Are any mountain towns left that just mostly have regular folks? (Denver: appointed, condo)

[Tiger Beer]

Have you considered somewhere like Western Pennsylvania or Pittsburgh?

Tons of low real estate, normal people, etc...and plenty of mountains.

[Maybe So]

Originally Posted by Dreaming of Hawaii

Mountain Bound, do you need to work? That's the big problem if you are looking to move in the next year or so. The economy sucks and a lot of work has dried up.

Mountain towns I'd suggest looking at would be Paonia and Buena Vista/Salida. Others not really "mountain towns" would be Cedaredge and maybe Montrose. Gunnison?

I have friends that live in Paonia and love it. They have two young kids.

[PokerMunkee]

I think Woodlnd Park is the perfect mountain town 7000 people at 8500', awesome views of Pikes Peak and no crime. 18 miles west from Colorado Springs if you need to hit up a big town. If you are in Durango and need want to go to a big town (shopping, entertainment, etc), it's a good 4-5+ hours.

[wanneroo]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

Have you considered somewhere like Western Pennsylvania or Pittsburgh?

Tons of low real estate, normal people, etc...and plenty of mountains.

That's what I did. The Colorado of my youth is very much gone or going and I did the Colorado Mtn living thing for seven years till I had enough.

Here in PA there are normal people, a walkable main street where I live, plenty of cultural activities, plenty of outdoor activities(the mountain/trail biking for instance WAY better than Colorado), plenty of shopping and places to eat out. I don't think the economy is great, but it sure isn't any worse than Colorado by now. And real estate for the most part is reasonable and cost of living is low.

My life is way better and healthier than Colorado and while Colorado is nice in some ways, I can always fly out and visit. When I went back two months ago for a visit I certainly didn't feel like I was missing anything.

[FentonForche]

I'd throw Fairplay and Leadville in to the mix. I think there are a high proportion of year round residents in both towns...certainly when compared to Summit County, Vail, and Aspen there are.

For something closer in to the Denver metro area, what about Bailey and Lyons?

And even though it's a ski town, I think Steamboat also has a year-round vibe to it.

+1 to Woodland Park but you're not going to feel "remote" if that's what you're looking for. It is to the Springs what Evergreen and Conifer are to Denver, in my opinion.

I guess a lot of it hinges on what you consider a mountain town.

[R_fluty41230]

sounds to me what your looking for is right here in the appalachians of ky ,tn,wv,w-va. not to many rich spoiled people here and we deff. know whats importaint in life, just a sugestion , but good luck finding a job here as is any place right now pretty hard to do , depending on what line of work your interested in , im looking into truck driving myself, coal whent belly up (job market anyway), so that whent out the window so i can only think as to what happened everywhere else , good luck . if you want info on around here just ask.

[garandguy]

You ask about Utah, there are still a lot of mountain towns that aren't too crowded. Logan is a moderate sized town with growth, while towns like Richfield, Ephraim, Moroni, Price, Helper, don't have so much growth, or maybe they are a little depressed economically. Soldier Summit is a town where they wish they could have growth but it hasn't taken. It is all regular people, no snobby "beautiful" people from hollywood. The biggest problem with some of these towns is how to make a living.

[CosmicWizard]

garandguy wrote:

The biggest problem with some of these towns is how to make a living.

How to make a living, is the biggest problem in small towns all across the USA. This problem is not unique to any one state or region of the country.

[wanneroo]

Originally Posted by CosmicWizard

garandguy wrote:

The biggest problem with some of these towns is how to make a living.

How to make a living, is the biggest problem in small towns all across the USA. This problem is not unique to any one state or region of the country.

In any bog standard rural town there are always going to be limited economic possibilities. However the problem with the Colorado mountains and other resort or tourism areas is the high cost of real estate due to so many people wanting to live there and limited space for all. That high cost of real estate drives up the cost of everything else.

Living in PA now, I make the same or less than I did in Colorado but work around 1/4 of the hours and am not under the economic strain I was in Colorado.

And not saying that Colorado is bad, Colorado is and has been a part of my family for generations, but there is a price to be paid for living in the Rockies.

[bongo]

La Veta has mostly just real folks:

La Veta, Colorado, at the foot of the Spanish Peaks and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains