Possibly moving to Durango (Denver, Bayfield: real estate, apartments, rentals)

[kara3967]

I have the prospect of a job at the hospital in Durango and was wondering about the situation in the area. We live in Wisconsin now and absolutely love the snow, so that's not a problem for us.

How are the summers? I am originally from Texas and don't like the heat/humidity. We weren't really looking at Colorado, but this position was mentioned and it sounded like a good fit. I haven't had an interview yet and we are just doing some research.

We would plan on renting for a year or two before buying to make sure that we like the area, so how are the prices for a two bedroom apt, house, or condo there?

Lastly, if there are any nurses from Durango to give me an idea of what kind of pay rate I might be in for, I would be appreciative of the heads-up.

[Mike from back east]

Durango is known to be a bit expensive, people love the scenery and move there to be near it. If you have a job waiting there for you that's a huge plus. Renting for a year is the best option before buying. Meanwhile, check home prices on websites like realtor.com or whatever one you prefer. Many people who work in Durango live in Bayfield for cost reasons, you may want to check prices there too.

The area is lovely and gets year round tourism of people taking recreation in the mountains. IIRC, the town slows down a bit in winter because of it's remoteness from the large population centers over on the Denver side of the state.

[brightdoglover]

I vaguely looked at RN jobs in Durango in 2007. There was a new inpatient psych unit (what I work) and they wanted a third-shift RN "with two years of experience in psych" for $26/hr. and ONE DOLLAR for third shift.
I actually did look at some houses in Bayfield. Modest, nice 3-bed houses in Forest Lake for about $250K. I imagine the prices are down from that. In-town prices were absurd (and I live near Boston!)
Again, I'm sure prices are down, as they should be.
Very wise to consider renting first.
I decided that I didn't want the only psych job for a few hundred miles around and that if I ever live full-time in the Mountain West, it'll be a time when I don't need to work for a living.
Best wishes.

[80skeys]

no humidity.
low 90s in the summer. dry heat.

[swcolorado]

Durango is a good place to come if you already have a job lined up. You have to realize that the cost of living is more here than other places in Durango

Upsides: Lots of rentals ($1200 or so for a 2-3 bedroom), lots of outdoor activities, great restaurants,

downside: very limited shopping (Walmart, JC Penneys or speciality boutiques are your choices) expensive homes when you want to buy, lots of tourists in the summer

I've lived here most of my life and have seen it really change; some good and some bad.

[parfleche]

hope you can do it but these folks swear that thier dumpy 3 bed ranch houses are worth 350000 even though they need 50000 to fix them up.always puzzeld me they paid 40000 25 years ago for them. greed i guess. but it is a truly great place to live if you can swing it

[Cyborg13]

You can rent if you want, there are plenty of condos and small apartments in town. Some new builds, like across the highway from Walmart, behind Home Depot, west on 160, etc. If you wait to buy, I am sure prices will go up, even though they haven't gone down there much to begin with.

$250k in Forest Lakes would not be a bad deal. I doubt you can find anything up there any cheaper unless you get some land and put a trailer on it, if they'll even allow it. The commute would suck though. Lots of traffic either way. Maybe a few more passing opportunities if you take CR 501 down to Hwy 160 and over, but more traffic. If you take CR 240, there might be fewer cars, but you will not have 4 lanes until you get into downtown Durango, then you will backtrack a lot to the hospital. You might be able to find something a little cheaper in Durango West 1 (aka DWI), but it definately won't be very fancy, and once again, plenty of traffic going into town.
Your best bet might be finding something on Florida Mesa out towards Ignacio (zip code 81303 east of Hwy 550) or along CR 234. You can look in New Mexico as well, if you don't mind driving a long ways. I used to live in Farmington and work in Durango. It was doable, but not recommendable especially as they do construction on 550 north of the border.

As for summers, it would be similar to Wisconsin, with less humidity. 100 degrees is almost unheard of. Maybe two or three in recorded history.

[jazzlover]

I have a friend whose spouse has spent 25 years as an RN in Durango. Their simple conclusion--if they hadn't bought their home 30+ years ago, they couldn't afford to live in Durango on BOTH of their salaries (and the nurse's spouse also has an OK paying job). They are both nearing retirement age, and probably will sell their home (if they can--the market is dead; the hooey about prices going back up is just wishful thinking) and relocate elsewhere, where the cost of living and real estate prices are not ridiculously inflated.

I know another RN in my own area of western Colorado who is "bagging it" and relocating back to northern Iowa, where she was from originally. They decided to do so over a year and half ago, but have not been able to sell their home. She and her husband like it here, but she can make about 20% better salary in Iowa, and housing costs there are less than 2/3's of what the market is here (even with the comatose market here)--day-to-day living expenses are less, too.

I don't know about Durango, but our local hospital is turning over a lot of RN's--salaries too low for local living costs being one reason.

[DOUBLE H]

Jazzlover is right. And speaking of northern Iowa, that is JUST what one of my friends did. He had owned a small "mom and pop" music store called The Record Man (up on 9th St.). He had lived in Durango for close to 20 years. Over the last 5 or 6 years he was losing his customer base because rents were getting more expensive by the year and his customers moved away to Albuquerque and Denver.

He was lucky when him and his wife qualified to buy a home in 1987. At that time Colorado's economy was still pretty flat, but not as bad as now. They eventually relocated to Ft. Dodge, Iowa; bought a house for a fraction of what things go for in Durango. He and his wife also had no trouble finding employment there.

[jh4653]

My wife worked for Mercy in Durango and one thing to remember is you will be required to take less pay then the national average and will be expected to work more. i.e unusual shifts, require call and all. Staff are always short due to the high price of living. Area employees pay far less then what you will make outside of any mountain town and they know they can get away with it. Just one of the fancy little facts about living in one of our nice little mtn towns here in colorado. good luck. we eventually moved away when we were ready to buy a house and have kids due to the ridiculous house prices. If you are willing to live in a condo/townhome then you will find something. Unfortuneatley the realtors/developers/ third home owners from TX run this town while the working people get stuck with garbage, shotty leftover overpriced construction to fight over. Make sure you rent first....