Moving to Denver???? (Colorado Springs, Littleton, Golden: apartment, rental, condos)

[jen027149]

Hi,

I have been reading these posts for days now and I think it is great. I have been reading mostly about where family's with school age children should be thinking about moving to. My situation is a little different.

I am a 47 year old widow with a 23 year old son. I am thinking maybe I need some city life and he needs public transportation. Being in my situation, I think living in the suburbs near "families" would not be the best area for me, and again, he needs public transportation.

I have always been in New England, I do like the seasons and definately like the snow, I have been thinking maybe Northern California or Florida, but I know I will not like that weather.

Any suggestions or help will be much appreciated.

Happy Holidays.

[gpraceman]

Originally Posted by jen027149

I am thinking maybe I need some city life and he needs public transportation. Being in my situation, I think living in the suburbs near "families" would not be the best area for me, and again, he needs public transportation.

I wouldn't rule out the burbs. The RTD buses and light rail system extend around the metro area, so don't limit your search to Denver proper.

[denverguy]

I find the City is more to my liking too. The areas I am concentrating on are, Golden Triangle (rapidly improving; so close to the museums and fantastic library) Commons Park, Cheesman Park, City Park; Cherry Creek. Lots of condos & mass transit in these areas. Commons Park is really being developed if you are looking for "clean" and "new" right downtown. Once my car dies, I don't plan on having another, though that is the exception in Denver. Stapleton has good prices and not too far out.

[COflower]

I have to be honest, I haven't lived in Denver since 1998 when I moved back to Colorado Springs but with TREX (major transportation redesign for the highway and they added light rail) even living in the suburbs (Denver suburbs are quite nice) you can get a lot of "life" in the area.

I lived in what is now known as Centennial (it was just unincorporated Arapahoe County but my address was Littleton - they incorporated after I moved) and I loved it.

I lived off Colorado and Orchard (just south of Greenwood Village with the really expensive homes) and it was a nice place to live. I had the greenbelt just behind me so I could walk my dog, cool him off in the summer with the cool water of the creek, see horses of the wealthy people north of me and even had a family of owls that came to visit one summmer. One of the owls, poor thing, only had one eye. He would perch himself (or herself) on the fence of my townhome neighbor and I could go out there and he/she would just stay there while I would come within a few feet.

I have never seen an owl in Colorado Springs and they are such a beautiful creature. I will never forget that. I wrote about that back when I was up there but I look back at my experiences living there and I don't regret a thing. I would move back but it's a little more than I want to spend on rent again.

I met great people, had a great time. Denver and it's suburbs are good places so please don't discount the suburbs. Especially those along the light rail. They have done a pretty good job as far as I can tell.

[jen027149]

Wow thanks for the input, I really didn't expect anyone to answer me on Christmas Eve, but thank you, maybe that is my present. I am very interested in moving to Denver, and all of you being so nice just confirms my interest. Thank you again. I am taking the first week of January off and I am going to go to Denver to check things out. I am ready to move on. Thanks again, any more input will be much appeciated.

Merry Christmas.

[Mike from back east]

Jen....I'm not a realtor....but my questions will sound like one....

First, thanks for READING what's already here before posting....as Moderator I wish everyone would. Lots of newbies don't realize there's a lot here, that they can find it with the search tool located on the main forum page, and that our regular posters get burned out answering the same questions about "great" schools, "low" crime and wonderful city living on less than $165k for a great charming home with character and everything they need a short walk away....

Most of us here are not realtors, and the realtors that we do have writing stuff here in the CO forums are a great bunch.

The more you tell us about yourself, the better advice this community can offer. If you don't mind, tell us about yourself...

- your budget to buy a home or for rent, what kind of house do you want and how big, etc
- where do you live now, a big city or a quaint Vermont town....like I read about in each Cook's Illustrated....
- if you expect your son to reside with you long-term (most young folks head out on their own as soon as they can).
- what do you foresee for yourself if living solo...do you want to be near a district of artists or musicians or retail or night life or museums or libraries or medical places or ranchers or IT offices or ski slopes or ?????
- the type work you're looking for, if any
- do you drive or is public transit an absolute requirement
- any over-riding issues, such as proximity to a medical specialty facility

Wishing you all the best and hoping you like what you find here. Let us know more so we can make your trip fruitful.

s/Mike from back east

[jen027149]

Hi Mike:


Thanks for writing again, and yes I did do some research before finally writing, now I will answer your questions:

- your budget to buy a home or for rent, what kind of house do you want and how big, etc

I would like to rent first, I did own a few houses during my marriage, when my husband died I lived in Massachusetts and sold everything (house we lived in, rental property and our business) and moved back to RI where we were both from and our families live. Now that I am back here, and have been for 3 years, I realize it is hard to come back home after 25 years and soooo many memories here also, I need something totally different and new. I am looking to rent a 2-3 bedroom apartment between $1000-1200 per month.


- where do you live now, a big city or a quaint Vermont town....like I read about in each Cook's Illustrated....

Right now I live about 20 minutes from Providence (city) and I work there. Providence is a very small city compared to Denver, I rent a townhouse style condo, 2 bedrooms 2 baths a full basement and a garage, and it is all full, I have a lot of "stuff" some I will be weeding out but most I will keep. I did live in a quaint town for years in Massachusetts and I do like that, but I am thinking closer to the city life than I had before.

- if you expect your son to reside with you long-term (most young folks head out on their own as soon as they can).

My son has already been out on his own before and got himself into some debt (credit cards in college) and it is going to take him quite a while to get out of it, I know he won't be with me forever (please no LOL) but he will be for a while.

- what do you foresee for yourself if living solo...do you want to be near a district of artists or musicians or retail or night life or museums or libraries or medical places or ranchers or IT offices or ski slopes or ?????

I am not really sure where I foresee myself in the future, but I would like to be around some action for now, I figure renting an apartment with a one year lease would be fine, if I am not thrilled with the area I live in at first, within a year I should be able to know the areas a little better and then go from there.

- the type work you're looking for, if any

I am a legal secretary/assistant in a estate planning firm, I have taken some paralegal courses but do not have a degree yet, I also owned and operated a auto repair facility for 23 years, and I am a bookkeeper. I looked on Monster.com and there are plenty of jobs in my field in the Denver area. I am not worried at all about finding work.

- do you drive or is public transit an absolute requirement
I drive, but my son needs the public transportation in order to get around.

- any over-riding issues, such as proximity to a medical specialty facility. No medical problems (thank God), I mean I would like to know where the hospital is in case of emergency, but we are healthy people. He snowboards, (but won't have any money to do that for a while) and I have not skied in years, but maybe it is time I tried it again.

Any more information you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

[2bindenver]

The Denver metro area is too big to decide to live in one area before you know where work will be and how much of a commute will be tolerable. Easier on the eyes if you go to the west in the morning & east at night.

Also what type of housing are you considering?

[Mike from back east]

Jen, thanks for the info. We can now help you zero in on something that works for you. Sounds like much of the city could do fine.

Transit website is: http://www.rtd-denver.com/ Lots of stuff along their rail corridors, not to mention bus lines.

We had long discussions here in a thread "car or no car" about whether one can get around Denver without a car. That thread talked at length about places to live that would allow mobility via rail/bus. The search engine cannot deal with small words like "car" or "bus" so here's the link: http://www.city-data.com/forum/denve...hlight=transit

Use the Search this Forum tool with keywords like apartment / rent / rail / transit / train / TREX / legal / and combinations of words. The search engine is very precise in that it treats the plural of a word separately from the singlular, i.e., if you search on "school" it will NOT locate the word "schools" and so on. You can search on combinations like rent $1000 and it will find threads or posts with both "rent" and "$1000" therein. I suggest clicking the box to have it bring back the exact POST as some thread are very long.

By the way, there's a great rodeo in town for most of January, search on rodeo or longhorns or bison, or google National Western Stock Show....you gotta git yerself sum kulture.....

Best wishes to you. You're gonna love Colorado.
s/Mike

[jen027149]

Thank you both for writing, it is so nice to have people really care, I guess what I have read about Colorado is true, the people are nice. I will take what you both said into strong consideration. I will be looking into the Rodeo information you gave to me Mike, that is sum Kulture that I don't have LOL. Thanks again.

I am looking to rent an apartment at first and go from there.

Thanks again.