What areas in Colorado should I scout out ? (Denver, Colorado Springs: apartment complex, hotel)

[NW Crow]

Eagle is home to a lot of Boise professionals and / or ex- Californians. Families & retirees. Upscale for area but probably more house for the money than front range close to Denver. Hiking / running / biking in the hills and flats. Supposed to be pretty good schools. Access to Boise and the ID forest / mountains. Hub airport, pretty good amount of flights / prices.


Pretty dry but an urban / rural interface with lots of places having irrigration water from canals.


Moderate Republican edge in Eagle & Boise metro but much more conservative state government.


Lower elevation. At least a bit more spring & fall than Colorado.

[Coast 2 Coast]

Originally Posted by bluescreen73

Monument also averages about 110" of snow per year, too. Denver is around 54" and the Springs is closer to 40".

Good to know. Thanks !

[Coast 2 Coast]

Originally Posted by NW Crow

Eagle is home to a lot of Boise professionals and / or ex- Californians. Families & retirees. Upscale for area but probably more house for the money than front range close to Denver. Hiking / running / biking in the hills and flats. Supposed to be pretty good schools. Access to Boise and the ID forest / mountains. Hub airport, pretty good amount of flights / prices.


Pretty dry but an urban / rural interface with lots of places having irrigration water from canals.


Moderate Republican edge in Eagle & Boise metro but much more conservative state government.


Lower elevation. At least a bit more spring & fall than Colorado.

You do know this area .. will look into it. Thanks !

[NW Crow]

I only know it as an occasional visitor, place learner / watcher / considerer.


Threads in Boise forum if what to read more, or ask about it.

[emm74]

Originally Posted by Coast 2 Coast

TBD. They may live with us PT on the same property, in which case the budget would go up, or rent or buy something smaller/cheaper nearby.

Well, it's worth trying to figure it out, because in a lot of areas, rental units are hard to come by and rents are at premium prices. If the idea is to move here but then the in laws can't afford to rent or buy something where you choose, you might end up having to share a house without having planned on it.

[SkyDog77]

How important is proximity to a major airport? Some of the suggestions like Palisade are pretty isolated.

Denver suburbs like Highlands Ranch, Parker, or Centennial might be worth a look.

[Coast 2 Coast]

Thanks for the heads up emm74 !

[Coast 2 Coast]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

How important is proximity to a major airport? Some of the suggestions like Palisade are pretty isolated.

Denver suburbs like Highlands Ranch, Parker, or Centennial might be worth a look.

Good question ... probably not terribly high on my list though.

[TCHP]

Originally Posted by Coast 2 Coast

Boulder has always seemed like a place that I would dig. I used to be a competitive runner. I love open spaces and trails. Hiking, biking etc. Boulder has always had an appeal to runners. I also have a good friend who went to UC and always talks about it. It's merely based on distant perception and nothing more. I'd obviously need to get boots on the ground any place I'd ever consider moving to so I'll have to check it out, but I am interested in visiting.

This is where Colo Spgs provides a much more cost friendly alternative. Sitting at the base of Pikes Peak, we have access to the foothills and hogbacks similarly to Boulder, without the growth restricted, high real estate costs that are found in Boulder proper and Boulder County. For example, Colorado Springs has 136 neighborhood, 8 community, 7 regional parks, and 5 sports complexes totaling 9,000 acres. 500 acres of trails, which are over 200 miles of park trails and over 10 miles of urban trails with more being added. There are 5,000 acres of open spaces in 48 designated open space areas. All this squeezed into a city of 195 sq miles, so just a hair over 11% of the city is parks, trails, and designated open space currently with plans to add more trails and acreage always in the works. Since the city sits at the base of Pikes Peak, many of these trails join county trails running up into the mountains and National Forest west of the city. Two significant trails about to open in the south-west part of the city are Dixon and Lake Moraine, which are adding many more thousand feet of vertical ascent with many more miles of alpine hiking all around the Cheyenne Mtn area. There are plans to eventually link some of these up with the Ring the Peak trail system which will be a set of trails circling Pikes Peak. Hiking, biking, walking, rock climbing, or caving is within minutes of nearly any address in the city. The city also maintains the highway up Pikes Peak, so we have one of the highest marathon races in the nation at 14, 110' in elevation and one of the most arduous work outs around in the Mt. Manitou Incline which is a 2000' run up a 45-68% grade starting at 6500'.

$500-600k will provide access to some very good real estate in the areas I mentioned previously. Yes, there are plenty of areas in northern Colo Spgs and into Monument, as well as many other places mentioned here, that can also provide those price points with very good schools. However, being more central or south-west in Colo Spgs means you in-laws can look at $250-350k homes in Fountain that will still hold some small town appeal for them without being an excessive drive away from their grandchildren.

[Coast 2 Coast]

Originally Posted by TCHP

This is where Colo Spgs provides a much more cost friendly alternative. Sitting at the base of Pikes Peak, we have access to the foothills and hogbacks similarly to Boulder, without the growth restricted, high real estate costs that are found in Boulder proper and Boulder County. For example, Colorado Springs has 136 neighborhood, 8 community, 7 regional parks, and 5 sports complexes totaling 9,000 acres. 500 acres of trails, which are over 200 miles of park trails and over 10 miles of urban trails with more being added. There are 5,000 acres of open spaces in 48 designated open space areas. All this squeezed into a city of 195 sq miles, so just a hair over 11% of the city is parks, trails, and designated open space currently with plans to add more trails and acreage always in the works. Since the city sits at the base of Pikes Peak, many of these trails join county trails running up into the mountains and National Forest west of the city. Two significant trails about to open in the south-west part of the city are Dixon and Lake Moraine, which are adding many more thousand feet of vertical ascent with many more miles of alpine hiking all around the Cheyenne Mtn area. There are plans to eventually link some of these up with the Ring the Peak trail system which will be a set of trails circling Pikes Peak. Hiking, biking, walking, rock climbing, or caving is within minutes of nearly any address in the city. The city also maintains the highway up Pikes Peak, so we have one of the highest marathon races in the nation at 14, 110' in elevation and one of the most arduous work outs around in the Mt. Manitou Incline which is a 2000' run up a 45-68% grade starting at 6500'.

$500-600k will provide access to some very good real estate in the areas I mentioned previously. Yes, there are plenty of areas in northern Colo Spgs and into Monument, as well as many other places mentioned here, that can also provide those price points with very good schools. However, being more central or south-west in Colo Spgs means you in-laws can look at $250-350k homes in Fountain that will still hold some small town appeal for them without being an excessive drive away from their grandchildren.

This sounds excellent TCHP. Thanks. No doubt I will be checking out CS.

One thing is for sure ... I better get some of my fitness back if we end up moving to CO. Otherwise those mountains are going to kick my butt.