Moving to Denver area in August - need help with apartments! (Lakewood: 2015, rental)

[kms1019]

My husband and I are moving to the Denver area from New Orleans in August and have started looking at places to live. I have spent days scouring the internet for good places, but would love to hear from people who know the area in case I've missed something! We are looking for an apartment/townhome with an attached garage (I know that's probably hard to find). We are willing to go up to $1400 for rent, but would really prefer to stay under $1200 if we can. We have been looking at the western suburbs like Broomfield and Lakewood because we have heard that it's nicer on the west side of Denver than the east side and because we would like to be close to the mountains. However, we are willing to look at the east side too if we can find a nice place within our price range. My husband will be working at the Federal Center in Lakewood so we would like to be somewhere that he wouldn't have too ridiculous of a commute. Ideally we would like to have a place with a nice pool and some sort of gym/work-out facility. If anyone has any information or suggestions for us, I would really appreciate it! I am going out there next week to look at places, so if anyone has any suggestions I will definitely check them out when I am there!
Thanks so much!!

[Mike from back east]

A recent thread on Lakewood might have some answers. Rents are rather high now in the whole city.

[davebarnes]

Increase your budget and welcome to Denver.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

If your husband is working at the Federal Center, then don't even consider looking east or southeast. The commute would kill him. Plenty to chose from on the west/southwest side of Denver. Rents are ridiculously high right now, so you should probably give up on the pool and gym.

[ALStafford]

I live in Lakewood, in bicycling distance to the Fed Center at 7166 at Belmar Urban Flats. My building has a heated pool for year-round use, as well as a community hot tub, a work out room, package service (if you have a delivery, they'll hold it til you get home). We have a covered, controlled parking lot, but no garages. Are you looking for a 1-BR or 2-BR? You may find a 1-BR at the upper end of your price range; 2-BR would be higher than your range. You might also want to look at Ashford Belmar apartments, I believe they have some with garages, but am not sure if they are attached.

If you have any questions about the Belmar area of Lakewood, or Lakewood in general, feel free to PM me as well.

[kms1019]

Thank you so much for that suggestion, ALStafford! We are looking for a 2-bedroom (I should have mentioned that) so your place may be a bit out of our price range. I believe the Ashford Belmar does have a couple of floorplans that are in our budget and I had looked at them, but when I looked at reviews online they weren't good I know that reviews don't mean much a lot of times and I like to actually be able to talk to people who know the places - do you know anything about the Ashford Belmar in particular or heard anything good or bad about it?

Unfortunately we can't just raise our budget - our income is our income and unfortunately we can't go any higher. Believe me, I wish we could - we have found some amazing places that we would move to in a heartbeat if we could afford $2000 a month! I have found a few places in the area in our budget (granted they are on the high end, which I have expected) that have most of the things we are looking for so I know they exist. However, a lot of the places I've found don't have good reviews when I look them up online. This is why, like I said, I'm really looking for specific suggestions from people who really know these places and would recommend them. I put more meaning into recommendations from people on sites like this than I do on the official apartment ratings websites, because I know from experience that a lot of "reviews" are fake and I've actually even known bad complexes to pay residents to write good reviews! We don't need anything super fancy by any means, just something that we are comfortable in and that's not a dump, that people would actually recommend in real life! We have only been to the area a few times and love the west side of town, but we don't know the area that well yet and I really want to be able to make the most of the time I'm going to be out there next week looking for a place. I have literally wanted to live in the Denver area my whole life and now that we have the opportunity, we really want to be able to have a good living experience while we are there
Thanks everyone!

[DavidBilly]

there are a ton of apartments @ 6th and Union/Simms near Red Rocks CC
you have The Point for a awesome gym, tons of restaurants and coffee shops, your hubby could walk to work.
close to Mtns and a zillion parks, light rail station runs through the area, lots of fun to be had.

thepointatlakewood

good luck

[ALStafford]

I really don't like being this blunt, but your wish list is completely unrealistic for your price point. You will not find a 2-BR apartment with an attached garage, in a complex with a pool and gym for less than $1600. It just is not going to happen unless you're willing to commute over an hour on a day with perfect weather and NO traffic. Denver is currently #1 in the nation for rent increases annually; Denver rents have increased a minimum of 5% annually since 2010, and the change between January 2014 and January 2015 was 14.2%. Yes, you read that right, a 1-year increase of over 14%. The national average increase in rent in the US was 14% for 2010-2015; that happened in the Denver metro in one year.

I understand your income "is what it is;" I work for the state, and our average annual wage increase is about 1.5%, and my income is about 10-15% below what my counterparts make in private industry since I do work for the state. I get that you have a budget. But you will need to adjust your expectations and needs if you are not willing to/truly unable to increase your budget for your housing. You will not be able to get the amenities you want for the price you're wanting to pay.

[eatsDEN]

when you get into town, try to squeeze in a few looks through some condo complexes -- sometimes owners in that kind of setting will advertise at the announcement boards that are normally near the mailboxes, etc... and no where else...

I would check out the towns of Arvada, Golden, Morrison, & Wheatridge to see if you can find a rental there also, personally.... nice suburbs, plenty of 'stuff', still pretty close to downtown/mountains -- a bit closer to Boulder -- which can be fun to visit sometimes for the food/art/music scene - to me at least...

good luck in your search from a fellow NOLA transplant...

Pro tip: get your seafood fill prior to getting here, a seafood market $15 Grouper (on the Gulf) will set you back $65 here at whole paycheck...
and blue crab crab fingers are almost non-existant in Denver metro, except for at Papadeaux's (which is marginal cajun/creole cuisine at best, generally,
the crab fingers are passable).....


on the plus side, the Colorado Peaches in August are great, and the local meat is top notch - esp the spring lamb and bison...

[kms1019]

I really am aware that it is expensive to live in the area, and that it will be hard to find everything we want - trust me, I have been scouring the internet for weeks and I know this. However, as I have said, I have found a few places that fit our needs in our price point so I know that they do exist and not totally unrealistic. I mentioned things that we would like; however, some of them are not necessary and I am really looking for suggestions for specific complexes that people would recommend.

eatsDEN - I have been looking in those towns as well and really love them! We're excited about pretty much everything in Denver...we haven't particularly enjoyed being in New Orleans and are excited to finally be able to live someplace nice where we can have fun! Do you know of any specific apartment/condo locations that you would recommend us checking out? We are really just interested in anywhere on the west side of Denver and would really appreciate specific recommendations if anyone else has any

Thanks!