Location location ............

[the3Ds]

Originally Posted by Trinity Florida

In reply to Steve...........We will need to be near the airport not the Denver airport. We need to be near the the private jet airport Centennial

Well, then...

Your budget is pretty large and you may likely be able to afford a home with land. We've moved around a lot of this country and I have never seen homes with less space around them than in Denver. I'm not sure why, but nearly every home in the suburbs are packed in like sardines. I am not bothered by that personally but a horse would be out of the question.

Centennial Airport would be convenient to get to anywhere southeast of Denver. We live out near Southlands, but again, you'd probably dislike the proximity to the neighbors. Also, your budget far exceeds any of the homes in my subdivision.

For horse properties, there are a lot of homes on large lots (many with horses) near Grandview High School. Along Arapahoe Road and Liverpool, there are many homes that may fit your requirements. Also, you might want to look at the city of Parker. It's well known to be a horse friendly place to live and there are also a lot of larger properties that could accomodate one.

The area near Grandview HS is in Cherry Creek School District (an excellent one...I know that personally since we moved here specifically for the school district) and Parker has Douglas County School District. Recently, they've been dealing with a failed bond election, but even so, the school district and school environment is considered an excellent one. You cannot really go wrong with either Cherry Creek SD or Douglas County SD, especially if you are willing to make a committment to your kids' education as well.

[the3Ds]

Originally Posted by formercalifornian

Centennial airport is about 30 minutes via 470 if traffic is reasonable.

Sorry, but that is WAY too far for any decent quality of life. The area where she needs to be (Centennial Airport) is surrounded by great neighborhoods, school districts and shopping. If it were in a bad part of town, perhaps driving 30 minutes would be a good idea, but it's quite the opposite.

30 minutes on the E-470 can be more than an hour in snow. Also (and I know this from experience because my husband works at DIA and take the E-470 each way), you'd have to budget approx $200 per month for tolls. Again, that would make sense if Centennial Airport wasn't surrounded by the cities of Centennial, SE Aurora and Parker, but those cities are wonderful places to live and well within her budget.

The only reason to commute for 30 minutes is if your work location is in a bad area. Not the case here.

[the3Ds]

Originally Posted by Trinity Florida

LOL soooooo anyway ...... yea I been to Southlands, and as I was saying it is a nice area. BUT people dont like the Aurora address and Im worried about resale later down the road.

We moved here a year ago and also was a little leary of the "Aurora" stigma. The only people who are worried about that are those who haven't been here. We focused on living in Parker until we looked around and discovered a much nicer neighborhood in a great school district (Cherry Creek) which just so happened to be technically in the city of Aurora. We are surrounded by Centennial and are in an "unincorporated area of Arapahoe County" but our mailing address is Aurora.

What you are going to find (and I know this to be personally true when I see the numerous "sold" signs in my neighborhood) is that good schools trump city names every time. Aurora is huge and so there are good parts and bad parts. We in SE Aurora are in a good part but the thing we have going for us that will attract buyers and families to our neighborhood is our school district. When we began our househunt, our #1 priority was a good school district. If we had to live in a tiny home in order to be able to send our kids to a good school, we would have done that. Fortunately, most of Cherry Creek SD is middle class so we were able to find a great house and a good school.

As far as resale, I can only tell you what I see on my bike rides/walks around the neighborhoods. Not one home for sale that I've seen has been on the market for more than 6 months. Now that Spring/Summer is here, the home across the street has had numerous people coming to view it. While the market was booming, 6 months seemed like a long time, but I believe it's fairly average. I also know that if you've got a nice home that is well-kept, your chances of selling are higher than one with heavy cigarette smoke, pet odors and hideous colors.

I believe the number of people looking to live in a good school district would far outweigh anyone who was focused on not living in a specific city because of a name.

[MantaRay]

Originally Posted by the3Ds

We've moved around a lot of this country and I have never seen homes with less space around them than in Denver. I'm not sure why, but nearly every home in the suburbs are packed in like sardines.

That is Denver doing what all these cities with huge sprawl problems should have been doing once they got to a certain size (say > 1-1.5 million). Obviously if the concept of density helps to mitigage sprawl, then applying that concept to suburban single family homes will help to mitigate sprawl. And naturally the smaller lot size means lower water demand per capita. The largest demand in water tends to come from sprinkler systems to keep lawns green. The bigger the lots, the more water used per person or per family. The smaller the lots, the lower the demand on the area's resources.

From having some business centers located AWAY from downtown (DTC, Cherry Creek, etc.) to building town centers in the suburbs (Belmar, etc.) to the grid street design to decreasing lot size in suburban developments, Denver is pretty much doing everything right in growing smart. And for what land space howeowners don't get, they get an abundance in public park space, right down to even neighborhood parks. Smart growth without sacrificing quality of life.

[Hipchik]

Originally Posted by the3Ds

30 minutes on the E-470 can be more than an hour in snow. Also (and I know this from experience because my husband works at DIA and take the E-470 each way), you'd have to budget approx $200 per month for tolls.

It makes me giggle when someone moves here and puts THE before our highways, interstates, etc. In Colorado we don't say THE I-70 or THE E-470. This is not California. It gives you away every time! ; )

[Moonwalkr]

We're in the Greenwood Village area, it's nice and established, pretty close to Centennial airport. Schools are excellent, there is a lot of parental involvement and volunteering which is the most important for me. I myself grew up in a working middle class area and have a professional degree, so you don't need affluent schools to succeed. There are plenty of wealthy kids in my kid's class who are dumb as bricks, it's a matter of individual kids plus family educational emphasis and pretty much reading/working with your kids.

You may not have the land to keep a horse on your property, but I see they have horses right off Peoria and people would just ride them up to the Cherry Creek State park. Estimated median house price is around $822K as of 2007, might be lower now with the recession, but our house was recently appraised (for a refi) about the same as last year. I have not seen any foreclosures anywhere nearby, though some houses have been turned into rentals.

You will occasionally hear private planes fly overhead as they land, I'm sure you are used to them as we are, I'm not home during the day to hear them anyway. Barely perceptible if windows are closed.

http://www.city-data.com/city/Greenw...-Colorado.html

[MantaRay]

Originally Posted by Moonwalkr

We're in the Greenwood Village area, it's nice and established, pretty close to Centennial airport. Schools are excellent, there is a lot of parental involvement and volunteering which is the most important for me. I myself grew up in a working middle class area and have a professional degree, so you don't need affluent schools to succeed. There are plenty of wealthy kids in my kid's class who are dumb as bricks, it's a matter of individual kids plus family educational emphasis and pretty much reading/working with your kids.

Count yourself among the relative few with that wisdom. Most people believe an average standardized test score is the be all, end all in determining what school is "the best." Most don't understand that working middle class schools are just as good as the affluent schools despite the test scores, BECAUSE of exactly what you said- it's a matter of the individual kid plus family educational emphasis, what I tend to call parental involvement. Most middle class areas are going to have schools that are just as good (in teaching the children and preparing them for college) as the affluent schools.