Denver Vs Dallas (Aurora, Lakewood, Frisco: crime, how much, house)

[bailey lee]

Any reasons to move from Dallas to Denver.I currently live in Dallas I know the pros to Dallas just not Denver PLEASE HELP!! Dallas has low low cost of living decent schools depends on where you live, No state income tax, Jobs are every where if you want a job in Dallas you will be working for a decent wage in no time.Decent weather etc... Denver ?? wages are decent but dont keep up with cost of living from what I can tell, Homes expensive compared to Dallas, You have to pay state income tax, What are the advantages of Denver other then mountains and outdoor acitvities ? Is it really worth spending 250k on a home to have a nice mountain view ???

[suzco]

Originally Posted by bailey lee

Any reasons to move from Dallas to Denver.I currently live in Dallas I know the pros to Dallas just not Denver PLEASE HELP!! Dallas has low low cost of living decent schools depends on where you live, No state income tax, Jobs are every where if you want a job in Dallas you will be working for a decent wage in no time.Decent weather etc... Denver ?? wages are decent but dont keep up with cost of living from what I can tell, Homes expensive compared to Dallas, You have to pay state income tax, What are the advantages of Denver other then mountains and outdoor acitvities ? Is it really worth spending 250k on a home to have a nice mountain view ???

Check out this thread; you can add any questions you have!

Denver vs Dallas

[WestCoDude]

Originally Posted by bailey lee

Any reasons to move from Dallas to Denver.I currently live in Dallas I know the pros to Dallas just not Denver PLEASE HELP!! Dallas has low low cost of living decent schools depends on where you live, No state income tax, Jobs are every where if you want a job in Dallas you will be working for a decent wage in no time.Decent weather etc... Denver ?? wages are decent but dont keep up with cost of living from what I can tell, Homes expensive compared to Dallas, You have to pay state income tax, What are the advantages of Denver other then mountains and outdoor acitvities ? Is it really worth spending 250k on a home to have a nice mountain view ???

* Low cost of living:

Dallas' cost of living isn't dramatically lower than Denver's. In fact, in some of the nicer areas of Dallas--Lakewood, H-Park, U-Park, Knox-Henderson--you're paying the same for a house as you are in most of Denver's nicer neighborhoods. However, Frisco/Plano are much cheaper than a lot of Denver's suburbs. Suburban Dallas is cheaper than suburban Denver.

Edge: Leans Dallas

*Job market

The Denver job market is centered around IT and defense contracting. Outside of these industries, the job market is decent--though not really strong. Dallas, on the other hand, is very strong in many areas. Businesses are moving there in droves for the low taxes and good living and bringing lots of jobs along with them. I would feel much more confident about finding a job in DFW than I would in Denver.

Edge: Dallas

*Taxes

Tax rates are roughly equal--perhaps a little higher in the city of Denver than either Dallas or either city's suburban communities. Colorado is a pretty free-market, low-tax type of place. However, lately there has been a number of taxes thrown down on Coloradans--especially a new, controversial property tax. The movement in Colorado is towards California-style environmental and other taxation.

Edge: Leans Dallas

*Wages

Both states are home to a high number of 30-thousandaires. People in both states live like millionaires but really don't make much. The problem with Denver is that the wages never keep up with the cost of living. Businesses, especially with the current economy, can't raise wages as high as the costs of general living in Colorado and it's a huge problem with young newcomers to the area. People move to Denver, can't find a prosperous enough job to support their ski habit, and have to move on. It happens all the time. I'm not sure Dallas is much better--though the cost of living isn't rising nearly as quickly and businesses have a better shot at keeping wages competitive.

Edge: Draw

*Weather

This depends on how much you enjoy snow and cold. Denver gets all four seasons in very distinct patterns and, despite all the snow, has fairly mild winters. Summers don't get nearly as scorching hot as in Dallas, either. The only downfall is that it is VERY dry and winter comes with lots of snow.

Edge: Denver


Denver's primary draw is the mountains. The easy access to the outdoors is the reason the vast majority of newcomers come here in the first place. That's not to say that Denver doesn't have anything else to offer--it does. It's clean and safe. It has many vibrant neighborhoods and very lovely suburbs. But is it worth the 250 gs--which won't get you anything too fancy in Denver....? Well...how much time do you plan on spending in the mountains? How much does a cool, vibrant downtown mean to you?

If your concerns are primarily economic/job-oriented, Dallas is way better. Dallas is also much more culturally vibrant, more diverse, and has more opportunities simply by nature of being twice the size of Denver. Denver is great if you're looking for a clean, healthy, outdoorsy lifestyle. But I think Dallas is probably a much more attractive option for most relocating folks.....

[alexis2005]

My wife and have lived in Dallas over 15 years and are so ready to move! This is by far the most boring place we have ever lived. There is a big joke here that the two most popular things to do here is eat and shop and it's actually quite true. There is just not a lot of things to do here. There is a reason why Houston and Dallas have some of the most overweight people in the country and Denver has some of the most fittest. Summers are brutal and start very early and last until September and even October. The big driver for most folks moving here is the cost of living but the trade off is you have to live in Dallas to do it. Just my two cents.

[denverjoe04]

From my knowledge Dallas is awfully hot, denver is realativly mild year round, sure will have a few days in the summer where it gets near 100 but its fine since there is no humidity. Dallas has worse crime then Denver....

[livecontent]

I moved here from Dallas/Ft. Worth almost 30 years ago. You can talk about the weather; you can talk about the mountains; you can compare this and that and both areas have some positives and negatives.

The real issue for me is that Colorado is much smaller in population than Texas. Denver/Aurora is much smaller in population than Dallas/FT.Worth. I think that that states and cities can get too large to be manageable, in terms of population. Texas is 23.5 million; Dallas is about 1.2 million; Ft. Worth is about 630,000. Colorado is 4.8 million; Denver is about 660,000; Aurora is about 300,000. So to have a state 5 times as large to administer with one governor and be represented by the same two senators--I think is more difficult. You can also argue then that Wyoming, which is the least population state, must be a better place to live. Maybe or Maybe not, because you need a certain mass of population to make it feasible and economical to have certain services. So where Texas, California and New York are too big---Colorado may just be a right size to administer.

People are always talking about the intimacy and the comforts of a small town--but I never hear much about the comparative advantages of a small state vs. a large state.

I grew up in New York when New York was the biggest state; now it has 19.3 million. I came to realize that big states have problems and issues that are difficult to handle, just because of the size of the population.

When I came to Colorado. Colorado was smaller; Denver was smaller and so was Texas and Dallas but still much bigger. However, Denver is really the only large city and it is the capital of the state. So, Denver maintains services for the whole state and also a vaste low populated high plains community. Consequently it has all services that one would need to live without being smothered by excess population. This was one of the reasons why I did not like living in New York City.

When I grew up in Western New York, my world was run by a far distant capital of Albany and the huge influence of New York City. In Texas, Dallas is part of more large cities from Houston, St. Antonio, and the Capital, Austin.

I am continually amazed by the coverage of news in Denver, over the whole state and the weather reports from the Newpapers and the TV. When, I grew up the news was only centered on Buffalo and there was no news about the other parts of the state. Of course this is because Denver Papers and TV cover a far bigger but less populated region. While Western New York News was only Buffalo and very litte was said of Rochester, Syracuse, Albany or New York City. I found that people of Buffalo really did not know much beyond their little area. However, I find that people of Denver know more about the whole state.

In Dallas, my feelings were they were aware of issues throughout the state because Texans embrace the knowledge of the whole state with interest--it is some mentality with Texans. The problem it is such a large state with a dispersed population. Colorado, of course is large in terms of area, but the population is more concentrated along the front range.

Maybe I just rambling and the point I am making is nonsense. But in this state, I have met and talked to higher government officials over the years, the Governor, The Mayor of Denver, Senators, Agency and Legislative heads etc. However, in New York and Texas it has to be limited because of the demands of these officials and the size of the population.

So my vote--based only on the size of the population--Denver is a much better place to
be than Dallas.

Denver just feels to me a little more cozy and that is why here, I
Livecontent