Advice on neighborhoods!

[TigerLily24]

Originally Posted by enonnaighsoj

Hi all,

I know this gets discussed every day, and I have read many threads on here but wanted to start my own.

We are looking at moving to Denver area in August or September of this year. We will be moving from Phoenixville, PA (a Philadelphia suburb)

We are looking for a neighborhood with the same feel/activities that we are used to over here.

For those of you who are not familiar; Phoenixville is a smaller river town built around the steel industry back in the day. It is about a 45 min drive to center city Philadelphia. It has a main strip/street (bridge st) with restaurants, bars, and shops. While we live walkable to this main strip, we do also require cars to get around to the grocery stores, Home Depots, work, and targets of the world with ample parking areas and like/are used to this "suburb with a town feel" living.

We are in our late 20's have 2 dogs, no kids and are active hikers, climbers, runners, etc which is why we are trying to move to a place that offers more of these activities.

Ideally, we are looking for a neighborhood that we can rent a duplex or single family home with a fenced in yard for under $2000 a month.

We will be visiting again in late June and so far on my list of places to scope out are: Lakewood, Arvada, Highland, Berkeley, Aurora(near cherry creek state park). Are these areas along the lines of what we're looking for?

Any info you can shed would be awesome!

Thanks in advance!

There isn’t really anything like that in Aurora near Cherry Creek State Park.
All of the retail you mentioned is near there, but it’s not a walkable area.
You won’t find the sort of rental you at looking for within your budget in that area either.

There are some apartment complexes that back onto the park that might be in your price range, but that’s about it.

[TigerLily24]

Originally Posted by enonnaighsoj

Nice! What area are you in now?

I thought about Golden, but wasn't sure if it was too far away from "the action" of Denver. We have a decent amount of connections/friends that live in littleton, Indian creek, and lone tree and not sure if golden would be too far away to consistently and get together with them without hassle.

Looking into it more, it does look like exactly what we would be looking for. Is there any public transportation that goes from golden to Downtown Denver? Also, is the weather in golden about the same as Denver proper or more problematic due to being closer to the front range?

Thanks!

Littleton has a nice walkable Main Street.
And lots of green space, parks, etc.

But again, a rental in your price range will likely be hard to come by.

[MissTerri]

If you want to be near friends but still in a walkable neighborhood then I’d look into old Littleton (80120) the DU area, Platt Park (both 80210) or old Englewood (80110 and 80113).

I like Golden a lot but if being close to friends is important, I think it would be too far for regular get together. Of the above list of places to check out, I think downtown Littleton is most like downtown Golden.

[DenverBrian]

To me, this sounds like Parker. Find a house near the Cherry Creek Bike Trail so you can bike to CC State Park when you want. Parker's town center may have what you're looking for. 30 minutes to the airport on C-470, a toll road.

[elliotty]

There aren't a lot of neighborhoods that compare to what you described. Also the cost of living is a bit higher than what you might expect. You're money will go further in Aurora or Parker - so I'd start your search there.