Colorado a good place for family with young children? (Denver: real estate, renting)

[Fxguy1]

My family is considering a move to Colorado (to either the Denver area or Colorado Springs) as a result of a possible job offer. We have close friends that live in Colorado Springs, but my wife and I have never lived outside of the state of Illinois. We have an almost 4 year old and an almost 2 year old and live in Champaign, IL. All our family lives in the Joliet, IL area. So moving to Colorado would be quite a lifestyle change for us.

The job would be my dream job with a salary that would be comparable to my current salary (adjusted for the increase in cost of living). In other words I would make more with the new job, but with the cost of living increase it would feel about the same as my current salary.

The position for me would be in Englewood so we are trying to figure out potential areas for housing, etc.. We have found a couple of potential areas we like, like Bailey, but having never been out that way we've no idea what we are getting ourselves into.

I know it's been asked a zillion times, but what's a safe, reasonably affordable area that we may find a place with a bit of space? Ideally we'd like something on an acre of wooded land or more thats within a reasonable commute to Englewood area. I define reasonable as 30-45 min drive with traffic wouldnt be bad.

Is it possible to find something like this out that way?

[NW Crow]

Bailey is too far for that commute time, I think. Bailey is probably an hour, more in bad weather. (But maybe less depending on exact endpoints and how hard you push it, when you travel). Conifer would be a good choice / more realistic commute. But look on either side from Conifer. Conifer schools are well-rated. Only live out there if you are ok with snow living / driving and fairly limited urban services (moreso than down lower).

[SkyDog77]

What's your budget for housing?

[Fxguy1]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

What's your budget for housing?

That depends on a lot of factors. We are trying to keep total debt payments under 35% of our NET monthly income. If we base it on my income alone then we'd be looking in the $200,000 - $250,000 range. If my wife is able to find a job as a nurse, then we could be in the $300,000 - $350,000 range (assuming a monthly mortgage payment between $1,500 - $2,500 a month. )

An hour is pushing it. She's definitely more nervous about snow driving than I am. One benefit of my possible position is the ability to work from home one day a week provided I have decent high speed internet access.

I know its not easy to find something that's remote, but not too remote. So far we've looked at:

Bailey
Castle Rock
Parker

Perhaps one of these:
Evergreen
Conifer
Golden

Whats the commute from the Boulder Area like?

Worst case scenario we end up in a suburb neighborhood similar to what we have now. Our yard currently is very tiny so pretty much anything with a yard would be better than what we have currently.

But the general environment would be considered good for a family with young children? We aren't into moving (we've been in our current home 10 years now) so want to make sure wherever we land has good schools and safe / friendly environment for a couple of introverted parents.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

The Englewood address covers a wide area. What is location of job (major cross streets).

Have you been reading other threads here? I think your housing budget may be too low for the current real estate prices.

[SkyDog77]

Where in Englewood is the position (Approximate cross streets)? Some mailing addresses in Englewood aren't in Englewood. It's kind of confusing.

Assuming you want a single family home, Boulder is way out of your budget.

$200K anywhere near Denver is really tough, and may be impossible for what you sound like you're looking for.

Expect to be at or above that $350K number for pretty much anything decent in an area with good schools.

Bailey is every bit of an hour, can be worse in snow.
Evergreen may not be achievable on your budget, but it's very nice.

[pikabike]

All of those towns are above your stated budget (based on single income and maybe even combined), assuming you seek a SFH that is in decent condition.

Bailey is longer than a 45 minute commute, and that's in good road conditions. If either of you is worried about winter commuting, it would be a poor choice.

The other towns *might* meet the commuting time limit in good conditions, depending on exact location of workplace and home.

You could get to Englewood from where I lived in the "foothills", within 45 minutes in good conditions (good both weatherwise and trafficwise). But conditions from early fall to late spring definitely include wintry driving on steep, winding roads. Having young kids in that type of environment also means you have to consider the likelihood of making emergency trips in awful road and weather conditions. The other thing is that those kinds of places tend not to have lots of families with young kids, for the very practical reasons just given. So they won't have many kids nearby to play with.

Also, if your definition of safe factors in wildlife and fire hazard, the foothills aren't the place, other than highly-suburbanized subdivisions such as in Genessee.

Why not look IN Englewood itself? You lose the long commute, there is public transportation, all services, house prices lower than in the towns you named, and it is near all the kid-friendly diversions.

[SkyDog77]

Home under $300K in Centennial / Englewood - is it possible?

[Fxguy1]

I've not gotten an offer just yet, still waiting on results from a test to see if I qualify. The address would be Inverness Dr E, Englewood, CO or E Mineral Cr, Centennial, CO.

My salary would be $145k ish per year and my wife would be around $55-$65k per year.

We have $700/ month in student loan payments and $500 per month for 2 car payments.

If my math is correct (assuming a 35% tax rate) we'd be Net of about $10k per month. 35% of that would be $3,500 for debt. Minus the student loans and car payments leaves us at around $2,300 for mortgage. So let's say a range of around $1,500-$2,000 a month for mortgage.

Not entirely sure what that translates into as far as purchase price but based on our current mortgage of 1,377 for 180,000 if would be around $200,000 - $300,000 roughly. We may be able to push it to $350,000.


As for why not look in Centennial, we are coming from a town of 86,000 and we're not big city people. Granted our only big city we have to compare is Chicago. Also our neighbors yard and our yard butt against one another and their house is literally no more than 100' from ours which makes outdoor privacy an issue and something we want to avoid. Not saying we wouldn't live in an neighborhood if we had to but wanted to explore something a little ways out of possible. If not that's fine too.

We should at least be able to find something for our family out that way that's comfortable and safe and has room for all of us (current home is 2,000 sqft) with those salaries right? It may not be our ideal (i.e. Remote) but something we can live with comfortably.

[SkyDog77]

If you're pulling in $200K plus, you can afford much more house than you are targeting. You're just going to need to reevaluate your savings goals. You may or may not be willing to do that. I would suggest renting out here first for a year and deciding if it's for you. Having spent a lot of time in the Joliet area for work, I can tell you that the Frnt Range is quite different. The sunny winter days and lack of humidity are so much more conducive to being outside. I couldn't see living in IL after being here, but you'll not know for yourself unless you dive in and make the move.