Best schools / commute in Denver (Aurora, Lakewood: houses, established neighborhood, university)

[movingfromAuroraIL]

We are moving from Aurora, IL to the Denver area and need some advice on areas with good schools, and areas that will minimize commute time. I will be working in the Quest building downtown. I would like to have a max commute time of 45 minutes. We have been looking online at towns all around Denver.

Would Broomfield be too far?

Would Castle Rock be longer than 45 minutes away?

Would Golden be too far?

thx for any/all opinions!

[2bindenver]

What are you looking for in a community and why?

Broomfield could be ok.
Golden could be ok
Castle Rock would be a pain.

[movingfromAuroraIL]

What we want in a neighborhood / area :

1 - good schools
2 - short(er) commute (prefer 30 - 45 min max at high time)
3 - established neighborhood (mature trees, etc)
4 - 4 BR house with basement
5 - large-ish lot and/or backs to open space

As an example, we saw a post of someone liking 80127, so we checked it out online and liked what we saw.

Any other suggestions of neighborhoods?

thx!

[Katiana]

30-45 min commute at high time doesn't leave you a lot of options. Try the closer-in suburbs. You might be able to get to/from Broomfield, but no farther than that, IMO. Golden would be a stretch, on the longer end of it for sure.

[dj32]

why not consider one of the denver neighborhoods? If you are looking for mature neighborhoods with trees, denver is the best place to find that.
why a suburb?
I think many would envy you working downtown.
stapleton would also be a very good commute (10 minutes) but not very many trees. LOts of parks and open space though.

[movingfromAuroraIL]

thx to pittnurse70 and dj32 .... FYI we would love a Denver neighborhood , but not sure where to start. If you could recommend some areas and/or zip codes to search on for houses, that would be great.

[Katiana]

Since you are looking for good schools, I assume you have kids in same. Considering that, I'd look in the SE part of the city. Some names: Wash Park, Bonnie Brae, DU.

[tfox]

You could try southeast Denver: Southmoor, University Hills, Bible Park. Those houses don't have the historic charm of central Denver, but they are nicely located and do have pretty good schools.

[rockiesredhead]

Check out 80007 and 80403. These are suburbs in West Arvada and northeast Golden -- great neighborhoods that have easy access to 1-70 into downtown. Many of the schools in these neighborhoods are rated as excellent or high. Also, something to consider, the area is less dense than Broomfield, which we really like, although there is less commercial areas, but malls & restaurants are still close by. Also, very desirable is the quick access to the foothills for hiking and easy access to the mountains for skiing. Let me know if you have any questions. I've lived here for 7 years and love it.

[MorningGlory]

Originally Posted by movingfromAuroraIL

What we want in a neighborhood / area :

1 - good schools
2 - short(er) commute (prefer 30 - 45 min max at high time)
3 - established neighborhood (mature trees, etc)
4 - 4 BR house with basement
5 - large-ish lot and/or backs to open space

As an example, we saw a post of someone liking 80127, so we checked it out online and liked what we saw.

Any other suggestions of neighborhoods?

thx!

I would try 80228. Thats the Green Mtn area of Lakewood. Lots of 1960s/1970s homes with big lots, basements, fairly close-in and also close to mountains. Also lots of 8 thru 10 ranked schools on greatschools.net.