Mid 20s couple, looking for single family home <$400k within ~30 min of downtown denver (Aurora: sale, townhomes)

[2bindenver]

Define better area. Generally, newer home communities will be farther from the city center. Stapleton is a new home community in Denver. There are new construction homes peppered throughout the city. If you want a new community to go with your new home, look to the suburbs. Light Rail could take you from suburb to city pretty easily.

[wootloopsftw]

Originally Posted by David Aguilar

Unless you are going downtown every day, the 30 minute requirement might be able to be dropped.

You're right. That is probably the lowest priority on my list of requirements and would be the first to go if everything else was met.

[wootloopsftw]

Originally Posted by 2bindenver

Define better area. Generally, newer home communities will be farther from the city center. Stapleton is a new home community in Denver. There are new construction homes peppered throughout the city. If you want a new community to go with your new home, look to the suburbs. Light Rail could take you from suburb to city pretty easily.

I mostly meant "better" area because I have heard a few concerns with being in commerce city, such as higher crime rate, being near the rocky mountain arsenal, and also having an inconvenient drive into town.

[SQL]

There are lots of newer condos and town homes in the Dayton Triangle neighborhood. You'll find plenty of options under $400k in that area. There's also quick access to the Denver Tech Center from there. And you'll be about 20-25 minutes from downtown.

[wootloopsftw]

Originally Posted by ezrarh

Look into the Midtown development by Brookfield Residential. They offer Tealight models that can get you up to 3+ beds/2car garage for around $400k. It's only 15 minutes away from downtown and easy access to the 36 for Broomfield/Boulder. The lots are very small however but you don't have many options for a new SFH at <$400k within 30 minutes of downtown.

Those look pretty interesting. Thanks for the tip!

[guyatwork37]

Littleton, Highlands Ranch, Centennial, and some parts of Aurora can all be had at that price range and meet your criteria.

[emm74]

Originally Posted by ezrarh

Look into the Midtown development by Brookfield Residential. They offer Tealight models that can get you up to 3+ beds/2car garage for around $400k. It's only 15 minutes away from downtown and easy access to the 36 for Broomfield/Boulder. The lots are very small however but you don't have many options for a new SFH at <$400k within 30 minutes of downtown.

That looks like an interesting community but "starting at" prices are going to often be 10-20% lower than what you actually pay. The least expensive of those Tealight plans has 1 bedroom base model, so each additional bedroom will be a construction upgrade, and that's in addition to any other changes and upgrades. I don't know that specific builder's pricing model but I'd hazard a guess based on my own recent experience with new construction, it's likely to be more like 420K+ all in, not the 370K "starting at" price.

[2bindenver]

There are townhomes in Littleton to be had sub $400k an in-fill community called Littleton Village.

[ezrarh]

Originally Posted by emm74

That looks like an interesting community but "starting at" prices are going to often be 10-20% lower than what you actually pay. The least expensive of those Tealight plans has 1 bedroom base model, so each additional bedroom will be a construction upgrade, and that's in addition to any other changes and upgrades. I don't know that specific builder's pricing model but I'd hazard a guess based on my own recent experience with new construction, it's likely to be more like 420K+ all in, not the 370K "starting at" price.

Yeah it can easily get out of hand and go well above the base price. We also bought new construction but only made changes that we knew would be hard to redo in the future so our final price was only 7k higher than base price. The builder did give us a 10k design center credit at the time so if you exclude that, still <20k above base price, but it wasn't with Brookfield. I've heard that they can upsell quite a bit but doesn't mean you have to take it.

[Stevedore]

Check out Thornton, 80241. There are homes in your price range, close to Boulder and Denver too.