Possible move to Denver from Raleigh (Boulder, Broomfield: sales, rental, chapel)

[Shrimpbait]

My husband and I are ready for a change and considering Denver as our next home. We are Texas natives, but have called Raleigh home for the last 11 years. We are 40s (well, he is! I'm still in my late 30s!) and have no children. We will both (fingers crossed) be working from home. He is in the technical field, and may want to seek employment outside the home after getting settled. We considered just buying right away due to what seems like expensive rental costs, but are unsure of all the areas in Denver. We currently are in a 3000 sq ft home in the 375k range, but would like to have a little smaller house. We have thought about Broomfield since his company is there, but just really don't know if the southern parts would be better due to the technical areas in the south.

I guess my questions are:

1. Should we consider renting for a short term to find out what areas we would like best before buying?
2. Is Broomfield a good and easy area to live? And, possibly rent?
3. What are the areas that are not considered safe?
4. Where can we live and have nice views without paying an arm and a leg?
5. Are the property taxes high in most areas? Are there good areas with reasonable taxes? Since we don't have children, understanding that nice schools equal easier resale, we don't necessarily need to pay for it.
6. What areas are college areas? We would prefer to not live that lifestyle. For example, Chapel Hill in The Raleigh area is a big time university area with tons of traffic.
7. Since we used to live in Dallas, we are familiar with traffic and hoards of people, but would like to ease back in to that as we have grown accustomed to the slightly slower pace of Raleigh.

Thanks for any insight (and thanks for being nice in your replies!!)

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by Shrimpbait

1. Should we consider renting for a short term to find out what areas we would like best before buying?
2. Is Broomfield a good and easy area to live? And, possibly rent?
3. What are the areas that are not considered safe?
4. Where can we live and have nice views without paying an arm and a leg?
5. Are the property taxes high in most areas?
6. What areas are college areas?

1. Yes. Use Padmapper.com for a start. Use the filters.
2. Yes.
3. None in your price range.
4. Nowhere. Denver is a lot more expensive than Raleigh. For example, a price of $375K in Raleigh is in the top 20%. The Denver equivalent is $580K.
5. No. Low. For example, the taxes on my house [in the City & County of Denver] ($500K) are $3K. Note the taxes when you look at houses on Zillow. Taxes do not vary that much in greater Denver. (You want high property taxes, then move to Texas.)
6. None; unless you live near CU Boulder.

P.S. There are no shrimp in Denver.

[Timmyy]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

1. Yes. Use Padmapper.com for a start. Use the filters.
2. Yes.
3. None in your price range.
4. Nowhere. Denver is a lot more expensive than Raleigh. For example, a price of $375K in Raleigh is in the top 20%. The Denver equivalent is $580K.
5. No. Low. For example, the taxes on my house [in the City & County of Denver] ($500K) are $3K. Note the taxes when you look at houses on Zillow. Taxes do not vary that much in greater Denver. (You want high property taxes, then move to Texas.)
6. None; unless you live near CU Boulder.

P.S. There are no shrimp in Denver.

Yes but there are Rocky Mountain oysters.

[Now What]

And rocky mountain chocolates! Mmmmm....

[Shrimpbait]

Thanks for the info and humor!

If we were to want to downsize our mortgage as well, would we be OK in the areas considered if we were in the $250k range?

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by Shrimpbait

would we be OK in the areas considered if we were in the $250k range?

Maybe.
Tell us an address and we will provide advice.

$250K is right at the median sales price for Denver.
Denver average and median listing prices - Trulia.com
$299K is the median asking price.
Currently, houses are selling at 99.7% of list.

[Shrimpbait]

What grocery stores are considered "the nice" grocery stores? What are considered the budget stores? For example, here in Raleigh the chain considered the more upscale is Harris Teeter, while Food Lion is more the budget store.

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by Shrimpbait

What grocery stores are considered "the nice" grocery stores?

Colorado is weird.
1. King Soopers (now, part of Kroger) is #1 with a 35+% market share. Nice. In most locations. Please ignore the one at 13th and Speer in Denver. And the one at 38th and Sheridan in Wheat Ridge.

2. Safeway is #2 at 30+%. Nice.

3. Thirty years ago, these numbers were higher. Back then, it was: King, Safeway, Albertsons for 97%.

4. Now, we have the newcomers:
a. Walmart - 10+% and growing. Nice at the Lakeside store because it has been open for only 2 weeks.
b. Whole Foods - Very nice.
c. Sprouts - Nice.
d. Target - Nice
e. Vitamin Cottage and and few "Mexican" stores.

4. Albertsons is dying here. Kind of not so nice.

5. There are no others. Colorado is weird.

[Shrimpbait]

The name King Soopers always makes me laugh! But, Harris Teeter takes the cake IMO.

Even though KS has the market share, is it considered the nice store? I don't consider Whole Foods as an every day market, though I do like them! Which one is the budget one, besides Walmart?

I haven't missed Albertsons since leaving TX, but I do miss the Signature Kroger stores.

Speaking of weird: Does CO still have that weird thing where the beer in the supermarkets has less alc/vol (for the "same" beer) from other beer stores? Or, was that only in CO Springs?

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by Shrimpbait

Speaking of weird: Does CO still have that weird thing where the beer in the supermarkets has less alc/vol (for the "same" beer) from [liquor] stores?

Yes. Not changing soon.