Harvey Park area..nice? (Denver, Lakewood: sale, real estate, rental)

[sunflowers00]

Hi. My husband and I are relocating to Denver next week and found a small house to rent in the Harvey Park area. We were wondering what the neighborhood is like (nice...family oriented), crime rate, commute time with traffic to downtown Denver, etc. Any advice on nice and affordable (we don't want to spend more than $1200/3bdrm rental) areas to live, please let me know.

Thanks,
Patsy

[tfox]

It's probably not one of Denver's nicest neighborhoods, but it's not the worst either. Housing stock is mostly 50s ranches of fairly modest character. Crime is higher than you'd like to see in a neighborhood, but not quite as bad as some of the tougher southwest Denver neighborhoods further to the north. Although it's in Denver, it's not really all that close to downtown, being situated somewhat in the southwest end of Denver.

I live in Denver and usually try to encourage people to consider Denver as an option in comparison to the suburbs. However, in this case, I think you could do a bit better than Harvey Park. I suggest looking to the west in Lakewood, or to the south in Littleton area. Or, if you want to stay in south Denver, cross over Santa Fe and you'll find some great neighborhoods to the east (though maybe out of your price range). While the suburban areas would be a little bit further out than Harvey Park, it wouldn't be significantly so. Finding a 3br/2ba for $1200.00 a month might be a challenge, but I think it's doable as long as you're willing to live with somewhat dated housing.

Craigslist is a great resource for finding rental housing, so I suggest doing a search there.

[livecontent]

Originally Posted by TropicanaRose

This is a fabulous thread, and I'm having fun seeing people's take on two of my favorite neighborhoods- AAcres and Harvey Park. If you love mid century mod and have the money, Arapahoe Acres is just amazing. There are some gorgeous bargain MCMs here and there in Harvey Park, too.

My grandparents were the original owners and longtime residents of a nice ranch near the lake in Harvey Park. They also helped to found and build Harvey Park Baptist Church. When I was growing up, the neighborhood was absolutely immaculate- I have never seen any neighborhood that was more well kept. People had perfect lawns, and many had beautiful gardens in the spacious back yards. My grandfather was "known" for his roses. Most of the neighbors were GIs like my grandfather, and most of the women were SAHMs. There weren't many young families, but the few that lived there were really fussed over by the older folks. There were tons of back yard BBQs, and everyone seemed to know everyone else within a couple of blocks.

The neighborhood went pretty down-at-heels, I think towards the end of the 80s, early 90s. It was never a cesspool, or dangerous that I know of, but, as more and more of the old owners were less able to care for their yards, and eventually died or left, it just wasn't kept up in the same way. It also, I am sorry to say, became less friendly. A larger number of the older generation than we would like to think were very bigoted. I don't remember open hostility, but there were a lot of whispers about "the Spanish." By the time my grandfather left, around the mid 90s, it had become kind of depressing.

Now, it is looking very nice again. We always go by the old house and church when we are anywhere nearby, and it has made me happy to see the neighborhood bouncing back. It seems like a neighborhood that is as happy in its new diversity as it was in its old homogeneity. I don't know anyone who lives there now, so I have no idea what the vibe of the neighborhood is as far as knowing everybody, but it is once again a pleasant looking and feeling place. Many people waved to us the last few times we've been through.

My husband and I considered it when we were thinking of moving to Denver- especially when we saw a great MCM place. However, the lack of a nice shopping area very close by, and the schools were big turnoffs for us. I suspect it is the same for many young families. You can always choose a private school, but it's nice when you feel good about the neighborhood school.

Incidentally, there is a realtor who specializes in Modern in the Denver area. He has a website with lots of great pictures and history. I don't know him well, but he was very responsive to us when we were looking. I'm not sure that we're supposed to link to commercial sites, but if you google "Modern Denver real estate" it is the first result. Lots of great info for those that love Modern design.

It is great to hear the history of this area. The Park is one of my favorites with the lake and I would stop there to lay on the grass.

This is a picture of a home currently on sale in Harvey Park

$269,900



Notice the great foliage, large yards and brick homes.

I think there is nice little shopping on the Southern edge of Harvey Park--it was the old Bear Valley Mall--and now has a King Soopers. I like this area off of Dartmouth, it has a branch of The Denver Public Library. Bear Valley Park is extremely nice going all the way west to Lakewood. There is a Target on South Sheridan in this area, surrounded by some shopping, just west of Harvey Park.

Livecontent

[MobyLL]

Some photos of Harvey Park -- I took 'em this afternoon:

Originally Posted by livecontent

Harvey Park. From Jewell to Yale, east of Sheridan. You are not going to believe this area--it has a beautiful city park called--you guessed it Harvey Park with a nice little lake (I would take a nap here)--a school near by and a well kept neighborhood. Next to the Park on the west, you will see upscale homes that are hiding their own private lake. Yes, some of you, in the know, will point out that the neighborhood quickly changes to very small homes as it goes east to Federal. These homes were the type built after World War II, for housing of returning GIs. This would not put me off of living in Harvey Park and I think these small homes of the post war years are an interesting aspect of Denver. I have not heard about crime in this area.
Livecontent

The first houses here are northeast of the park and are the modest houses built after WWII that livecontent referred to in his original post. Most of the houses are kept up pretty well.

I have interspesed pictures of the park itself among the houses; after the first set of houses there is another area that has some mid-century modern type homes and then some larger and more typically suburban houses to the soutwest of of the park. All the pictures (except a few bonus shots at the end) were taken within a mile of the park.



















































So as TropicanaRose mentioned there are also some mid-century modern houses here! These shots were mostly taken just north and west of the park, but there are some similar houses to the south of the park.































































OK the rest of the houses are mostly west and southwest of the park. There are a couple of private lakes in the neighborhood in addition to the lake in the park itself. Some of these homes border a lake.























I was going to go swimming today, but wouldn't you know it... the gate to the pool was locked and I forgot my bolt cutter.



















Here are some bonus photos of downtown and the sunset... tried to get the sun reflecting off the buildings, but I was too late.

[livecontent]

MobyLL, I cannot keep up with you. Where do you find the time with small children??

Great look at this area. You even caught some of the homes on that private lake in the near Harvey Park Lake. I like these small homes because they are good for singles, small families, less energy to maintain, less furniture to buy, and there is that beauty in simplicity.

Thank You,

Livecontent

[MobyLL]

Originally Posted by livecontent

MobyLL, I cannot keep up with you. Where do you find the time with small children??

Haha, that is a good question. And actually this will probably be the last one for awhile. We are going to start going to the mountains more on the weekends and have the kids start learning to ski/snowboard. Also, I work with computers from home but the company I work for has some major projects starting in Florida next month so I will have to do more travelling than I have had to the last few months.

It doesn't take long to shoot these shots and upload them though. Maybe 3 hours total, since i just have a point and click camera and do minimal editing (a little cropping usually) of the photos. So I spend about 2 hours walking around taking pictures and then about an hour editing/uploading.

What DenverAztec does though is a lot more work, but of course that shows up in the quality of his photos.

[Daniel_T]

Wonderful photos. Looks like a nice neighborhood to live in.

[kevin_in_Denver]

In doing a little research, it seems Harvey Park is getting quite a few cheap repos on the market.

This seems to be pretty rare for such a nice neighborhood, I hope it doesn't spread.

[Labweiler]

Wash Park & Denver Highlands take a step back as The Harvey Park nighborhood is one of Denver's greatest little secrets. If you like all the character found in some of Denver's old neighborhoods such as Wash Park and the now the Denver Highlands, but don't have 400- $700K to spend on a house than Harvey Park may be right up your alley.
The Harvey Park neighborhood is a perfect blend of well built brick houses and tall mature trees that bring so much color to the area especially now that spring has sprung. The streets are wide and the yards are big which isn't the norm in most Denver neighborhoods. The park itself is a great place for runners and bikers with contant lake views. Speaking of lakes, lakes are abundant in this neighborhood if you just explore a little bit. There is one private lake with expensive houses surrounding the lake in the heart of Harvey Park, but otherwise most houses are a steal.
We are starting to see some fix ups (flips) of houses become more and more common in this neighborhood, but most in Denver don't know much about this great little neighborhood.
With it's proximity to Bel Mar, all the shoping on Wadsworth, and 15-20 minutes from downtown Harvey Park is definitely a great find.

[TropicanaRose]

We had a thread awhile back on best kept secret neighborhoods, including Harvey Park, and there is a lot of good information there. Try a search for "Harvey Park." There is a ton of great information in that thread.

I think Harvey Park is a good option for a couple who wants to be in town in a pleasant neighborhood. Harvey Park is not upscale, so if that's what you are looking for, it won't meet your needs. Also, if you like MCM architecture, there are some gorgeous places, including some Cliff Mays.