Wanting to move back to CO--help please! (Denver, Fort Collins: insurance, houses)

[Kat1996]

I was born in Denver and my family has always owned property in the Upper Blanco Basin about 30 minutes south of Pagosa Springs. My husband and I have four little boys ages 2-9 who are total outdoor kids. We live in Louisville right now but have always wanted to raise our kids in a more outdoorsy/mountainous area. We cannot live at the family place as there are family disputes and lawsuits over it right now and that area is crazy expensive. We would love to live around there but any place in CO with a mountain would be great.

I am a SAHM and dh is a computer geek. He actually is an IT Director with a company that runs hospitals and nursing homes. He has a nursing license but only keeps it because for some reason his company likes him to have it. He makes between over $110k which is good for the area that we live in. Our median home around here is only around $140k. We can't just cut and run because we do have two kiddos that have some minor medical issues and we have to keep the insurance also we are not that daring any longer.

If anyone can direct us towards a family friendly area where the houses don't start at $500k and possibly has a strong IT connections that would be wonderful.

Thanks in advance for any help that you can give.

[bashep]

Where will your husband have to commute to every day? How long does he want his commute to be? What price range in house would you be looking at? How many bedrooms? Sq feet?

[Kat1996]

He would want the commute to be under an hour (one way). We would need four bedrooms and I have no idea the price range. I guess it would depend on where we lived. I would hope to have at least an acre to unleash the boys.

Again any help is hugely appreciated! Thanks!!!!

[tfox]

I think many of us living in Denver/Boulder area would like to live up in the mountains instead of in the city, but realistically, 95% of the technology related jobs in the state are within about an hour's drive of downtown Denver (i.e., SE Fort Collins down to the Springs, including Denver and Boulder). Of those, most of them are in Metro Denver or Boulder. So, you can't get too far out of town before your job options dry up quickly.

What's wrong with living in Louisville? Yes, it's not the mountains, but it's minutes to Boulder and Broomfield/Interlocken, and still commutable to downtown Denver, and close enough to the mountains to be in them within about twenty minutes? I suppose if you need to be in the mountains you could consider living in the foothills, like Evegreen, Coal Creek Canyon, Nederland, etc.

[Kat1996]

Sorry I forgot there is a Louisville, CO. We live in Kentucky--horse country not mountain. If I live in Louisville, CO (not Luhval-as the locals say) I would be thrilled!

[tfox]

Originally Posted by Kat1996

Sorry I forgot there is a Louisville, CO. We live in Kentucky--horse country not mountain. If I live in Louisville, CO (not Luhval-as the locals say) I would be thrilled!

Ohhh... I see. I was confused how you said that median home values in Louisville were only 140k... I figured maybe you bought a while back or something, but I see where you're coming from.

Well, median home values in metro Denver are closer to about 250k, with many places much more than that. Louisville, CO is probably quite a bit higher than average, but that's because it's considered a very desirable area -- compared to Boulder it's a bargain!

If you're looking to not pay a lot in home prices, I recommend an older home in the inner suburbs. You'll get yourself a nice place to live, often with a nice size lot (but probably no more than about a quarter acre), for a good price and an easy commute to wherever you're working.

If you truly want an acreage, you'll probably have to live farther out and pay more. I have heard that eastern cities have a lot of large lot properties in the middle of the metro area -- that isn't true here, at least not for a reasonable price. The further out you're willing to live, the better -- as you start passing the 1 hour mark on commuting, prices do drop substantially.