Best Area to Buy a House for a Single Female (early 30s) (Denver: school, university)

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

... We looked at a condo before moving to our current house and the HOA fee was $560. I thought it was high. Then I did an analysis and determined that it was equal to the equivalent expenses on the single family house.....

I've seen some of this around the country, where the HOA does ALL of the outside maintenance on homes, to include landscaping and mowing front and back, snow removal, exterior painting, roof replacement, etc. Hopefully this will catch on as baby boomers retire. I'm sick of my garage being a property maintenance workshop, tool crib, hardware, paint and gardening store. Imagine the duplication that exists in garages across the nation, a massive waste of money, space and homeowner time. Not to mention all the medical costs of aging dudes falling off ladders as they clean out the rain gutters or fumble and stumble they way off of roof tops.

[daprara]

they say a goal for reitrement is to pay off your home. Never possible with a condo because even when the mortgage is gone the HOA fees are still there. The building managment will go after HOA none payment with agression.

[daprara]

Originally Posted by Soniarsenie

... I'm just not sure about the area.

pre covid Denver police had semi up to date crime maps. Dont know if they continued the effort into the pandamic. Reverence these maps denvergov.org

Some Sunday afternoon intervew a few neighbors. Take some pictures. Again; go on line and look at who ownes these homes. If it is a LLC, likely it is a rental. On line figure how much neighbors are paying for porptery tax.

If your proposed purchase is in the middle of a neighborhood less probability a off shore bank will attempt to build a mid rise condo next door. On the fringe of a neighborhood it might be a good probability.

look at the zoning around your new home and verify it restricts the lots to 2 story residential.

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by daprara

they say a goal for reitrement is to pay off your home. Never possible with a condo because even when the mortgage is gone the HOA fees are still there.

Yes, the HOA fees are there.
The good news is that once you paid off your mortgage, your real estate property taxes go to zero$.
Along with your water/gas/electricity bills.
And, your internet access costs.

[LHS79]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

Yes, the HOA fees are there.
The good news is that once you paid off your mortgage, your real estate property taxes go to zero$.
Along with your water/gas/electricity bills.
And, your internet access costs.

This is very good information and I never thought of it this way.

My house has been paid off for some time- like a lot of people who grew up here when I retire I will bail on CO. due to the way it is heading.

A condo someplace may be the perfect choice. I wanted to pay cash for a house but now am not sure, I just don't want to hear neighbors (!).

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by LHS79

A condo someplace may be the perfect choice. ... I just don't want to hear neighbors (!).

A condominium is a form of ownership, not a form of construction.

[emm74]

Originally Posted by daprara

they say a goal for reitrement is to pay off your home. Never possible with a condo because even when the mortgage is gone the HOA fees are still there. The building managment will go after HOA none payment with agression.

Originally Posted by davebarnes

Yes, the HOA fees are there.
The good news is that once you paid off your mortgage, your real estate property taxes go to zero$.
Along with your water/gas/electricity bills.
And, your internet access costs.

Not to mention all maintenance on your house, landscaping, snow removal, painting the exterior, putting on a new roof and so much more. It's so amazing how that stops needing to be done once you retire!

In other words, no home is ever "paid off" if that supposedly means you no longer incur costs of home ownership.

But condo ownership is ideal in retirement IMO because it's someone else's problem to go to all the effort of finding and hiring someone to do this work that is inevitable with home ownership, and to supervise and oversee and make sure it's done correctly and on time. All you have to do is pay your share of it and reap the benefits.

[Soniarsenie]

Originally Posted by alloo66

Golden is not that far. I like both Arvada and Wheatridge. Nice areas. Like I said come out here and check it out. I know how hard it's for move without spending some time here. Take a two week vacation here. You can PM me if you want. I'm a middle aged man. Morrison is nice too. You have to always factor in commuting when getting a place. Also consider the weather when commuting. You know how commuting is in the bay area.

That's good to know! Yeah, I definitely need to go and spend some time in the area before I decide. The current plan is to rent a place for a couple of months early next year and search for houses while I explore the area. Hopefully even with Covid, it will still give me a good idea about the area.

[Soniarsenie]

Originally Posted by daprara

pre covid Denver police had semi up to date crime maps. Dont know if they continued the effort into the pandamic. Reverence these maps denvergov.org

This is super helpful! Thank you so much for the link! I'll definitely use that to compare neighbourhoods.

Originally Posted by daprara

Some Sunday afternoon intervew a few neighbors. Take some pictures. Again; go on line and look at who ownes these homes. If it is a LLC, likely it is a rental. On line figure how much neighbors are paying for porptery tax.

If your proposed purchase is in the middle of a neighborhood less probability a off shore bank will attempt to build a mid rise condo next door. On the fringe of a neighborhood it might be a good probability.

look at the zoning around your new home and verify it restricts the lots to 2 story residential.

Hmm, this is very interesting. Not something I've thought of before but that makes sense. I'll definitely keep that in mind.

[ORLguy]

Originally Posted by Soniarsenie

I'm thinking of relocating to the Denver Metro area early next year and I'm wondering what would be the best area for me to settle in and buy a house.

Since this will most likely just be my first house and I don't have kids, I'm not fussed about schools, etc. But I do want to buy a house, not a townhouse or condo. Below are some of my information and kind of a wishlist.

- Price Range: 400k - 550k
- Work: My company allows people to wfh remotely even before COVID so I won't change job any time soon. But I work for a healthcare software company and will likely look for tech-related jobs in the future. But that's not a major issue for me right now.
- What I'm looking for:
- West of Denver so closer to the mountains
- A reasonable dating scene. My main concern of buying a house is that I will settle in a family-oriented community with no single blokes, which is where I live now and partly why I want to move.
- Reasonably open-minded. I'm an Asian female that currently live in the SF Bay Area, which has been great in that regard. So I'm looking for a similar place. (I'm not religious and my political view is moderate but leaning towards the liberal side, if that helps.)
- Reasonably safe.

I don't know what I'm looking even possible, especially outside of Denver.

Also, what's the dating scene like in Denver Metro area? Do people mostly use online dating, especially during COVID, or is there another way to find single people?

Any help and advice will be highly appreciated!



Cheers

Based on my experience, I wouldn't live close to the city just to meet single people. I say this just because Denver is pretty easy to get around. Its not a huge city to drive. Also your budget is similar to mine. I think you can find really good deals in Littleton, plus it has a DT area and if you live near Broadway that's a great road to drive on for activities such as bars, live music..etc. You basically will be in Englewood very quickly and from there the Baker area has a lot of little bars.

Ideally you could land a condo in the highlands for around 550k, but I looked at those and while the decks usually have amazing views, they are pretty expensive for what you get.

Anyway, I mention Littleton because you can find really nice spots in your range, be close to the mountains and then get into the city or dt littleton with relative ease.

I made a thread here where I was trying to figure out where to go and thats where it ended up for me.