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This gal is 100% right........the Denver metro area is getting more and more expensive by the month/year. Don't know about other parts of Colorado, but living in Denver metro ISN'T cheap.
As far as noise goes, where we live in Parker, most every night you could hear a penny drop out on the street. Yes, our area is that quiet. That is definitely one thing we will miss when we move.
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Originally Posted by GunGirlCO
Well if you are looking for low cost housing...you dont belong in Colorado to begin with! I live in parker and love it...actually moving to franktown...yeah there is not much to do in the immediate area but..it is quiet...
I laugh when people talk about how expensive CO housing costs are. Yes, compared to income it is quite high. But overall it's still "affordable". I'm living in the DC Metro area right now and will be transferring to CO most likely this winter/early spring. I have looking at housing and must say the prices are reasonable! We sold our townhouse (< 1900 sq ft) in an exurb of DC on the VA side for almost $500,000...and that's with a low offer and a really bad market!! At one point they were selling for $650,000. A single family house around here will cost you $700,000+ in a nice suburb within an hour of DC. So it's all relative...
My company has a project in CO Springs, but I have never been there. I would probably prefer to live up towards Castle Rock/Parker/Highlands Ranch. FYI - I'm late 20's, married, with a small kid. The wifey will probably stay home for a while and we'll be looking for a family-friendly type of place. I'm not a big fan of "rural" living - so Castle Rock scares me a bit.
I know most people will probably laugh at the commute from Denver to CO Springs...but I just can't live there. Too small for me. And coming from DC, 45-60 minute commutes don't bother me a bit. (12 miles takes about 60 minutes here) Would Parker be a decent choice? Or would I get a bit stir-crazy? I'm leaning towards Highlands Ranch and making the extra commute.
RunningHooligan, I understand your lack of desire to live in Colorado Springs. I didn't particularly like living there in my 20's, either (I was single at the time, so that was even worse...it's NOT a real "singles friendly" place, and I missed my friends in Nashville, etc.). I'm married now but still would choose Denver over Colorado Springs probably in a heartbeat if I ever moved back to CO. That said, I can understand your willingness to commute...I guess the only concern would be random snow storms and blizzards that crop up, making the commute difficult if not impossible. I lived there in the mid to late '90s, and I remember having about 3 major blizzards, at least one of which closed I-25 (the road leading from Colorado Springs to Denver) I think all the way to Wyoming. You shouldn't have to worry about it happening all that much, though. I know they had a cold winter this past season, but I'm not sure if there were any blizzards.
I think we have planned spend a few months in Parker, getting acclamated and looking for a place in the city. What are some areas in Denver where one can walk out their door and find a plethora of restaurants, etc?
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Originally Posted by tfox
Capitol Hill, Cheesman Park, Congress Park, Highlands, Wash Park, Platt Park, DU/University would be excellent choices. Or, just look at Westword or 5280's "best of" guides to get an idea of what's out there in the restaurant scene.
relocatingtoco -- here are a couple of links to photos of the Platt Park and Highlands areas that tfox mentioned. Sorry I can't be of more help but I do not live in Denver yet. Prices in Platt Park which I am most familiar with, range from around 250K for a small 2bd 1ba, up to 750K + for a new construction (on a "scrape" lot) 4bd type home. tfox consistently provides excellent advice and I would defer to him on the price ranges in the other neighborhoods.
I laugh when people talk about how expensive CO housing costs are. Yes, compared to income it is quite high. But overall it's still "affordable".
I totally agree! Forget California and the East Coast-- even compared to Phoenix and Las Vegas, Denver is very, very reasonable. CO property taxes are fairly middle of the road too. I could see how Denver might look expensive if you come from a small town in Iowa. But show me one other major city with the amenities Denver has and a decent job market, that's significantly cheaper than Denver.
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My company has a project in CO Springs, but I have never been there. I would probably prefer to live up towards Castle Rock/Parker/Highlands Ranch. FYI - I'm late 20's, married, with a small kid. The wifey will probably stay home for a while and we'll be looking for a family-friendly type of place. I'm not a big fan of "rural" living - so Castle Rock scares me a bit.
This is a big, big mistake. I don't understand your logic one bit. Colorado Springs is too small for you, so you're going to Highlands Ranch intead? What??? 1. First of all, the northern suburbs of Colorado Springs and the southern suburbs of Denver in Douglas county are very, very similar socially. I'm not sure if you are hinting at politics-- both if you are, both areas are firmly republican with a lot of conservative Christians. If that's what you are afraid of, Highlands Ranch is not going to be an improvement. You'd have to live all the way north in central Denver to break away from those politics. 2. Castle Rock is not a small town anymore. It is basically a satelite suburb of Denver where everybody commutes-- no different than Parker or Highlands Ranch. 3. Colorado Springs itself has a lot to offer as a city! There are a ton of things to do there-- go on their forum and ask away. It is not the small town you picture it to be, at least not anymore. And because it's about an hour south of Denver (in perfect driving conditions), it's not really an isolated city like a Spokane, WA or a Boise, ID. It forms part of the greater Front Range megalopolis, along with Denver. You need to go there yourself and explore the area before you make blanket statements about it. 4. Not only will driving from DEN to COS every day put wear and tear on your car, be a waste of gas money, be extremely frustrating, and take away precious time that you could be spending with your family, but it will be physically impossible to do if you get a major snowstorm or if a big accident occurs and they have to shut down the highway. The land between Denver and the Springs is higher elevation, with more snow than either town itself.
tfox consistently provides excellent advice and I would defer to him on the price ranges in the other neighborhoods.
Oh my, well, one of the things I find fascinating about Central Denver in particular is the very wide range of housing and incomes there. You have students and artists to entrepreneurs and professionals, singles, couples, and families. All kinds of lifestyles. As for housing, you can find everything from a $50,000 studio on Cap Hill to a tiny $150,000 cottage or rowhouse to a multi-million dollar mansion or penthouse, and everything in between. A nice sized single family home, however, would generally start in the mid-to-upper 300s depending on condition, but more likely the 400s or 500s. So, price range is a hard commodity to quantify there. There's also a BIG difference between say, Country Club North, versus Cap Hill (Cap Hill being much cheaper).
North Denver (i.e., Highlands, Berkeley) is fairly similar, but tends to be more uniformly single family of various sizes, and I think overall sizes are smaller there (more comparable to Platt Park and DU areas). The average price for a single family home will still be considerably cheaper there than Central Denver, though the 80211 (East Highlands) zip code was by far the fastest appreciating zip code in metro Denver last year, with 80212 (West Highlands) not far behind. So, it's catching up fast.
One thing is for sure, though, you'll pay more for whatever you get in Denver's neighborhoods will be way more than the suburbs or outlying Denver neighborhoods, at least on a square footage basis. As some of the suburban values are actually declining, this gap is widening. I don't like to see that, since the accessibility of Denver neighborhoods to those from all walks of life is one of their most attractive traits. We don't want to see "fortress enclaves" in the city; that's what we want to avoid in Denver.
I know they had a cold winter this past season, but I'm not sure if there were any blizzards.
There were three blizzards within about 3 wks, that's what kept snow on the ground for 60 days! The only other time since we have lived in CO that happened was the winter of 1992-93. Most winters have weeks of warm, sunny weather in between the relatively little snowfall.
FYI: Castle Rock is not exactly rural. It is the farthest southern suburb of Denver. It gets rural south of there, then Colorado Springs begins shortly.
I laugh when people talk about how expensive CO housing costs are. Yes, compared to income it is quite high. But overall it's still "affordable". I'm living in the DC Metro area right now and will be transferring to CO most likely this winter/early spring. I have looking at housing and must say the prices are reasonable! We sold our townhouse (< 1900 sq ft) in an exurb of DC on the VA side for almost $500,000...and that's with a low offer and a really bad market!! At one point they were selling for $650,000. A single family house around here will cost you $700,000+ in a nice suburb within an hour of DC. So it's all relative...
My company has a project in CO Springs, but I have never been there. I would probably prefer to live up towards Castle Rock/Parker/Highlands Ranch. FYI - I'm late 20's, married, with a small kid. The wifey will probably stay home for a while and we'll be looking for a family-friendly type of place. I'm not a big fan of "rural" living - so Castle Rock scares me a bit.
I know most people will probably laugh at the commute from Denver to CO Springs...but I just can't live there. Too small for me. And coming from DC, 45-60 minute commutes don't bother me a bit. (12 miles takes about 60 minutes here) Would Parker be a decent choice? Or would I get a bit stir-crazy? I'm leaning towards Highlands Ranch and making the extra commute.
Ok. I am a bit crazy.
Ok so you are one of the fortunate ones that can afford to live that lifestyle so yeah...I guess it is cheap to live here...now about living rural...that is the best part I think of living in Colorado...lots of land and no neighbors living right on top of you..plus you get privacy...and yeah the commute from the springs to Denver is gonna get old real quick...I do the parker to lakewood everyday...
Ugh, what about the nice BIG blizzard that hit Denver metro area in March 2003??????? That one pretty much shut EVERYTHING down. And, exactly what do you mean by "relatively little snowfall"??????? We have got video and photos of a LOT of snow since moving here in June 2002.
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Originally Posted by pittnurse70
There were three blizzards within about 3 wks, that's what kept snow on the ground for 60 days! The only other time since we have lived in CO that happened was the winter of 1992-93. Most winters have weeks of warm, sunny weather in between the relatively little snowfall.
FYI: Castle Rock is not exactly rural. It is the farthest southern suburb of Denver. It gets rural south of there, then Colorado Springs begins shortly.
The record for the most days of snow cover was in the winter of 1992-93, 63 days, I believe. We almost got there last winter with 60. Most of the snow fell in about a 3 wk period.
Yes, the March 2003 blizzard shut a lot of things down. However, the snow was gone within a few days. In 27 years here, I haven't seen a lot of bad snowstorms. My kids hardly ever had a snow day, certainly not every year and I had kids in school here from 1989 to 2005. I couldn't find any stats on the winter of 2002-03. I have seen winters when it didn't even snow much in the mountains, including the winter of 1981-82, which was a disaster for skiing. That is when a lot of ski areas put in snowmaking equipment.
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That is definitely one thing we will miss when we move. 
Housing Costs
I laugh when people talk about how expensive CO housing costs are. Yes, compared to income it is quite high. But overall it's still "affordable". I'm living in the DC Metro area right now and will be transferring to CO most likely this winter/early spring. I have looking at housing and must say the prices are reasonable! We sold our townhouse (< 1900 sq ft) in an exurb of DC on the VA side for almost $500,000...and that's with a low offer and a really bad market!! At one point they were selling for $650,000. A single family house around here will cost you $700,000+ in a nice suburb within an hour of DC. So it's all relative...
