Work in Denver, family lives where? (Aurora, Lakewood: mortgage, how much, houses)

[LeavinMI]

In my experience major cities rarely have large families that live IN the city. My husband is interviewing for a job in Denver (downtown to my knowledge) My question is where would we want to look at housing for a family of 5 with school age children? We want safe, nicer homes, nice community, schools are top priority though. Budget I'm not sure of yet as part of why we are looking at housing is to have an idea of what sort of salary offer would be acceptable to our lifestyle. Most likely our budget will be 2k-2500/month mortgage or rent, but of course lower is better if we can still get away with a nice area with a nice schools.

Any help is greatly appreciated!! We've been interviewing in a few areas but Denver is something we never even considered, this sort of fell upon us and I know nothing of the area.

Thank you so much for your time.

[Moonwalkr]

I am in the SE metro area near Cherry Creek reservoir. The area is very safe with good schools. There's also light rail that goes downtown. Depending on how much you can put down you may be fine paying 2500 for mortgage, as you tend to pay a premium to be near the top schools.

[Bradburn1]

Without a doubt, Stapleton. Denver is a great place to raise a family, and there are lots of them even in the neighborhoods very close to downtown (although not as many directly downtown, but some!). Stapleton is full of families, 10 minutes to downtown (and you can take bus right from neighborhood and eventually, light rail), great parks, good schools. Might be a bit high though for your housing budget but have a look.

Good Luck!

[LeavinMI]

Thank you so much for the responses! I looked on the realtor.com website and can't find anything either of these places. Are these cities or neighborhoods? Are you saying these are communities within Denver? Where we live now (Metro Detroit) there are cities scattered all around Detroit. Almost no one actually lives IN Detroit. So are there nice places actually with Denver addresses is what you are saying? We'd be okay with living in another city as long as there's a reasonable commute.

I really appreciate it!! Thanks!

[vegaspilgrim]

You can't embark on your relocation search thinking that Denver is the same as Detroit. They are totally different cities, with vastly different urban and social geographies. Instead of going into this forum with preconceived notions about how Denver "should be" based on your previous experience with other cities, how about asking an open ended question and listen to the response you get from the locals on this board?

[Bradburn1]

Stapleton is a neighborhood, a brand new neighborhood, in the city of Denver. Many families live in Denver itself, there are many great city neighborhoods here, not at all like Detroit. Many families also live in smaller cities surrounding Denver like Lakewood, Aurora, Westminster, Englewood etc.. Where you might want to go in the suburbs surrounding Denver depends more on your needs for price range/what type of neighborhood/size of house you need/how much of a commute you can tolerate.

Stapleton is a walkable, new urbanist neighborhood with a wide variety of housing choices very close to downtown, you said "new" in your post, which is what drove me to recommend it, it's new and has a range of prices. Lowry is a similar neighborhood in Denver (new, nice, close to downtown) but I think would be out of your price range. There are many established neighborhoods that are also nice, (most neighborhoods close to downtown are older).

[LeavinMI]

Oh I know it's nothing like Detroit. I wouldn't consider moving there otherwise LOL I thought my question was open ended. Sorry if I offended.

Thanks again for all the info. A nice walkable area like Stapleton sounds WONDERFUL to me. So are there varying zip codes within Denver? I am just curious how to search properties that are speific to this Stapleton neighborhood or the Cherry Creek Reservoir. I only have a vague idea of what I think our price range would be by looking at cost of living calculators and going on what we afford here.

Thanks again!

[Moonwalkr]

Where I live is 80111 (south of Cherry Creek reservoir). Stapleton is 80238 I believe. Here's a link to schools around Denver: Colorado School Performance Maps.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by LeavinMI

Thank you so much for the responses! I looked on the realtor.com website and can't find anything either of these places. Are these cities or neighborhoods? Are you saying these are communities within Denver? Where we live now (Metro Detroit) there are cities scattered all around Detroit. Almost no one actually lives IN Detroit. So are there nice places actually with Denver addresses is what you are saying? We'd be okay with living in another city as long as there's a reasonable commute.

I really appreciate it!! Thanks!

Funny - I was just having a converstation with a neighbr yesterday who's from Detroit and he said the same thing, that in Detroit everyone commutes to work downtown, but they don't live in the city. Denver is different in that the central city isn't an unsafe ghetto (his words) and many families live in Denver itself. We live in the Stapleton neighborhood (look for houses in the 80238 zip) and there are good schools here that are Denver Public Schools. It's a new development where the old airport used to be, so you can find new build and resale homes in the Stapleton neighborhood. You can check it out at StapletonDenver.com. Houses are expensive though, generally in the mid 400Ks to over a million. It's built on the principles of new urbanism and lots are small, but it's very social, lots of kids, lots of parks and trails, near everything in the city.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by LeavinMI

Oh I know it's nothing like Detroit. I wouldn't consider moving there otherwise LOL I thought my question was open ended. Sorry if I offended.

Thanks again for all the info. A nice walkable area like Stapleton sounds WONDERFUL to me. So are there varying zip codes within Denver? I am just curious how to search properties that are speific to this Stapleton neighborhood or the Cherry Creek Reservoir. I only have a vague idea of what I think our price range would be by looking at cost of living calculators and going on what we afford here.

Thanks again!

I tried homeseekers.com and put in 80238 zip for Stapleton, but not that much comes up. I know there are more re-sale homes on the market than that. There are also new build homes you can check out at StapletonDenver.com