Green Mountain/Applewood vs. North Englewood (Denver, Lakewood: new home, established neighborhood, school districts)

[coltranefan]

First let me say thank you to the posters here. I have learned a great deal about the city from this forum and I sincerely appreciate the time and effort put forth by so many of you.

Here's my story: I'm relocating to Denver in April. Married, early 30's. My first child will be born any day now. My job is downtown. My price range for a new home is $500k - $550k. Any home search is an exhaustive process of elimination...I would like to share my process with the posters here and get some feedback.

I have been traveling to Denver for a few years on business so I know the city relatively well. I started my search in the typical places that the realtors tell you to look in this price range - Highlands Ranch, Greenwood Village, Littleton. Great schools and nice houses, but long commutes to downtown so I scratched them off the list. Rail would be an option if not for the horrid parking at the Mineral station in Littleton and the Orchard station off I-25.

I then scratched Stapleton and other new urbanist communities off the list. Nice enough places to live but just not for us.

I checked out Wash Park and the Crestmore/Hilltop/Bonnie Brae areas. Very nice historic homes and close to downtown but just slightly out of our price range for the house we want (at least 3BR and 2500 sq ft).

I never considered North or East of downtown.

Guided in part by this forum we are currently looking very closely at the Green Mountain (Mesa View/6th Avenue Estates) and Applewood areas. Good sized homes in well established neighborhoods with good mountain access and a 20-30 commute to downtown. Schools are not quite as good as the southern suburbs but are perfectly adequate (plus we have 5 or so years before that is a major concern).

We are also looking at the North Englewood area. By this, I mean the area North of the Tech Center and south of I-25. I have found many nice houses that are perfectly adequate, some in the Cherry Creek school district.

Any thoughts on the pros and cons of these two areas would be very much appreciated. Do you think I can go wrong with either area?

Any other areas we should be considering or specific areas we should check out in Englewood?

Thanks in advance.

[2bindenver]

Englewood, Centennial, Applewood, Lakewood, Green Mountain, SE Denver would all be nice choices.

At least the SE Denver side has light rail.

[SheridanL]

I'm an Applewood fan but, all areas you talk of are great!!

[tfox]

Green Mountain and Applewood are both good areas, and have always been good areas. You can't go wrong there. The Jefferson County high schools in that area are good, as I had friends who went to both Lakewood and Green Mountain High Schools. As you know, Jeffco is mostly older homes and that's why it's somewhat out of favor on city-data, but somewhat unfairly so IMO.

Commuting from the west is actually one of the easier commutes, by car, though one problem is that you have the sun in your eyes both ways -- make sure you keep your windshield clean or you won't see a thing (the sun here is very powerful at low angles due to elevation). There is no rail right now to the west but that will change in a few years (2013) with the west corridor of fastracks opening up (if rtd can get its act together, that is).

As for "Englewood", I'm thinking that the area you're referring to (around Arapahoe Road and University, if I'm not mistaken) is actually in the city of Centennial (which didn't exist until this decade, so that's why it has an Englewood address) -- this is Cherry Creek Schools, with some of the western parts being Littleton schools (equally good). Englewood is more properly centered around Hampden and Broadway, and is mostly (but not entirely) in its own school district (parts are in Littleton and CC school districts).