Starting over in CO...What's up w/ the home prices ??? (Colorado Springs: house, work)

[McGowdog]

Originally Posted by tkdmom

Hi All,
The realtor that was helping me told me to look in Leadville, does anyone know what it's like there, isn't it a really high elevation ? Someone told me Greeley is a nice place, but after reading some of your posts I'd have to disagree.

I don't mean to judge your realtor falsely, but either they were being facetious with you or they were jealous of you. A SOCAL can't move to thee Mountain Ghetto that is Leadville. Denver is the Mile High City. Leadville is the Two Mile High City. Greeley is for people who can't afford Boulder County.

If you can handle living near the mountains then there's gotta be a pad somewhere in the Denver area that you can afford and just go to the mountains every chance you get. Kind of like living in the Valley and headin down Topanga Canyon on Saturday morning. When I was a kid I could just jump on my bike and go to Chatsworth Park or jump in the dune buggy and head to Brown's Canyon or Sespe Creek; or Lake Cachuma, or Carpenteria, or Cottonwood, or etc....

You could buy a house in the Denver area for under 150K in the early 90's, Then when I got outta there in 99, prices went up to over 200gr.

Now that you're newly divorced, do you really want to buy your dream home just yet or maybe hang out and check out the scene for a year or so? If I was to move back to the area I'd check out the Indian Hills- Parmalee Gultch or Deer Creek Canyon area. How about Sadallia? Probably too expensive just yet. I'd also look at the Washington Park area if you like to play volleyball or just go for a nice walk.

That's my two cents anyway.

[McGowdog]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Home prices are high in much of Colorado because there are so many people moving here from other areas with money burning a hole in their pocket. They are trying to escape whatever evil (traffic, crime, sprawl, illegal immigrants, drugs, overcrowding, etc., etc.) that they dislike in their current home place.

The problem is that they are bringing all of those same things to Colorado. Traffic? Colorado has plenty and it's getting worse every day. Sprawl? Out of control. Drugs? Yep. Illegal immigrants? Yes. So, the people who have been in Colorado a long time get to "enjoy" all the problems that out-of-control growth brings, along with an escalating real estate market that, if it continues (which I personally think it won't, but that's another story), will probably price their own children out of the ability to stay in Colorado.

Of course, anyone (like me) who points this out on this forum usually gets bashed for being "negative," "anti-growth," "prejudiced against outsiders," "selfish," or "bitter." Well, you tend to get to be some of those things when you see the state of your birth, the place where you spent most of your life, and one of the most unique and beautiful places on the planet getting trashed by people who either don't know or don't care about what they are doing to the place. As the Joni Mitchell song says, "Let's pave over paradise and put in a parking lot."

Naw, Jazz. You're not negative. You're just Little House on the Prairie. It's all about your frame of reference. If you're talkin with a Chicayegan, you talk about hot dogs; if you're taaakin wit a poyson from Bastin, ya tell em to pack da caa nd git meeeeay a beeeea. You've migrated to Wyoming. What do you know about someone comin from a town that is 5 times the population of the Front Range and the whole state of Wyoming put together.

[McGowdog]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

I think the best course would be to come out for a visit and look at several areas. You cannot get a feel for a place on city-data.

Feel this:

[McGowdog]

Originally Posted by thepizzaguy

The South Park area has cheap real estate, but you'll have a commute to work. I found two 35 acre parcels up on a bluff on the MLS for 15K each. They even have a view of the highway, or a paved road with double yellow lines.

Can't she get a job as a bus driver? She can take (assuming a female here) Mrs. Crabtree's place.

[-=rex=-]

Here's a former Socal'r that "did" almost 5 years in Leadville because he worked in Keystone and could not afford to buy in Summit County - still great deals to be found there or you may try Buena Vista down in Chaffee county. Leadville was fine for a while and a great place to visit but you will not find four seasons there - when it's snowing on the 4th of July you start to look elsewhere...

[tkdmom]

Thanks everyone for all your help. Im visiting in August, so what would be the best/ safest route from Cali to CO ?

Here's another reason for leaving CA, as I was typing we had an earthquake, nice huh Anyway, I will print this out and take with me on my roadtrip to beautiful CO.

Thanks again,
April

[5stones]

Depends on what part of CA you are driving from. If you are traveling by yourself I recommend staying on the major Interstates. When we lived in San Fran we took 80 to 40 (small highway) but you can take 80 to Cheynne and then drop down on 25 into Denver.

From LA area I would say take Highway 15 up to I70 (cuts right through CO)

[jazzlover]

OK, I-80 is the "easiest" drive from northern California to Denver. It's also longer, and probably the least scenic. From southern California to Denver, I-15 to I-70 is the fastest and most common route. Going that way, you get to see Vail (yawn!) and Summit County (urp!). Old time Coloradans like me often call it "the I-70 sacrifice zone." Convenience stores, strip malls, and second home and trophy house suburbanized mountain ghettos--all mashed up in nuveau-Western and Tyrolean shake-and-bake architecture. The high point is probably Glenwood Canyon--a beautiful canyon trashed by punching a four-lane Interstate through it (but it was done "sensitively", meaning they put a bike trail beside it and made it one of the most expensive highways per mile to build in the world).

If you want take an alternate predominantly two-lane but much more rural and scenic route, take U.S. Highway 50 from Grand Junction, through Delta, Montrose, and Gunnison to U.S. 285 at Poncha Springs, then into Denver on it. Much slower (not the road to take it you're in a hurry), somewhat longer, but much more bucolic and rural.

[Nadine]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

OK, I-80 is the "easiest" drive from northern California to Denver. It's also longer, and probably the least scenic. From southern California to Denver, I-15 to I-70 is the fastest and most common route. Going that way, you get to see Vail (yawn!) and Summit County (urp!). Old time Coloradans like me often call it "the I-70 sacrifice zone." Convenience stores, strip malls, and second home and trophy house suburbanized mountain ghettos--all mashed up in nuveau-Western and Tyrolean shake-and-bake architecture. The high point is probably Glenwood Canyon--a beautiful canyon trashed by punching a four-lane Interstate through it (but it was done "sensitively", meaning they put a bike trail beside it and made it one of the most expensive highways per mile to build in the world).

If you want take an alternate predominantly two-lane but much more rural and scenic route, take U.S. Highway 50 from Grand Junction, through Delta, Montrose, and Gunnison to U.S. 285 at Poncha Springs, then into Denver on it. Much slower (not the road to take it you're in a hurry), somewhat longer, but much more bucolic and rural.

Want to see more nice country? Stay on Hiway 50 all the way thro Canon City to Penrose, then take 115 to Colorado Springs. Catch I- 25 into Denver. That is IF you want to even go to Denver after traveling that route. It is more rural as jazzlover said but is not desolate.

[CTC]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

OK, I-80 is the "easiest" drive from northern California to Denver. It's also longer, and probably the least scenic. From southern California to Denver, I-15 to I-70 is the fastest and most common route. Going that way, you get to see Vail (yawn!) and Summit County (urp!). Old time Coloradans like me often call it "the I-70 sacrifice zone." Convenience stores, strip malls, and second home and trophy house suburbanized mountain ghettos--all mashed up in nuveau-Western and Tyrolean shake-and-bake architecture. The high point is probably Glenwood Canyon--a beautiful canyon trashed by punching a four-lane Interstate through it (but it was done "sensitively", meaning they put a bike trail beside it and made it one of the most expensive highways per mile to build in the world).
If you want take an alternate predominantly two-lane but much more rural and scenic route, take U.S. Highway 50 from Grand Junction, through Delta, Montrose, and Gunnison to U.S. 285 at Poncha Springs, then into Denver on it. Much slower (not the road to take it you're in a hurry), somewhat longer, but much more bucolic and rural.

Actually, they did more than create a bike path. they seperated the east and west lanes. And incredible scenery exists from Glenwood till the Front Range....So easy/fashionable to bash the I-70 corrdor.

I don't know where JL lives but living in Eagle County in my non second/trophy, non-mountain ghetto home, working a real job is pretty swell.