Arvada/Golden/Applewood/Lakewood. Moving in a month, someone help me! (Denver: apartments, leases)

[misstara]

My husband was just offered a job in Golden. We need to find an apartment for ourselves & our big yellow lab STAT.

We're not huge fans of a "small town" feel. We love the burbs (reasonably close to downtown areas for fun nights out). I NEED a SuperTarget, things like organic grocery stores & big box shopping. Starbucks, Walgreens, nice gyms, local pet supply shops, etc. Just trying to give you an idea of what we're looking for.

We do like SOME character though. I love big trees. I hate wind. We're early 20-s, just out of college, starting our first jobs.

We like fairly new areas that don't feel retirement-y. Young families is kinda what we're looking for in an area.

From what I saw of Golden, it was definitely a smaller-town feel - at least in the area we were (near NREL). Are there different areas of Golden?

What should we be looking for? I'd rather not be suuuuper west since I don't know yet in which area of Denver I'll be working.

Please give me the lowdown on these areas (or any other suggestions!).

The reason I'm hesitant about Lakewood is because I've heard it's a little older with more ranch-style homes, etc. Am I wrong?

Thanks for all of your help! We're in a time crunch here.

[tfox]

I think most people prefer Golden, but part of that is because most of town is a bit secluded from metro Denver by the table mountains (perhaps you don't like that). It does have a nice historic section and the college (CSM). For all these reasons, it's known for being fairly expensive. The southeast portion of Golden does blend into western lakewood.

Lakewood (and really anywhere in JeffCo) is going to be mostly older homes, though not entirely. There is a brand new development in Lakewood called Solterra that you can look into, but it does have a significant disadvantage of outrageously high property taxes. However, in western lakewood there are some other neighborhoods that are fairly new (1990s) You might also look into western Arvada -- that is also convenient to Golden and I think there are some newer areas there as well. Golden itself does have some new-ish developments as well, if you can afford them.

[kimmer]

Check out western Arvada. We live near I-70, have a Super Target down the street, our apartments are nice and take dogs - oh, and they do short-term leases. If you PM me, I can give you the name of our complex & you can check it out on line. Lots of trees where we are. Quick commute into the city if you need, as well.

[kimmer]

Oh, and...there's not too much shopping, clothes-wise, but there are numerous Walgreens, a Sunflower market, Vitamin Cottage natural market, (I've heard there's a Sprouts market nearby, but I haven't seen it yet). The Apex Center is a fabulous rec. center, there is a YMCA, a Costco, and PetSmart. Off-leash dog park is here - it's huge. Most of the Starbucks are drive-through, and we have two within a mile of each other (big surprise, I know!).
Arvada does seem to have a mix of families/older folks, but there are certainly plenty of kids around.
OK, I'm off to Super Target - again...