Cost of living and neighborhoods w/in 30 mins downtown? (Denver: 2015, apartment)

[pete6032]

1. Can you recommend a neighborhood for a single person in their early 30s?
2. Preferably this neighborhood would be within a 30 minute commute to the heart of downtown via public transportation.
3. Is it possible to live car-free? Walk/transit to grocery, library, bank, etc. Would prefer these services in the neighborhood or close by.
4. How is the cost of living in Denver? What would a 2BR apartment go for in these recommended neighborhoods? How much does a meal at a neighborhood pub cost? I live in Chicago proper right now on the north side, would I see an increased COL or about the same?

[Claire S.]

Cap Hill/Cheeseman Park is probably your best option. Uptown, LoDo, LoHi, Baker, and Golden Triangle are other close-in options. You could live near light rail around Wash Park/Platt Park. I think the further away you get from the urban core, the harder it will be to live without a car.

[TechMike]

Stay within 5 miles of downtown and you'll be fine for 30 minutes via public transit. 5 miles is also a good bicycling distance, if that's your thing.

I live in Edgewater, which is to the west of downtown a few miles. My wife and I lived car free for a couple months. Lots of biking and buses. We have two bus lines that run frequent enough to plan around within two blocks either direction of our house.

Look on a site like padmapper to figure out how much rent will be.

[SkyDog77]

I would look in Baker. Walkable and close to light rail.

[ImNotDedYet]

Cap Hill/Cheeseman, Uptown or Baker, depending on what you can spend and what you can find.

I'm only guessing that outside of rent, prices would be cheaper than North side of Chicago. (personally, I'd stay in the north side til the Cubs win the Series this year - that would be one helluva party)

[biggap]

Even cheaper than the up-and-coming neighborhoods and still within 30 mins-ish on public transit is Glendale. There are some decent complexes that are well below the Denver average in the neighborhood. As others have suggested, consider biking as well. Cherry Creek bike path is a wonderful bike route that runs right through the the hood and downtown.

[lofarber]

We recently moved to cap hill and walk/bike to 70% of what we need to do. I love the neighborhood. We pay 2200 for a nice 2 BR. We moved from Buffalo, NY and didn't notice any difference in eating out / alcohol costs

[ayoitzrimz]

Originally Posted by lofarber

We recently moved to cap hill and walk/bike to 70% of what we need to do. I love the neighborhood. We pay 2200 for a nice 2 BR. We moved from Buffalo, NY and didn't notice any difference in eating out / alcohol costs

Dang, I bet that same apartment went for 1100 just two years ago!

[westcoastbabe]

Originally Posted by lofarber

We recently moved to cap hill and walk/bike to 70% of what we need to do. I love the neighborhood. We pay 2200 for a nice 2 BR. We moved from Buffalo, NY and didn't notice any difference in eating out / alcohol costs

Wow kind of pricey for something you don't' even own.

[mic111]

Originally Posted by ayoitzrimz

Dang, I bet that same apartment went for 1100 just two years ago!

pshwa...When I moved here in 1994 my nice two bedroom in the DTC area was $1200. And it was just a normal 2 bedroom. Nothing fancy like people have today with granite and stainless. It was laminate and white appliances. People have this fantasy that Denver was some kind of low cost mecca just before they moved here. Sure the slummy areas that had old decrepit apartment with crime around, nothing going on for retail and weren't trendy yet had some cheap old falling apart places for low prices. But nothing that most people considered desirable as adult professionals was cheap.