Young kids, small town to suburb, good schools. Where to move? (Denver: rentals, low crime)

[seethesun]

Hi everyone,

My wife is in talks with a company about a position that may take us to Denver. Her offices would be located in 80112, which from reading the threads I see is not really Englewood.

We are trying to decide if it's some place we want to move, if offered the job. And if so...where? Looking at Google Maps I saw a little area called Castle Pines, seems a bit out of the way, but still close for my wife's commute. Any word on it?

These are the items that are high priority for us.

• Work commute: 30 minutes or less.
• Good schools. We have a 3 (almost 4) year older and a 1 year old).
• Nice home rentals (probably up to $2k, 3+ bedroom, 2500+ square feet)
• Town Size: Small town feel up to a suburb. My wife comes from a town that's about 6000 people. We have lived in Las Vegas for the last decade, but she would like to get back to the small town feel. However, "small town" is not make or break. Suburb will do. Just not a urban living.
• Low Crime.
• Sociable community.
• Variety of restaurants, not necessarily walking distance, but a close drive.
• Good parks would be nice, but not make or break.

Thanks for any insight on the area.


David

[woob]

FYI most of denver is not "urban living". Many older neighborhoods such as gaylord and platte park have more of a small town feel than the many suburbs which have no main street to speak of. However, it looks like your work is significantly south of denver so you will have plenty of suburbs to chose from if that is what you want.

[2bindenver]

Can you give us cross streets for this new job? Do you have experience driving in snow? Rentals are hard to come by, so you need to be very diligent in looking.

Do a radius search start with 3-5 miles and if there is nothing you like, go out from there. Castle Pines in a nice community, but you are not likely to get a rental under $2,000, unless it's a townhome.

[seethesun]

Thanks for the responses. The crossroads look to be Dry Creek and Inverness.

Experience driving in snow? My wife is originally from Pennsylvania (though it has been a decade since living in snow) and I lived in PA for about 6 months during the snowy season. Past that, our experience has been the occasional trip to Brian Head, UT during ski season.

Yes, after my original post I looked up Castle Pines and found it was quite a bit out of our price range. Are there areas to avoid in terms of being run down, crime, bad schools, etc?

To be honest, the weather is one thing that really makes me hesitate moving there. We live in Las Vegas and I am originally from Dallas, TX. I love the heat and don't mind vacationing in the snow, but not sure about living in the cold/snow. So that will be something I have to come to terms with if this goes through.

I do have a couple other questions. First, what months are typical for snow? I will look for that answer, but thought I would ask in my thread.

Second, we have driven through Denver (when we moved from PA to Las Vegas) and we were in 4 cylinders. It was torture going up the inclines. I was waiting for my car to just give up and start rolling back down the hill.

I am not sure if it was our cars at the time (a decade old at the time) or if it's a 4-cylinder in general. My question....do you have this issue with your 4-cylinder? Is this move to going to cause me to have to buy a 6 or 8 cylinder as both of our cars right now are 4 cylinders.

Thanks again.

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by seethesun

we were in 4 cylinders. It was torture going up the inclines. I was waiting for my car to just give up and start rolling back down the hill. ... question....do you have this issue with your 4-cylinder?

1. My Audi A3 has four cylinders and I have driven thru the tunnel at over 60 mph.
2. If your car is not a Subaru, you will not be allowed to move to Colorado. There is a state law that all new residents must own a Subaru.

[seethesun]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

2. If your car is not a Subaru, you will not be allowed to move to Colorado. There is a state law that all new residents must own a Subaru.

Haha. I have read a few threads talking about the ridiculous amount of Subaru's there. I guess I will just follow the herd.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

Seethesun, there are lots of very nice areas within 30 minutes of your job, and you should be able to find good rentals in your price range. Nice subdivisions along County Line Rd., Dry Creek Rd. West of I-25, and along Arapahoe Rd. on both east and west of I-25.

Finding a small town versus a suburb is going to be a lot harder. The two that come to mind are Littleon and Parker, both of which have grown beyond their original small town "feel".

[Snikt]

Originally Posted by seethesun

Haha. I have read a few threads talking about the ridiculous amount of Subaru's there. I guess I will just follow the herd.

Or a Jeep, I'm actually thinking there are more Jeeps than Subarus now, at least in the south Metro area

[BarryK123]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

2. If your car is not a Subaru, you will not be allowed to move to Colorado. There is a state law that all new residents must own a Subaru.

But only a green one.

[seethesun]

Originally Posted by Dreaming of Hawaii

Finding a small town versus a suburb is going to be a lot harder. The two that come to mind are Littleon and Parker, both of which have grown beyond their original small town "feel".

The little town is just a wish for my wife, but it's definitely not a dealbreaker. She feels that she had a real good quality of life (that's our buzz phrase right now) growing up in her small town and wishes that for our kids.

At the same time, I felt like I had a good quality of life and I lived in a suburb with over 150,000 people. I just want to make sure the schools are good as that's one of the reasons we are leaving Las Vegas, whether with this job or at some other point.

How are the yards there? In Las Vegas, many, many, many places have relatively no front yard and the backyard....well, if you open the door and laid down from your patio to your back wall (we have cinder walls here, not a fence) you could touch both at the same time! And I'm only 5'6".

That might be a slight exaggeration for most backyards, but truly only slight...and some definitely fall in that category. It would be nice to have a yard for our kids without living on top of neighbors.

Is that doable at what we are currently looking to pay $2000/mo?