Urban Denver Hood for a young family (Englewood, Evans: rent, condos)

[jnichols2]

So I am moving for a job near DU and wondering about my home/neighborhood options. I know this is a very broad question, but I can give you a bit of background...

Family of 3 with a 7 year old daughter. We are quite liberal and prefer an established city neighborhood that is peaceful, but walkable to restaurants, stores, parks, etc. Suburbia, gated communities, and driving 30+ minutes to work is my personal hell. We would be looking to spend up to 450K. We are perfectly ok with a smaller home (1300-2000 sq ft, which appears to be our only choice given some of the astronomical housing prices in the city), or maybe even a townhouse/condo IF it is very close to green space.

I've been concentrating on areas between DU and downtown since we want to avoid drifting southward into the suburbs, or westward across the river (long commute to downtown or work = bad). However, Wash Park and some nearby neighborhoods seem insanely pricey. Can anyone suggest other possibilities that might work? We will probably do private school, so school district is maybe not quite as important. But safe, walkable, and family-friendly are all musts.

What about Hilltop, South Park Hill, Platt Park, Congress Park, West Wash Park? Are these even do-able with our budget? Can anyone suggest other city neighborhoods that I am missing?

[ELCO5280]

Why not rent and give yourself time to explore all these neighborhoods to determine the feel, walkability and affordability?

[billiken]

I think the options you listed are on the right track, but for a single family home, your price point pretty much puts you on the lower end of the market. Congress Park is great, but everything I see seems to be selling for over $500k. You might consider half a duplex, since those seem to be in the 300s, but sqft will be smaller than you're hoping in a lot of cases.

[MissTerri]

DU, Platte Park, West Wash Park, Baker, Harvard Gulch and Old Englewood. 80210, 80204, 80113 are good places to start.

All of these areas are an easy commute to DU and I think you will find them all to be walkable to varying degrees, some more then others.

[2bindenver]

Denver is very suburban in nature. Look in a 10 mile radius and go from there. The housing market is super hot right now. Be pre approved for your loan, write escalation clauses, and be prepared to pounce.

Otherwise it's a rental. Even those are hard to get into these days.

[davebarnes]

Find a house INSIDE the boundary of Report Card

Problem solved.

You must be INSIDE the boundary.
Denver Public Schools

10 minute commute

No need for private school so can spend more on house.

[MissTerri]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

Find a house INSIDE the boundary of Report Card

Problem solved.

You must be INSIDE the boundary.
Denver Public Schools

10 minute commute

Slavens is ideal if you go with public schools in DPS since it covers both elementary and middle school. There are a decent number of good elementary schools in DPS but very few decent middle school options. Slavens covers both. It's also a nice neighborhood (Wellshire) although not quite as walkable as the op was describing.

OP, you say that you will probably put your daughter in private school. Do you have any ideas as to which private school? Commute to her school will be an important factor to consider, I'd imagine.

[jnichols2]

School will be in the Cherry Creek area. So a house in the areas between DU and downtown/City park would be ideal. Again, we are not really concerned about DPS district (other than how it might affect resale value, I guess).

For our price point, it looks like our only option in places like cherry creek or wash park would be condos or duplexes as someone mentioned. But this might be doable since I see some that are extremely close to green spaces and shops/restaurants. I guess if I were steps from the entrance to Wash Park we might be ok with with a small space sans yard.

Otherwise, I see a few possibilities in South Park Hill and West Wash Park. Can anyone comment on what these areas are like? Englewood and Harvard Gulch are close to work but seem a bit out-of-the-way in terms of access to the city. I'd like to say North and East of 25 if possible. Hadn't thought of Baker. Look a bit "gritty", but google maps can be deceiving of course.

[mundele]

You might want to take a closer look at Harvard Gulch. The stretch on Downing between Harvard and Wesley has a small selection of restaurants, but they're all pretty good. There are a few shop there too, plus a Dazbog coffee. You can walk to Safeway and more food/coffee options along Evans or head towards Broadway, or head a few blocks north to Pearl St. for even more.

I like Harvard Gulch park since it's a big park and yet gets nowhere near as crowded as Wash Park. There are a number of other smaller parks in the area too. Getting downtown from this area is pretty easy as well. In no traffic, you can be downtown in less than ten minutes via 25, and during rush hour there are lots of side options (Broadway, Logan, etc) to get into downtown, not to mention the light rail is very close too. You could walk to wherever work is located.

If it's just the three of you, the smaller houses in that area will be a good size and your price range seems right. There are more and more younger families moving into this area. I used to live in Baker and liked it, but "grit" aside it seems more geared towards the hipster/20s/30s crowd than those with kids.

[robertgoodman]

Originally Posted by jnichols2

School will be in the Cherry Creek area. So a house in the areas between DU and downtown/City park would be ideal. Again, we are not really concerned about DPS district (other than how it might affect resale value, I guess).

For our price point, it looks like our only option in places like cherry creek or wash park would be condos or duplexes as someone mentioned. But this might be doable since I see some that are extremely close to green spaces and shops/restaurants. I guess if I were steps from the entrance to Wash Park we might be ok with with a small space sans yard.

Otherwise, I see a few possibilities in South Park Hill and West Wash Park. Can anyone comment on what these areas are like? Englewood and Harvard Gulch are close to work but seem a bit out-of-the-way in terms of access to the city. I'd like to say North and East of 25 if possible. Hadn't thought of Baker. Look a bit "gritty", but google maps can be deceiving of course.

Baker is fine. A little (or a lot) hipster but the grittiness of the 80's and 90's has pretty much been swept away by gentrification by now. Not sure what you are seeing on Google that makes you think otherwise but when I go there I don't think it's gritty at all.

South Park Hill is where the governor lives (enough said as far as niceness goes), but most of the walkability comes from Colfax which is still gritty in sections, and it's a little more urban edge than urban. West wash park is nice with the primary difference from the east side of the park is it has more multi-family buildings so you have more income diversity.

If you can find something in Platt Park or Congress park it sounds like those could be good fits for you. Problem is 450k would have been attainable in those 'hoods a few years ago, but I don't think that's the case anymore -at least not for single family homes-.