The Burbs (Denver, Littleton, Broomfield: for sale, mover, low crime)

[Grailmaiden]

I have heard that a large percentage of residents of Colorado live in the suburbs. Does anyone have any opinion on which suburb is best if one is concerned about great schools, low crime, and well-maintained neighborhoods? Is North, South, East, or West of Denver better? Do they have their own distinct personalities or demographics? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[kwk722]

Each direction has nice suburbs. I couldnt tell you about the schools. You might get 20 different opinions about which area is the nicest. You cant go wrong in each direction. What else are you looking for?

[FromBroomfield]

Broomfield!

[bashawclan]

We are in the process of moving from Charlotte, NC to the Denver area. We're buying a house in Parker, closing tomorrow. Parker is a surb the SE corner of Denver.

Reasons:
-Parts of it were older (10-12yrs) so these areas had larger trees.
-After researching schools I felt that the Douglas County schools were the best Public Schools, our son in going into 11th.
-The main rd thru the area is Parker rd (N to S), which is wide and runs fairly smooth. Parker rd meets most of the main E to W streets on the south side of town, it also meets up with E-470 (loop) and in a roundabout way meets up with I-225.
-Parker has a small downtown area that gives a feel of living in a small town instead of a burb.
-Cherry Creek park system, which is basically a large main creek that leads to the man made lake, but they don't allow building next to the river so instead there are walking/running trails along it.
-Lastly commute to works - My husbands job is in Littleton (SW corner) while mine work will be in the NE corner of Denver. Parker was meeting in the middle.

We looked at:
Castle Rock and while it was nice it felt so far away and I've been told that the weather is worst down there.
Lonetree which was nice but there were not many houses on the market when we were looking and the ones that were for sales were up there in price.

For just the straight numbers on Colorado schools take a look at this site:
School Accountability Report - School Search (http://reportcard.cde.state.co.us/reportcard/CommandHandler.jsp - broken link)
For information on cities, including crime numbers check out this site:
http://www.city-data.com/

[fedupinsocal]

Originally Posted by bashawclan

We are in the process of moving from Charlotte, NC to the Denver area. We're buying a house in Parker, closing tomorrow. Parker is a surb the SE corner of Denver.

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I live in California and my husband and I have been seriously looking at N.Carolina. However, someone else told us to look at the Denver area because N.C. isn't what it used to be. We were looking at the Raleigh area. May I ask what caused you to leave NC?

[bashawclan]

My husbands company bought another company out west two year ago. After all the intergration was done they wanted him to manager that part of the business. I wasn't excited about dealing with the winters but everyone tells me that they are a piece of cake compared to that of the Mid-West, where we originally come from, we'll see. Love the summer weather!!

I don't know anything about the Raleigh area but I have heard great things. Not sure what your looking for that NC would have changed that much. Housing cost has gone up but that is everywhere. Our neighbors came from California and went from a small house there to what they considered a manision in NC and it cost them less. No matter where you decide to move I would visit first.

[mover6]

to mover from Calif. to possibly Denver...........I did the same a couple of years ago and am desperately seeking out of here.
some negatives:
high altitude, I get tired more easily all the time.
dry, dry , and very dry, I look 5 years older than anywhere else I have lived.
It is a lie, you dont get more land for your dollar, small yards everywhere.
You had better love to ski and drive many hours to do it, I do not.

best wishes