Young Couple thinking about starting life in Colorado (Denver, Colorado Springs: crime rate, neighborhood)

[mountainoceangirl]

Me and my soon to be hubby have been wanting to move to Colorado for a long time. I lived in Durango, CO for 6 months in college to be a intern and loved it!!! We live in Sacramento, CA and are sick of the fast paced life and the high crime rate that just seems to be getting worse. We just don't see raising a family in this type of enviroment. We are getting married in October and would like to start are lives there and eventually raise a family. We have a trip planned in Febuary to take a look at the surrounding areas around Denver. We both love the mountains and would love to live in a mountain town but are open to looking at every area. Are there any areas that have a high rate of newly married couples or young families just starting out? We would love to live in a area where there are people are own age(27&30). I grew up in a neighborhood that was like a big family. Is there such thing in Colorado!!

[tfox]

Originally Posted by mountainoceangirl

Me and my soon to be hubby have been wanting to move to Colorado for a long time. I lived in Durango, CO for 6 months in college to be a intern and loved it!!! We live in Sacramento, CA and are sick of the fast paced life and the high crime rate that just seems to be getting worse. We just don't see raising a family in this type of enviroment. We are getting married in October and would like to start are lives there and eventually raise a family. We have a trip planned in Febuary to take a look at the surrounding areas around Denver. We both love the mountains and would love to live in a mountain town but are open to looking at every area. Are there any areas that have a high rate of newly married couples or young families just starting out? We would love to live in a area where there are people are own age(27&30). I grew up in a neighborhood that was like a big family. Is there such thing in Colorado!!

I've heard that Colorado is one of the youngest states in the whole country, so I think you'd have no problem finding people your age anywhere in the state. Here, even the "sleepy suburbs" actually have a good portion of younger people too.

Unfortunately, there's not a lot of places in the mountains that are really commutable to Denver, particularly in bad weather. So, you really need to decide if you want to live in a western slope or mountain town and work locally, or if you want to live in a foothills area close to Denver and commute. Evergreen/Conifer/Bailey are the areas people think of as "mountain living" when commuting to Denver, but all have long commutes (1 hour plus). There are also some foothills communities to the south of Denver that "feel" like the mountains but actually aren't any closer to the peaks. Larkspur is an example, BenWolfe who posts here a lot can tell you a lot about that. There are also a few similar areas that are commutable to Colorado Springs if you want to look for jobs there.

My impression of the mountain towns generally is that they are usually tough to survive in due to lack of high-paying jobs and the high expense of living there. So, you may want to take that into consideration.