenities you would expect, and due to the casinos/tourism industry it offers a little taste of some things you'd only expect much bigger cities to have. Extremely easy and convenient to get around town, traffic is a joke compared to Denver. Home prices (due to depressed housing market) are much cheaper than the front range, and there's no state income tax. Outdoors recreation in the Sierras is much more convenient to Reno than in the front range blob. Where I lived, in a new subdivision in south Reno, I was literally 23 minutes parking space-to-parking space from my house to Mt Rose ski area, which is a great locals area similar to Loveland. Approx 40 minutes door to door to the north shore of Lake Tahoe. I'm not moving back there any time soon, as Reno sucks for young singles, but it's great for middle aged married couples.

Middle aged couple, lol, never thought I was middle aged yet! We are a very young 35. All that aside though, we actually considered Reno before deciding on Bend. I've been there a few times and I have a few friends from the Reno area. I do love Tahoe and the Sierra's but just not sure it's entirely what we are looking for. It's still too far from family for us. That's one of our biggest problems with Bend. I think if we ever move back to a city, it will have to be the Denver area.