Relocating to CO - info pls (Denver, Colorado Springs: lender, house, employment)

[HandKH4602]

We currently live in Fayetteville Arkansas and have decided to relocate to a better life (Colorado).

We've looked around and thought about La Junta, Ordway or Pueblo but from what I've read on here from others, these are all pretty junky places to live.

Any suggestions on a city in Colorado that has a low cost of living but if a good place to raise a family and has decent work?

Thanks in Advance,
Heather

[COflower]

None of them are "junky" per se, they are just economically depressed places.

Pueblo is getting an influx of younger retirees so the service industry will be booming. Everything from restaurants to groceries, health care etc...

You may want to list a desire of possibilities like income needs and such. This might help some people with what you need. Also, recreational needs, things that your family likes to do outside of work and school. If you plan to go with the public school system, climate needs...

[HandKH4602]

Thanks for your response.

I'm really flexible with climate and recreation.

I'd prefer a town that has a Walmart supercenter and a hospital (I don't believe Ordway has one, but I know La Junta does).

We're real home bodies. Outside of work its movies, playing ball, or video games.

My other half is job flexible, but is best at what hes done for the last 10 years, and thats autobody painting. I've heard the pay is lower then it is here in Arkansas (He can get paid up to 18 dollars a commision hour here) so we'd like to stay with a house in the 30-70 thousand dollar range. We did find one in La Junta but it was sold out from under us.

I saw a thread elsewhere which talked of Fort Morgan and Sperling so I am currently looking there too. We plan on making a trip to CO to look around in March and would like to be moved no later then June, tho I would have preferred to move last year.

[sunsprit]

30-70 Thousand price range for a house will buy something only in the very economically depressed areas of Colorado, like LaJunta.
Your chances of employment there are very limited, and autobody work will be minimal.
Flat rates for autobody can be a lot higher in Colorado than $18/hr for an experienced tech, but getting enough hours per week will be the problem anywhere but the bigger Front Range cities or mountain towns ... where your budget range might make a good downpayment.

[HandKH4602]

Well, I guess we're going to have to up our price range.

What exactly are the Front Range and mountain towns your talking about?

[Mike from back east]

On a map, see the area served by I-25; this north-south corridor is generally known as the Front Range, or the Eastern Slope of the Rockies. Cities along this eastern side are the Front Range. A partial list includes Fort Collins, Boulder, the entire Denver metro area (a LOT of stuff), Castle Rock, Larkspur, Monument, Black Forest, Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, Fountain, Fort Carson (Army), Pueblo, and Canon City. If I left any out, don't anyone clobber me.

Then, there is the High Country. Cities along the I-25 corridor are not High Country. The High Country is the high mountains in the center of the state, all the places you see on the news (Vail, Aspen, Breckenridge, Winter Park, Telluride, Ouray, Silverton, Leadville, Steamboat Springs, etc). These are the areas that get the huge winter snows, skiing, and the avalanches. Also the huge home prices made famous by the very wealthy. When you see garish TV news of semi-trucks jack-knifed on a snow-covered mountainside near Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70, way west of Denver, that is the High Country, and that is the image my pals back east think of when they think of Colorado. Wrong! That's only about 1/3 of Colorado.

My home is in Colorado Springs, along the Front Range, along I-25, with a view of the mountains, elevation 6650. We are on that western edge of the Great Plains, aka grassland prairie. The official nomenclature for east of the Rockies is "alpine desert" as we get about 15 inches of precip a year along here. A few miles east of here it is flat and mostly treeless for hundreds of miles - all the way to St Louis, MO and further east.....

There is also the Western Slope (west side of the Rockies) and that would be cities like Grand Junction, also somewhat desert-like.

The larger region of CO, WY, MT, ID, UT, and parts of NM, NV and AZ etc, is often referred to as the "Inter-Mountain West" (think "Mountain Time Zone).

Denver is the BIG dog of cities in the intermountain west, and a bit pricier.

s/Mike

[DewKnight]

Woodland Park! It's a great town, and they're building a hospital and a Wal Mart right now! It's about 8,000 people, up in the mountains (14 miles from Colorado Springs), and it's great! The winters aren't too cold, and the summers are perfect. I run the website for the Chamber, check them out, they've got a lot of information: http://www.woodlandparkchamber.com

[HandKH4602]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I'm waiting to hear back from a lender for our pre approval so that will really set in stone our limit....

I did find some places in Woodland Park that were quite beautiful. Thank you for the link!

[2bindenver]

How Colorado has Grown from the Colorado Municipal League from July 1st, 2005 to July 1st 2006:

We rank 8th in population growth.

We have had a 1.9% population gain from above time frame.

We have had 90,082 people move here officially.

21,587 Net International migration.