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Old 01-06-2012, 10:15 PM
 
Location: Santa Clarita for Now
22 posts, read 71,236 times
Reputation: 19

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My family and I are considering moving from Southern California to
Highlands Ranch or Parker possible South Littleton just across from
the 470 near Arapahoe High school. We have two kids in 6th and 8th grade.
We looked at Highlands ranch high, Chapparal and Thunderridge and want
our kids to attend a good school with solid academics and good sports programs. We like the way Highlands Ranch is laid out and all that it offers but noticed you get more for your money in Parker which is more spread out. Any advice?
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Old 01-07-2012, 05:54 AM
 
Location: Littleton, CO
3,158 posts, read 6,090,207 times
Reputation: 5619
A lot depends on your job. Where is it located?

Highlands Ranch offers better accessablility to the city and all the employment, retail, entertainment, and educational options that are there. It also has access to better mass transit, if that is a concern.

Parker is much further out and it takes a while to get to places where you want to go. It is growing, but is pretty isolated from the rest of the metro area. You could spend much of your time commuting to places that are much closer to HR.

The schools are pretty much a wash, though TRHS probably has the best overall sports programs out of the schools you have mentioned.
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Old 01-07-2012, 12:16 PM
 
Location: Highlands Ranch, CO
6 posts, read 19,897 times
Reputation: 16
Highlands Ranch is closer in to Denver and is higher valued real estate. Parker is futher out and you have to travel longer. Highlands Ranch offers much more and was ranked the No. 1 place to raise a family.
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Old 01-07-2012, 03:28 PM
 
Location: Santa Clarita for Now
22 posts, read 71,236 times
Reputation: 19
I am a mortgage loan officer and can work pretty much anywhere as the busy is automated now a days.
I would have an office within 5 miles of my home. I want to move but need to convince my wife to leave
California, any advice is much appreciated.
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Old 01-07-2012, 03:47 PM
 
Location: Greater NYC
3,176 posts, read 6,186,777 times
Reputation: 4570
Personal opinion, clearly, but Parker feels like it's halfway to Kansas. And traffic into Denver proper? No thanks. I used to drive to Parker from downtown for work every other week and each time I would think to myself Parker is in the middle of nowhere AND it takes FOREVER to get there. No so with HR.

I'm from CA, Bay Area and LA, and spent 13 years total in CO and the only thing I missed about CA was the ocean but not enough to move back.
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Old 01-07-2012, 06:45 PM
 
Location: Santa Clarita for Now
22 posts, read 71,236 times
Reputation: 19
thanks for the advice yes driving to Parker on Lincoln Avenue last week took a bit as that street seems
to be pretty busy. The two high schools we liked were Highlands Ranch and Chapparal on the west side of Parker. I think we prefer Highlands ranch too but I am just trying to find out as much as I can as we only spent 2 full days looking around those areas.
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Old 01-07-2012, 06:52 PM
 
232 posts, read 800,714 times
Reputation: 112
According to what publication? Number one in the nation, Denver metro, or Colorado?

Quote:
Originally Posted by jdanforth View Post
Highlands Ranch [cut] was ranked the No. 1 place to raise a family.
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Old 01-07-2012, 09:05 PM
 
Location: Henderson, NV
8,886 posts, read 20,262,668 times
Reputation: 5619
The traveling distance to Parker from the I-25 is about the same as to HR! We lived in Parker, on a hill right behind the Village Inn on Parker Rd, near the PD, back in 2004 til late 2007. Back then, I drove from our house in Parker to 1 mile north of Coors Field for 4 1/2 yrs without much trouble. In fact, when the I-25 was widened at the old tire factory, getting to Denver went pretty fast. But, I also had to be at work at 7AM, so was on the I-25 heading north at 6:40AM. During the winter months, there were times I had to leave home at 6:15AM on the nose.

From what we understand a lot more people now live in Parker than when we did. When we lived there, Parker seemed to have much more "down to earth" people than HR did. A lot of rich folks lived in HR back then and it was well known that HR was full of doctors, lawyers......high class professionals who would definitely have more money than folks in Parker.
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Old 01-07-2012, 10:15 PM
 
Location: here
24,873 posts, read 36,035,367 times
Reputation: 32726
Considering the fact that commuting won't be an issue, would you rather have a stand-alone smaller town type feel, or a suburb-adjacent-to-a-larger-city type feel?
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Old 01-07-2012, 11:24 PM
 
Location: RSM
5,113 posts, read 19,692,573 times
Reputation: 1927
HR is more like one giant community split into little pieces, while Parker is more like one giant area split into completely separate developments. In some cases there is quite a large economic divide between the communities in Parker(difference between the Pinery to Pinery Glen to Pradera, for instance), where they're more fluid and similar in HR. Both places can be great to raise families, regardless. Personally, schedule a trip and take a look at the neighborhoods that you find affordable. The neighbors are generally quite personable, in my experience
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