Newbie Here! (Highlands Ranch, Durango, Red Feather Lakes: for sale, place to live, costs)

[vfrpilot]

I worked with a guy who sold his Red Feather Lake home and retired in Pueblo West. He said the area had gone too 'upscale' for his tastes, whatever that means.
You could look into the area west of highway 105 between Sedalia and Palmer Lake. Really nice and not too far from the amenities of Denver and COS. There are nice areas South of COS along highway 115 also. Come to think of it, Woodland Park and the surrounding area would be worth a look also.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Joluvs311

As for Mt. Baldy, the town I live in currently.

Those pictures above are Mt Baldy in the late 1950s. That's my mom in the picture in the parking lot. I scanned those photos from my dad's Kodachrome slides.

[Katarina Witt]

$500k is about the price for a SF house of roughly 2500 sq ft on a city lot in most of the Denver suburbs. It will not get you 30+ acres anywhere in the metro area, even without the house. As I said before, everything along the Front Range, from Ft. Collins to Pueblo, is urbanized to a certain extent.

I agree with most of jazzlover's post, especially the part about how far you have to be from the city to feel like you are in a rural area. From north to south is very built up, and out east a ways. The western spread is hindered by the mountains. But 30 miles west of Denver is still suburban. I would say at least 50 miles west or east, and 50 miles north of Ft. Collins (which would put you in Wyoming). 50 miles south of Castle Rock is the Colorado Springs area, still city. Red Reather may be your best bet.

[WhereTheSidewalkEnds]

I love the Red Feathers area - we go up there every year to cut our Christmas trees. It's way up there though and pretty far from any place with decent shopping. Through the years we've looked at property up there. I will have to say, $500k won't get you much at all - even if it was just land.
As mentioned, now with the pine beetle situation, I would be really careful about getting any land in that area. If it's going for cheap, there is a reason why.....we were just discussing the other day that there is no way we'd get mountain property right now.

[ktk9]

Here is an area near Castle Rock on top of a mesa... These lots are 30+ acres, but are going for over $1 million per site. This takes you to the photo gallery. Pretty nice are if you can afford it. Here

[TropicanaRose]

I haven't looked at anything with acreage in a long time and this post made me curious. I was surprised to see that while the OP is definitely priced out of anything near Boulder, it isn't by as much as I would have guessed.

Still your beating hearts when you look at the bottom of the search- I don't know why that little Martin Acres place shows up.

I was up near Carter Lake yesterday and it made me sad. There used to be so much open country between here and there. Now you never get away from the houses. Rainbow Estates. Paradise Valley. Nothing rainbowy or paradise like about any of the developments that I could see.

[Joluvs311]

How much would you guys think I need to purchase 30+ acres in a nice area? Budget aside, where would you suggest to someone like me who is looking for that acreage with the hobbies listed before?

[Katarina Witt]

Well, look at the link that Tropicana Rose posted. There is a house there for ~600K on 35 acres. Like Tropicana, I'm quite surprised. I guess you'd have to take a look at it. The prices go up and up from there.

[Joluvs311]

I found similar postings for properties 35 acres and 40 acres for less than $500K which was why I was surprised that most said I couldn't find them. Now granted, there may be some truth to the fact that they might be in undesireable areas which is why I'm here.

[Katarina Witt]

If you look at Tropicana Rose's link, of 49 houses, the median price is $2.5 mil, there are 8 (16%) under $1 mil, with more than half of those at $900,000+. Only 4, less than 10%, are under $900,000. The least expensive house looks nice, but there could be multiple problems with access, etc. You just have to look at them.