Best mountain town to raise a family year round? (Denver: insurance, house)

[JustAnotherUserHere]

I’m kicking off research for where to move my family. Growing up in Denver, but not in the mountains, my dream was to live full-time in a mountain town. I’m now at a point where this can be a reality, but I need your help finding the right place. I’ve done web searches and found plenty of article but they seem to be sterile based on stats where it's clear the author hasn’t visited or lived in the cities. They don’t include human observations.

So hopefully the internet can help narrow down. Here’s my general criteria

• A town that feels alive year around. I realize most places have seasonal spikes but I don’t want to live somewhere that is a ghost town on the shoulder months. Amazing winter AND summer vibe is a must. Skiing, snowboarding, biking, hiking.
  
• Great place to raise a family (kids 13 & younger) which means good public schools, family friendly neighborhoods, and plenty of families who live year round.
  
• Within ~60-90min to an airport.
  
• My housing budget is <1.25M for 4-5 bd house with some room to go higher for a perfect house.
  
• Responsible growth. I understand that growth is key to the health of small/medium towns but my early research shows that some towns are (in my opinion) irresponsibility adding housing units without any regard for infra (roads, schools)
  
• Middle of the road politics. I’d prefer to say away from super left or super right political monocultures.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

"Within 60 to 90 minutes to an airport" really restricts this a lot. I assume you mean a major airport, like DIA or COS, and not the little regional airport that we have in Buena Vista. Heck, you could be in the Denver metro area and be 60 minutes from a major airport. Also, when you would need to fly would be a big factor. If you are in a mountain town and need to fly out on a Sunday, your travel time could be doubled or tripled due to the number of people returning to Denver from the mountains.

You could consider someplace like Evergreen, which is a real town that doesn't experience seasonal spikes. Near enough to Denver but far enough to be out of the big city.

Look at the recent thread titled: "Moving to RURAL Colorado (Denver, Colorado Springs: sales, insurance, home)"

[COcheesehead]

I don’t think a place like this exists. For one Colorado generally has bad schools. Mountain towns are notoriously seasonal and attract young, underpaid, party kids more than families. Maybe Carbondale or Glenwood with access to Aspen, but your housing choices will be compromised.

[NW Crow]

There are a lot of mountain towns to sort thru. I am not the one to rank the big set. I will comment briefly on Durango and ask how far you are willing to be from the ski lifts? Durango would work for some, all things considered, while others might say the 30 mile drive to Purgatory lifts (from center of Durango - could live north of town) is not acceptable. The airport might be enough or not. Politics are pretty middle of road for Colorado and probably not frontburner enough. Development is not that well planned but not unbearable, yet.

If Durango is not the right one, you've got Summit County, Vail Valley and Steamboat among the main contenders.

[SkyDog77]

Crested Butte

[COcheesehead]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

Crested Butte

I was going to suggest this, but then I remembered one middle aged mom I knew who lived there year round. Her stories weren’t pretty.

[otowi]

For your first two criteria, and possibly might also help with the political criteria a bit - you might want to consider the college mountain/mountain-ish towns -

Gunnison (Western),
Alamosa (Adams),
Durango (Ft. Lewis),
or one of the towns with a residential Colorado Mountain College campus
(Leadville,
Steamboat Springs,
Glenwood Springs).

[TimTheEnchanter]

For me if would be Summit County. Breckenridge first, then Dillon/Silverthorne, then Frisco. DIA is 100 miles from Breckenridge, which is 90 minutes or less on good roads and average traffic.

We've had a family home in Keystone for almost 35 years. My parents still spend at least two months a year there.

[SkyDog77]

Originally Posted by COcheesehead

I was going to suggest this, but then I remembered one middle aged mom I knew who lived there year round. Her stories weren’t pretty.

I have a friend raising a young family up there. They love it.

I also have friends in Basalt. I think those would be my two choices. No way I would look in Summit County and have to deal with all the Denver traffic every weekend.

Thinking more as I type, Basalt/Carbondale would be my first choice.

[HTY483]

Within ~60-90min to an airport.=Unreasonable expectation.

My vote would be for the Glenwood, Carbondale, Basalt area.