honest opinions about east colfax neighborhood, please! (Denver: houses, neighborhoods)

[mrkool]

Used to work and live fairly close to there. Lived just south, worked just north. Eventually moved further south and east in Aurora.
I would think *real* hard about it, especially since you may have trouble selling later. This is not a good area, no matter what cute spin anyone might try to put on it or what the crime stats purport to show.

[cowboyxjon]

Yeah, we are. Honestly, we're probably just going to keep looking even though we like the house itself.

I don't need a fancy or trendy neighborhood, but the biggest thing is that we're worried about not being able to sell it later on if circumstances change and we have to move to another city or something.

Thanks!

[steveindenver]

Used to work and live fairly close to there. Lived just south, worked just north. Eventually moved further south and east in Aurora.
I would think *real* hard about it, especially since you may have trouble selling later. This is not a good area, no matter what cute spin anyone might try to put on it or what the crime stats purport to show.

Again, you have zero idea what you are writing about. This is Spruce .... in the East Denver neighborhood, not Havana. This is not a bad area and time on market is well below average for all of Denver.

Many of the responses to this thread simply amaze me. If you don't know the area and can't read the questions, why respond? There are million plus priced homes in walking distance of 17th and Spruce for ****s sake.

[mrkool]

Originally Posted by steveindenver

Again, you have zero idea what you are writing about. This is Spruce .... in the East Denver neighborhood, not Havana. This is not a bad area and time on market is well below average for all of Denver.

Many of the responses to this thread simply amaze me. If you don't know the area and can't read the questions, why respond? There are million plus priced homes in walking distance of 17th and Spruce for ****s sake.

Granted.. area is a bit further west than I thought, but I just looked up some stats about that zip.
12% under poverty line. Almost 40% with incomes < 35k a year. I doubt there are as many million $ homes as you would have us believe. Proximity to east Colfax. Population demographics are consistent with areas with higher than average crime. Read whatever you want into that.
I wouldn't want to live in this zip, and that is what original poster was asking.. for opinions.
As you can see by my location, I moved out of Denver altogether.

[David Aguilar]

Originally Posted by mrkool

Granted.. area is a bit further west than I thought, but I just looked up some stats about that zip.
12% under poverty line. Almost 40% with incomes < 35k a year. I doubt there are as many million $ homes as you would have us believe. Proximity to east Colfax. Population demographics are consistent with areas with higher than average crime. Read whatever you want into that.
I wouldn't want to live in this zip, and that is what original poster was asking.. for opinions.
As you can see by my location, I moved out of Denver altogether.

Including all of 80220 as one entity is ridiculous. 80220 is huge. Anybody that knows anything about 80220 knows that it includes very rich (I'm talking blue blood here), middle class and poverty areas.

The general dividing line between "good" and "bad" in 80220 is Quebec. 17th and Spruce is 5 whole blocks east of Quebec, on the "bad" side. That doesn't make it bad, and anybody without their nose up in the air should feel perfectly fine living there.

Regarding the "12% under poverty line" comment, regarding the nation as a whole, when measured by individual people, those under the poverty line number 12.4%, so that would make 80220, as a whole, better off than the nation at large, by 0.4%.

Your "40% with incomes under $35K" argument falls flat as well. That would obviously mean 60% of households make more than that. (The median household income (US census, 2000) is only $6K higher, at $41K/yr.) 28.8% of households in 80220 make over $75K/year. Compare that to the US total of 22.5%. Not to mention 4.8% of households make over $200K/yr, compared with the US total of 2.4%. That would definitely ensure some sense of affluence in the area.

Obviously, mrkool, you managed to miss 6th Ave Pkwy, Monaco Pkwy, South Park Hill, Hilltop, etc. All fall wholly or partially within 80220.

What's so bad about East Colfax? While driving west on it from Aurora, you can tell a difference when you cross Yosemite into Denver. It isn't the "legendary Colfax" anymore. Anybody should feel safe enough there.

The comment I highlighted in bold hints at racism, and please don't try and tell me otherwise.

I would live in 80220 in a heartbeat. There truly is something for everybody there, as far as city life goes.

[Itz]

I worked in the area.. and i would avoid it.. oh yes.. avoid avoid avoid..
We had cars broken into multiple times.. We had 2 trucks stolen... Look up Aurora in he news.. most of the "negative" stuff is going to be in the North section. When I was lookint to buy my house I sent my realtors addresses of places to look at and he helped me avoid questionable and negative areas...

There are some really nice homes and they are trying to improve the location but the bad influence is just bad.. One of my co-workers bought in the stapleton area.. and she had huge problems with graffitti.

It is very ethnically diverse and the wallie world... scarey!! just my opinion..

[David Aguilar]

Originally Posted by Itz

Look up Aurora in he news.. most of the "negative" stuff is going to be in the North section.

the wallie world... scarey!! just my opinion..

Just a reminder, the OP is looking at a house in Denver, not Aurora.

What is sooooo "scarey" (LOL) about the Wal-Mart in Stapleton? I've been there enough times, and have never been the least bit frightened.

I was terrified while shopping at a Wal-Mart in Highlands Ranch, however.

[cowboyxjon]

Thanks again for the feedback, everyone. Like I said, we're going to just keep looking. The house itself is great, but we're worried we wouldn't be able to sell it in the future if something came up and we had had to leave. Whether or not most of the negative opinions of this area are true, people still think these things, and it's a bit of a concern because I'm sure a lot of potential buyers could be turned off by word-of-mouth (and the fact that some of the blocks east of Spruce have bars on the windows, etc). Buying/Owning a home is something that we don't absolutely HAVE to do right now, so we have time to think about it some more and/or look somewhere else, although we're leaning toward just waiting and looking in other areas.

As for the Wal-Mart in Stapleton, I admit that I hate that one, but not because it's scary. It seemed that whenever I would stop by, whatever I needed always happened to be out of stock, and the shelves in the grocery section were almost always nearly empty, which is probably good for Wal-Mart, but bad for me, since it meant that I had to make a separate trip to another store in most cases. I haven't been there in over a year, though.

[subsound]

I lived in the area just North of Lowery but South of Colfax, and been in the area quite a bit till moving away. Some of the areas are nice, some really are not...it takes a good eye to really get an idea. Before the redevelopments these areas were pretty much the least desirable in the city, between the airport and air force base. Since they were torn out some of the areas have been getting families moving in and kind of homesteading the area, buying up nice looking older houses and working on them during the housing boom.

I can't emphasize enough to watch the area you are looking at buying a house, even sit in your car with a cup of coffee and chill out at different times of the day. See what kind of people come and go, see how loud it is at night and how busy it gets. Stay away from Quebec (especially Quebec), 13th, 14th, 8th and 6th as they become majorly clogged during rush hour.

[XAFLOC]

I live in the neighborhood you're looking at, just a few blocks to the east. I've been here for almost 2 years and I really like it. I plan to be here for a long time and I suspect by the time I move or retire, this neighborhood will have changed quite a bit for the better. It's a great location right between Stapleton and Lowry, Fitzsimmons and Downtown. In the short time I've been here the momentum has definitely been good, even though the economy has been in decline pretty much the entire time.

There has been a lot of investment in the area. Many of the run down houses are being bought and renovated. There was a Denver Post article a few months ago highlighting the fact that this is one of the more popular areas for "fix and flips." Whatever you feel about flippers, it does show that people feel strongly enough about the area's potential to invest in it.

I pay a small fraction of what the Stapleton people pay for their mortgages, yet I get to experience all of the same amenities. The dog park, Central Park, the bike paths, shopping, etc. We even have our own great park on 17th and Syracuse. As far as places to eat, I tend to prefer the restaurants on Colfax as opposed to the restaurants in Stapleton. Park Hill and the Blue Bird district have a lot of cool, locally owned places to eat, whereas Stapleton tends to have corporate chains.

There is some graffiti here and there, but that's true in any urban area. There are some signs of gang activity, but mostly east of Yosemite. It hasn't been a huge problem for me. I've never felt unsafe in my neighborhood. My neighbors are a great diverse bunch -- just one more benefit of living here.

I've taken the Colfax bus (the 15) to and from work and I've never felt unsafe, even at 1am on a Friday night. Obviously, as with any other neighborhood, I keep my doors locked and I don't leave my valuables laying around, but that's just being smart. There are many people here who will say bad things about this neighborhood, but I find it interesting that none of them actually live here. In fact, before I moved here I had the same negative perception of the area. Needless to say, I have grown to love it, but I can understand where people are coming from.