Relocating to Denver area....need advice:)

[steveindenver]

There are pockets of infill all over the Denver proper map. I don't think the folks in Stapleton have a lock on the concept. I was riding through Lowry today and it looks like they are starting to build in that development again.

The Gates Rubber project will be interesting to watch too.

Somewhat related: Best Places to Live 2009 - from Money Magazine

I've been to Warren and Lake St Louis, can't say I would want to come close to livng in either, but interesting none the less.

[yodi]

I would look into Arvada. It has good schools, a really great rec center: http://www.apexprd.org/, a nice library a cute downtown, walking trails and homes in your price range. It's also an easy commute to downtown Denver. At some point it will have light rail access.

I also agree that downtown Littleton would be another great choice.

[chilicheesefries]

Originally Posted by yodi

I would look into Arvada. It has good schools, a really great rec center: http://www.apexprd.org/, a nice library a cute downtown, walking trails and homes in your price range. It's also an easy commute to downtown Denver. At some point it will have light rail access.

I also agree that downtown Littleton would be another great choice.

I read a lot that Arvada has an easy commute into downtown Denver. Just looking at the map I don't see anything easy except I-70 to I-25 which seems like it would be a madhouse. Just for my own curiosity, what route do people take from Arvada downtown? Southern suburbs like Littleton have straightshots like Santa Fe & Broadway but with suburbs (ie no diagonal route) that have to go one direction then another I'm just curious what route.

[steveindenver]

On a bike, Lowell or Pecos at least from the urban sections of Arvada.

[yodi]

Originally Posted by chilicheesefries

I read a lot that Arvada has an easy commute into downtown Denver. Just looking at the map I don't see anything easy except I-70 to I-25 which seems like it would be a madhouse. Just for my own curiosity, what route do people take from Arvada downtown? Southern suburbs like Littleton have straightshots like Santa Fe & Broadway but with suburbs (ie no diagonal route) that have to go one direction then another I'm just curious what route.

I don't live there but when I visit Arvada, I return to Denver by taking Wadsworth to 38th. Arvada to Denver is a little over 8 miles. It's not a straight shot like Broadway but turning left onto 38th from Wadsworth is not difficult.

[chilicheesefries]

Originally Posted by yodi

I don't live there but when I visit Arvada, I return to Denver by taking Wadsworth to 38th. Arvada to Denver is a little over 8 miles. It's not a straight shot like Broadway but turning left onto 38th from Wadsworth is not difficult.

That makes sense. Then you can take 38th across and into downtown. Just didn't know which way people go and if they took the interstates.

[mama02]

What about Littleton? It looks nice? Any comments on that town?

[chilicheesefries]

Originally Posted by mama02

What about Littleton? It looks nice? Any comments on that town?

Littleton is a great town and the surrounding areas with Littleton addresses are great too. It has every type of housing you could look for - working class, middle class, upper class. Served well by light rail to downtown making it very convenient to work downtown with a fairly painless commute. Good accessibility to many places and a nice Main Street with variety of shops and restaurants. IMO except for the richer areas, it (and surrounding areas such as Centennial, Highlands Ranch, etc) are the best places to live in metro Denver for families. Other posters on the topic mentioned Littleton as a possibility and with your criteria about having a downtown area eliminating Centennial, Highlands Ranch, I would recommend Littleton over the other possibilities. There are rec centers around as well as 24 Hour Fitness, etc if that's your thing. There are pools to go to, although with the absence of HOAs around downtown Littleton a neighborhood pool in the traditional sense won't be found. As mentioned, the Platte River trail goes almost anywhere. And the Highline Canal weaves through Littleton and makes a good trail that can be followed for mile and miles. Littleton Schools are excellent for the most part although they don't get the same fanfare as other area districts. Finally, it does have more of a sense of its own community than many suburbs, although not as much as say Golden or Castle Rock.

[mama02]

Thanks so much for all of the information!! I think we have a trip ahead of us to visit a few towns

[Sheridan1962]

Mama02,

We just moved to the Denver area from Frisco, TX (my sister lives in Plano...small world) in late January of this year. We found the housing prices here in the Denver metro compared to Frisco to be MUCH different. In Frisco, we had a 5 y/o, 4,000 sf, 5 b/r 4 bath 100% stone masonry home in like-new condition that we sold for $260K (makes me sick to think about it ). We had hoped to find a home in the $300-$350K range in Douglas County (Castle Rock and Parker would be your best bets...in fact, Parker has a VERY quaint downtown). We looked at Highlands Ranch also, but everything there in our price range was older than what we would have liked, and not nearly as nice as our house in Frisco. But, after having our kids enrolled in Douglas County schools for just a few weeks when we moved into corporate housing, we knew we did not want to stay in that school district. After looking at almost 130 homes, we ended up buying a home in Centennial in the Cherry Creek School district. We paid QUITE a bit more than we planned, but thankfully the low interest rates and a 20% down payment made it not too terribly painful.

Just be prepared for sticker shock in terms of what you will find here vs. what you had in Texas. We also found that despite the bad economy, it didn't appear to be a "buyers market" here...there are tons of short sales and foreclosures on the market, but short sales are a PITB to deal with, so we never even bothered making offers on them, and the few foreclosure sales we were interested in already had multiples offers on them. We had to look long and hard to find a suitable house that was not a short sale or foreclosure.

Good luck with your househunting, and please feel free to PM me anytime. Us Texans have to stick together, lol.