Moving to Denver-Neighborhoods to Consider (Aurora, Arvada: houses, new construction, subdivision)

[daniboi81]

My partner and I live in Grand Rapids, MI and once our house has sold will be moving to Denver. We will be in the Denver area in the next couple of weeks to help my sister move and will be looking to explore a large number of neighborhoods. I'm trying to find a neighborhod which has similar styles houses to our current one we're selling (picture is below).



While I understand we cannot find this exact house at Michigan prices (ours is listed for 132K), I'd like to stay under the 225k limit if possible. I'll accept new construction provided there's some diversity to the style of houses (no cookie cutter sub-divisions); but would prefer to live in the city.

Does anyone have recommendations for good neighborhoods either in Denver or the surrounding area?

[DreadPiratePatty]

Try Highlands, it's next to the more trendy "West Highlands" - neither to be confused with Highlands Ranch (subdivision coma). It's up and coming and homes there are less than their counterparts one mile away.

The home in the pic is comparable to many of the places in Highlands. There are also some very cool old Victorian homes in the area as well, a nice balance. They are trying to build new/ugly multiunit housing but from what I have read, the city has put a stop on it.

Good luck!

[kristenfromdenver]

For that price range, if you're tolerant of "up and coming" neighborhoods, I would also consider Sunnyside, Berkeley and even Curtis Park. These would all probably appreciate over time (give it at least 5 years), so if you can find a place you like, it would likely also be a great investment.

I love to give people the link to this website, Denver Uncommon Photography, Your Source for Unique Denver Artwork, because it gives great photo tours of the different neighborhoods.

I'm sure you'll be happy here!

[Fastway57]

I agree with Kristen, The Berkley or Highlands area would be a good choice.

[Katiana]

^^^With this caveat: the yard of the house in Michigan looks much larger than what you will find in those neighborhoods. You might try old town Arvada for an older house with a larger yard.

[TropicanaRose]

You might try Edgewater as well.

[tfox]

You can find similar turn of the century housing in much of the city of Denver, as well as many of the suburbs too. By 1900 Denver was a very sizable city with a large city core, and by that time you already had the satellite towns planted like Englewood, Littleton, Arvada, Wheat Ridge, Aurora, and others that would later become the suburbs, as well as other towns like Golden, Louisville, Boulder, that would eventually become part of the metro area. You can find similar housing in any of the aforementioned places.

[daniboi81]

Thank you very much for all of the suggestions (along with the link to the photo galleries). This give us a good starting point on some of the neighborhoods to explore when we're there in a couple of weeks.

[CapHillboy]

As part of your research, I'd suggest you go to recolorado.com and plunk in the areas people have mentioned with your price range. I was looking as recently as last year in highlands, berkeley, curtis park, and even Arvada. Your house in Grand Rapids looks to me to be bigger than 1400sf. I may well be wrong, but i think it's going to be difficult to find a house of that size (even on a smaller lot) under $225K in any of those neighborhoods. Maybe a fixer-upper is possible, but i rather doubt it. (i looked only at houses in move-in condition or that required no more than a screwdriver to bring it to that state. Even a paint brush was too much for me at that time.)

highlands, berkeley, and curtis park are all neighborhoods in Denver, so you could enter them in the subdivision field and Denver in the city field. Edgewater, Wheat Ridge, Englewood, and Arvada are separate towns, though suburbs of Denver. tfox certainly knows better than me, but i think Boulder, Louisville, Golden and Littleton (especially the area with the kind of housing you're looking for) are going to be more than the price limit you specified.

otoh--i know nothing about Sunnyside, so maybe there's housing there that will fit your requirements.

Good luck in your search!

[Katiana]

It might be possible to find something in old Louisville for that price, but the houses are small in Old Town. Old Town Louisville does not have so many bungalow-style houses as do Denver, Wheat Ridge, Arvada, etc. Boulder would be pretty much out of the question. Maybe Lafayette, but again, the Old Town has pretty small houses.