Moving from PA to either CO, WY or ID (Denver: real estate market, 2009)

[80skeys]

One more thing I just remembered. You can buy 10 acres in the mountains in the foothills of Littleton, CO. This is just land, it won't have a house on it.

The reason I know this: last month I was up there talking to somebody. He's got a house on 70 acres. BEautiful area. Lush and green. It's about a five mile drive up Deer Creek Canyon. About 10 minute drive to the "main town" of Littleton. Anyway, he was mentioned his need to sell of some of his land. I asked him how much it was going for, and he said about $250K for 10 acres.

Just thought I would let you know.

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by 80skeys

One more thing I just remembered. You can buy 10 acres in the mountains in the foothills of Littleton, CO. This is just land, it won't have a house on it.

The reason I know this: last month I was up there talking to somebody. He's got a house on 70 acres. BEautiful area. Lush and green. It's about a five mile drive up Deer Creek Canyon. About 10 minute drive to the "main town" of Littleton. Anyway, he was mentioned his need to sell of some of his land. I asked him how much it was going for, and he said about $250K for 10 acres.

Just thought I would let you know.

Having been one of the very first people to buy in the KenCaryl Ranch area, years ago ... I can assure you that you're not in the "mountains" there, and that it's further West than 10 minutes from the "main town" of Littleton, even with C-470 access now there. Considering that I also frequently stay now with old friends about 5 miles up Deer Creek Canyon, I well know that area isn't 10 minutes from the main town of Littleton on the East Side of Santa Fe Drive, especially when I try to access downtown Denver for my sales appointments in the mornings ... and neither C-470, Santa Fe, Broadway, 6th Ave, I-70, Kipling, Wadsworth, or any other of the "main" E-W or N-S roads are moving better than a snail's pace. Not uncommon to have to sit through multiple light cycles on Kipling and Wadsworth to head North, and C-470 can be almost a parking lot.

Even so, you'll still be looking at heading up to I-70 for your ski access, and it's still well over an hour to the closest places ... if you do the drive in non-peak traffic hours. Head up the hill on a typical winter ski season Saturday morning and you'll be hours on the road ... and similarly, your Sunday afternoon drive back down the hill from the ski slopes can take hours if there's no accidents or adverse weather on the road.

As far as developing 10 acres of raw ground up that way ... let's see, a modest stick built new house would easily cost well in excess of $100 per square foot, and you're still looking at the costs of utilities to the site. So, for a 2,000 sq foot house ... 3 bdr, 2 bath, with a garage (kinda' need the storage space for your cars in the winter months there) .... you'd need a budget somewhere north of $500,000. A "nice" house could easily be a lot lot lot more.

Schools there are OK, but shopping will be some distance away on the Kipling/Wadsworth corridor north from your location.

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by mpsgirl

(snip)

WY in general is a lot of flat land. The Rockies do run through it, but I wouldn't really consider WY to have the great real estate that ID and CO have. Plus side...it's VERY cheap to live there. Winters get nasty though and summers can be awful in the desert areas (being much of WY).

(snip).

Wyoming has a lot of mountains, too .... and most of those areas, like Colorado and Idaho, are rather "pricey" due to the views, tourism, and the "magic" of mountain living.

But to suggest that Wyoming is "VERY cheap" to live here is to display a lot of ignorance about the state ... the extractive industry "boom towns" will have your attention over their prices, and the tourist areas will also get your attention. As will the insanely overpriced areas around Jackson ... which rival some of the most expensive exclusive properties in the USA. Some of the small agrarian/ranching area towns may have some "inexpensive" land and housing nearby, but you'll be missing out on all the other requirements that the OP posted. And it's not cheap to live in these small town areas when you consider the time and distance to any major shopping or entertainment, or the daily commutes to schools or other routine daily events.

Please note that it's in the expensive "mountains" where the ski areas are to be found, which is what the OP wanted close access to.

[wanneroo]

As a multi generational colorado descendant and having lived in Colorado and left for good reasons, I would say Colorado does have much to offer. However having traveled around the USA, I think the ship has sailed in the sense that other places now have much more value and often the scenery is more attractive.

One example would be northern Idaho into eastern Washington. Beautiful scenery, RE prices from what I looked at were 1/2 the amount of a similar spend in Colorado and Spokane is a cool little city.

[80skeys]

I did say foothills, and for somebody coming from Pennsylvania, the scenery and the environment up there is identical to being in the mountains: pine trees, meadows, cliffs, winding dirt roads, etc. I don't think the original poster is going to split hairs on that one.

In fact, as far as I'm concerned - as somebody who was born and raised in a Rocky mountain state, has been hiking and camping since I can remember, and spends much of my time wandering around forest service roads, backpacking, fishing, etc. - I have to say that I consider the area as "mountains."

And I beg to differ but it did take me ten minutes to get down from the guy's house all the way down Deer Canyon road. Now whether that's "main Littleton" or not is besides the point. Once you get out of the canyon you're into an a populated area, which is probably more of interest to the poster than whether we split hairs on it being "main" littleton.

And what I mean by "main" littleton is to distinguish it from the houses up in the foothills, including those up Deer Canyon road, which indeed do have "Littleton" addresses but could hardly be considered "in town."

so quit splitting hairs.

As for pricing, what I did was to give the price of land up there. 250,000 / 10 acres. Not including house.

Whether that fits their budget, or if they would be willing to settle for 5 acres and build a small cabin or something, that's up to them.

I'm giving them options, rather than taking the route of telling them "no you don't want to move here, it's too expensive and that's it."

Originally Posted by sunsprit

Having been one of the very first people to buy in the KenCaryl Ranch area, years ago ... I can assure you that you're not in the "mountains" there, and that it's further West than 10 minutes from the "main town" of Littleton, even with C-470 access now there.

As far as developing 10 acres of raw ground up that way ... let's see, a modest stick built new house would easily cost well in excess of $100 per square foot, and you're still looking at the costs of utilities to the site. So, for a 2,000 sq foot house ... 3 bdr, 2 bath, with a garage (kinda' need the storage space for your cars in the winter months there) .... you'd need a budget somewhere north of $500,000. A "nice" house could easily be a lot lot lot more.

Schools there are OK, but shopping will be some distance away on the Kipling/Wadsworth corridor north from your location.

[80skeys]

Colder than heck in winter, but very nice, agreed.

Originally Posted by wanneroo

As a multi generational colorado descendant and having lived in Colorado and left for good reasons, I would say Colorado does have much to offer. However having traveled around the USA, I think the ship has sailed in the sense that other places now have much more value and often the scenery is more attractive.

One example would be northern Idaho into eastern Washington. Beautiful scenery, RE prices from what I looked at were 1/2 the amount of a similar spend in Colorado and Spokane is a cool little city.

[Josseppie]

In my opinion Colorado has those places beat hands down. No other place in the country has the kind of geographic diversity and urban vs rural diversity in such a short distance. From Pueblo to Fort Collins then west to the mountains and east to the plains. This is by far the best place to live in the country and is why all of our major cities are always on the "top" lists. That is also why our state is expected to pass 10 million residents in our lifetime. I say great, move here and enjoy it like we do!

[sunsprit]

80skeys ... it's not "splitting hairs" when it takes me about 10 minutes from my friend's house up 5 miles up Deer Creek Canyon just to make it to the Botannic Gardens at Wadsworth Blvd ... which is still a few miles to Santa Fe Drive, and then into "main" Littleton, up past the city offices. That's where the town of Littleton is ... even though the KenCaryl Ranch is a Littleton mailing address. What you've done is given an entirely erroneous view of how close Deer Creek is to anything. And that's certainly THE POINT which you were misleading about ... it's more like almost a 1/2 hour from 5 miles up Deer Creek to the actual town of Littleton.

Given that the choices from Deer Creek to access the "mountains" where skiing (which is what the OP was seeking ... close access to skiing) are to head up over the hill and connect up to Conifer then to Evergreen and then across Evergreen to I-70, that's a long way around on 2-lane winding roads that aren't very direct. A better way is to head down the canyon to Kipling at C-470 and then North to I-70. It's not a very convenient location for quick access to skiing ... with Keystone or A Basin being the closest places.

And you've really got me laughing ... Colorado "foothills" aren't "mountains", even if they might look "big" to someone from Pennsylvania. They're not shopping for Mountain Land in PA, they're seeking close by ski access from a small mountain town in Colorado. So it's kinda important to direct them to the MOUNTAINS that fulfill their needs in COLORADO, not Pennsylvania.

Bottom line: their $300,000 budget won't buy them what they think they'd like in Colorado. Why mislead the OP into thinking it's possible when you know it isn't?

[Josseppie]

It depends where they go, a $ 300,000 house in Pueblo is HUGE and we are only a hour and half drive from Monarch ski resort which has some of the best snow in the state. Plus you dont have grid lock on highway 50 like you have on I-70....

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by Josseppie

It depends where they go, a $ 300,000 house in Pueblo is HUGE and we are only a hour and half drive from Monarch ski resort which has some of the best snow in the state. Plus you dont have grid lock on highway 50 like you have on I-70....

Since the OP's first post mentioned that "the outskirts of Colorado Springs are a little too desserty for me" ... I've got a feeling that they won't like Pueblo either, which is yet even warmer and drier than CSprings .... it seems like Pueblo gets two months more hot weather than further North, like in the Ft Collins area ... and definitely a lot more heat and shorter winters than Laramie.

I'd question whether or not Pueblo would be a good place right now to be opening a new insurance agency ... and it certainly isn't close to the skiing as the OP indicated they'd wanted.

There's a lot of reasons why housing is so much less expensive in Pueblo than most of Colorado's Front Range ...