Thinking about Castle Rock...Any Thoughts (Denver, Golden: for sale, hotel, houses)

[silverfox]

We are looking all around the State of Colorado and thought Castle Rock looked pretty good.

Would appreciate any help we can get on that area.

Especially home prices....Weather....Traffic

Thanks in advance,

Silverfox

[duster1979]

I got a haircut in Castle Rock once. It was a decent haircut.

[silverfox]

Duster,

Uh.......That wasn't on my punch list, but what the heck.....

A good haircut is getting hard to find.

Thanx.......Silverfox

[2bindenver]

It is a fine place to live. It is the county seat, has wide open spaces, only 40 minutes to the springs or denver, has outlet shops. More than a few golf courses.
average house is $250,000 for 3 bedroom, 2.5 baths, 2 car garage with a partial basement...could spend more than a million in Padera, Castle Pines or Plum Creek.

Douglas county schools are highly rated.

[rcnkat]

We live in Florida and are possibly looking to relocate in
Colorado?? how about Golden? any suggestions....
we have 2 small children and of course would like nice schools.
My husband wants acreage....no zero lot lines....
thanks for any help you may be able to give.....
Kat

[2bindenver]

there are some places that have zero lot lines, but not many. The fire departments like at least 16 feet between houses for firebreaks.

Acreage is available. Some even have public water & sewer

[rcnkat]

2bindenver
thanks for your input...on Golden....
any others out there know anything on Golden?
Kat

[Mike from back east]

Much info on Golden is already here. Best to find it using the "search" and get data now rather than wait for replies.

Use Search Forum tool to find it, use search term "golden" to turn-up all posts mentioning this town.

[rcnkat]

thanks mike..on Golden....

[Dan6200alt]

Old topic I know, but since I live in Castle Rock, thought I might add my 2 cents (thats 4 cents in Castle Rock, btw)

CR is a pretty decent place to live but it is not all all what most would think. First off, CR and the Denver Metro area is mainly high plains terrain with only a view of the mountains. So basically you have shrubs and brown fields, kinda hilly with an occasionally small forested area (Castle Pines). Definately not in the mountains and not even that close to them. Just like the clouds/grey gets to you in most of your area, the brown, dead look here in CR gets to me. When things do get green in Spring, it usually only lasts a month before everything dies due to droughts, watering retrictions.

NO real lakes or rivers nearby. The closest is an ugly resevoir and the closest nice lake is 2 or 3 hours (Grand Lake). There is some decent hiking/biking trails within a 45 min-hour drive, but skiing and really good hikes/rides gets into the mountains and is minimum 2 hours to get there and 5hours to get back on a weekend during ski season. WAY to many people, only one major highway. Not fun!! In fact, I used to live for skiing and hiking. I rarely go anymore because its just not worth it here. If I do, I get a hotel. This area is a mecca for skiing with all of our great ski towns (Aspen, Breckenridge, etc), and they are great, but for me at least its barely worth the hassle.

The weather is excellent if you like summer and winter. Summers are awesome and the sun never really goes away in winter. It will snow, sometimes a ton, then its sunny for 2 weeks. Pretty great, actually. Spring and fall come and pretty quick. Not much for fall colors. Aspen gold is the predominant color.

Castle Rock itself doesn't have much for culture (restaurants, etc), but just enough that you don't HAVE to go into Denver. But what is here gets old so I'd say most residents do go into Denver. I will say Denver, short of some major traffic, is a very livable, hip and culturally impressive city. Maybe not quite as much as Seattle (as I remember it), but still a good place to be near. Its about 30-45 minutes drive to downtown Denver. Maybe 25 minutes to the closest support area (Costco, big mall, restaurant areas, etc)

Its not as expensive as Seattle area, but certainly not cheap in CR or anywhere in Denver Metro. Look to spend 250K to 500K for a fairly nice, but nothing special home. Everyhing is basically suburban type homes, no old historic areas to speak of. You can get something for 180K, but not much. As of this date, however, it is definately a buyers market with a ton of houses for sale and staying on the market a while. There is a great trail sytem through many neighborhoods in CR and south Denver, so its a great place to run/walk. Altitute is between 6100 and about 6400 in CR (higher than Denver-5280) Great (or terrible depending on your point of view) for running/biking.

Although Douglas County, where CR is located, has one of the highest per capita incomes, I believe it has a very high forclosure rate too, if that means anything to you. In general, I'd say for a medium sized family, an income of 60K is a minimum, 80k probably more realistic. Expect to commute alot to Denver. Although I've seen statistics that say CR has very high job growth, I only see it in the retail/food service and home construction areas.

I could go on, but this is already a pretty long post. All in all, a good place to live, but I for one am looking elsewhere.