Any transplants considering elsewhere because front range is too crowded (condominiums, to live in)

[ryanfze55]

Originally Posted by guyatwork37

Wait, you were shocked that housing prices and traffic increased after 30 years?

From 2007 to 2016 (9 years), the median price of a single family home in Denver rose 61%. That may be great for you, assuming you owned the property before this time. But don't pretend this is normal. Of course she would be surprised at the house prices.

[wilberry]

" Just blame me. I moved from California so I am a part of the problem." " the reason housing prices have skyrocketed since 1987 "
And Me " I moved here from , TX, NY, FL, AZ, MS, OH, IN, IA, NB, MT, IL,MA, MI ,MN,PA, NC, SC....

[Timmyy]

Originally Posted by wilberry

" Just blame me. I moved from California so I am a part of the problem." " the reason housing prices have skyrocketed since 1987 "
And Me " I moved here from , TX, NY, FL, AZ, MS, OH, IN, IA, NB, MT, IL,MA, MI ,MN,PA, NC, SC....

Ha. You quoted me. Even though I moved here from California over 18 years ago I didn't have much money when I came out.

[Count David]

Originally Posted by Timmyy

Ha. You quoted me. Even though I moved here from California over 18 years ago I didn't have much money when I came out.

Me either. 10 years ago with $6K and a dream.

[whoisjongalt]

Originally Posted by guyatwork37

To answer op's question; no. I've been to many places in this country and they place fall in to 5 categories:

1) expensive because they are really nice (e.g. Malibu, Newport Beach, cape cod, Hamptons, etc)

2) expensive because people think they are nice when they actually suck (e.g. Los Angeles, new York City, Chicago, etc.)

3) cheap because they suck (e.g. texas, Midwest, most of the southeast, etc.)

4) cheap because they are up and coming but it's getting more expensive (e.g. Pacific Northwest, parts of northern Midwest, north Carolina, etc.)

5) relatively inexpensive and amazing places (e.g. Denver, Utah, etc.

Denver is wonderful. Is it what it was 30 years ago? No. And thank God for that. It's a wonderful place that still relatively inexpensive and beautiful with a moderate climate. I'm sorry people are unhappy because others find it wonderful and want to move here and be happy too, but maybe be less selfish and share the goodness.

I'd be happy if Denver were what it was just 10 years ago...or even 5. The problem with Denver suddenly becoming THE place to move is that people love it to death. The very qualities that make it appealing are being destroyed by the the sheer influx of people. It's gets to where it is such a hassle to deal with the traffic etc. that people either move away to the the "next cool place" or they isolate themselves in one little neighborhood. I saw it all the time in LA. People would say "Oh I haven't been to the beach in years" and they lived 10 miles away. I lived in Santa Monica and Malibu and hardly ever went west of the 405 the last couple of years I was there. It was too much a of pain in the a**. I eventually plan to cash in on the crazy real estate prices and move to the mountains.

[MsBall]

Originally Posted by whoisjongalt

I'd be happy if Denver were what it was just 10 years ago...or even 5. The problem with Denver suddenly becoming THE place to move is that people love it to death. The very qualities that make it appealing are being destroyed by the the sheer influx of people. It's gets to where it is such a hassle to deal with the traffic etc. that people either move away to the the "next cool place" or they isolate themselves in one little neighborhood. I saw it all the time in LA. People would say "Oh I haven't been to the beach in years" and they lived 10 miles away. I lived in Santa Monica and Malibu and hardly ever went west of the 405 the last couple of years I was there. It was too much a of pain in the a**. I eventually plan to cash in on the crazy real estate prices and move to the mountains.

That was me! The last few years there I very rarely ventured outside my 4 sq mile bubble of Unincorporated Jeffco.

[Kathy884]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

It's true, you can never go home again

I'm curious about the price delta. You probably sold in the late 80s for $100K +/-?

Bungalows in Wash Park start at $700K right now and there is almost no inventory at that level. In West Wash Park you can shave about $100K to start.

Guessing you paid around $150K for a STL house. What would that go for now?

Those are excellent guesses SkyDog and very close to average prices for both areas at the time we sold and bought. We were on the lower end. (81.5K and 120K are our numbers) and we were east not west. Love your posts on the forum. Don't know, but sounds like you own a property or some properties in Wash Park. Great investment.


In Denver, our house was a little white stucco house between two bungalows with a nice open LV/DR combined area, neat old kitchen with a spotless gas super old stove (the little old lady we bought the house from was moving into a retirement villa must have scrubbed it daily), MB, bath, and den all upstairs. And the basement was nothing too special: full bath that could have used some remodeling, open area room (really small, not really a family room, room with door that you could use as a guest bedroom (I used that for my office), and storage area downstairs (downstairs would not be counted as square footage), double car port no garage (3 block from Wash Park on 485 South High Street). As stated above, we sold it for 81.5K in 1989. Zillow says it's just 823 square feet and gives it a Zestimate of $611K . Say What? Yes I looked at homes in Denver and am more aware of the market, but this house coming anywhere near to that still shocks me. Although I do totally get why someone would enjoy living in the area. The same woman who bought it from us still lives there. She's even wrote to us back in 1990s about how much she loves the house and neighborhood. And we even called her one year when we were in town, and she invited us over to show us little updates she had done etc. -- really nice lady.


We bought our St. Louis County home for 120K. I haven't had a realtor look at it, but on Zillow our house shows as being worth around 305K. I'd like to think that because of some updates that we've done and because it would show well we could get more, but not any huge amount more.


So that tiny little house we used to own is probably worth twice as much as our current home.

[Kathy884]

Originally Posted by Timmyy

Hi Kathy. I am not making fun of you with this question. What is the purpose of using "//" in your post? This is purely my curiosity and possibly my ignorance.

Sorry to hear the COL out here didn't work out for you. We always welcome you as a visitor.

Hi Timmyy, It's not ignorance on your part. It's just something I do when in reality it's a new thought that could be a new paragraph, but I don't want to make it a new paragraph on something like a forum post. I do this at work when talking notes and I guess it has just come over to posts on an informal forum too.


Thanks. We love visiting. This is our third year in a row that we came out for summer vacation. We're hitting Salida and Crested Butte this time (places we have never been to.)

[Timmyy]

Originally Posted by Kathy884

Hi Timmyy, It's not ignorance on your part. It's just something I do when in reality it's a new thought that could be a new paragraph, but I don't want to make it a new paragraph on something like a forum post. I do this at work when talking notes and I guess it has just come over to posts on an informal forum too.

Ah, thank you for explaining that.

[SkyDog77]

Originally Posted by Kathy884

Those are excellent guesses SkyDog and very close to average prices for both areas at the time we sold and bought. We were on the lower end. (81.5K and 120K are our numbers) and we were east not west. Love your posts on the forum. Don't know, but sounds like you own a property or some properties in Wash Park. Great investment.


In Denver, our house was a little white stucco house between two bungalows with a nice open LV/DR combined area, neat old kitchen with a spotless gas super old stove (the little old lady we bought the house from was moving into a retirement villa must have scrubbed it daily), MB, bath, and den all upstairs. And the basement was nothing too special: full bath that could have used some remodeling, open area room (really small, not really a family room, room with door that you could use as a guest bedroom (I used that for my office), and storage area downstairs (downstairs would not be counted as square footage), double car port no garage (3 block from Wash Park on 485 South High Street). As stated above, we sold it for 81.5K in 1989. Zillow says it's just 823 square feet and gives it a Zestimate of $611K . Say What? Yes I looked at homes in Denver and am more aware of the market, but this house coming anywhere near to that still shocks me. Although I do totally get why someone would enjoy living in the area. The same woman who bought it from us still lives there. She's even wrote to us back in 1990s about how much she loves the house and neighborhood. And we even called her one year when we were in town, and she invited us over to show us little updates she had done etc. -- really nice lady.


We bought our St. Louis County home for 120K. I haven't had a realtor look at it, but on Zillow our house shows as being worth around 305K. I'd like to think that because of some updates that we've done and because it would show well we could get more, but not any huge amount more.


So that tiny little house we used to own is probably worth twice as much as our current home.

Funny! I live just a block and a half from there. A house on my block on a lot that size went to a builder 3 years ago for $510K and was scraped. That was 3 years ago. I think it is definitely reasonable to expect that a builder would pay at least high $500s for the land.