Single Male college grad looking for place (Denver, Westminster: foreclosures, insurance)

[Syncmaster414]

I am getting ready to graduate from Mizzou in a week. I have been looking to move to Denver, as I think it will be a great place to live and invest in a condo to start.

I don't have a job yet but have plenty of money saved up from bartending for many years. I am 24, single, and love nightlife/social life/meeting new people.

I might start training with Progressive Insurance and possibly get a bartending gig for a little bit until I get established. How feasible is it to live in downtown Dever area and commute to, say, Westminster? I would rather live in the downtown area. It is essential for me to have city/mountain views. My max budget is around $175k for a condo, size doesn't matter that much but location/views do. I NEED to live in an area with many young professional singles as well.

Anyone have suggestions as to where I should start looking?

[2bindenver]

There are a ton of places on the market right now. 130 of them in Downtown or SE Denver with views of either city or mountains.

1 bedrooms downtown are around $150,000.

[Syncmaster414]

Is it feasible to live downtown and commute to a suburb in, say, 30 minutes>?

[tfox]

Westminster is definitely commutable to downtown (particularly the more southeastern portion of it), but for $175,000 you should be able to afford a condo in Denver. Maybe not too much right in the CBD or in LoDo, but within a half a mile to a mile there's lots. In Cheesman Park, for example, you could probably get a nice 1br or maybe a low-end 2br for that price in a beautiful part of town. Studios can be had for as little as $50-80k, but not in LoDo (Capitol Hill has tons of studios). Take a look around the city -- I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at what's out there and what you can afford.

Our housing market is a buyers' market so there's lots of options, but from what I've heard the downtown market is less of a buyers' market than the suburbs. If you want Westminster you could probably get a screaming deal on a foreclosure; there are tons of those in the suburbs. In some ways the prices out there on the foreclosures may be too good to pass up, though you have to consider the very real possibility of falling prices on those types of properties.

Originally Posted by Syncmaster414

I am getting ready to graduate from Mizzou in a week. I have been looking to move to Denver, as I think it will be a great place to live and invest in a condo to start.

I don't have a job yet but have plenty of money saved up from bartending for many years. I am 24, single, and love nightlife/social life/meeting new people.

I might start training with Progressive Insurance and possibly get a bartending gig for a little bit until I get established. How feasible is it to live in downtown Dever area and commute to, say, Westminster? I would rather live in the downtown area. It is essential for me to have city/mountain views. My max budget is around $175k for a condo, size doesn't matter that much but location/views do. I NEED to live in an area with many young professional singles as well.

Anyone have suggestions as to where I should start looking?

[tfox]

Originally Posted by Syncmaster414

Is it feasible to live downtown and commute to a suburb in, say, 30 minutes>?

That could be done, depending on exactly where you're commuting to and where in downtown you live. For example, you could probably get to the proper DTC (I-25/Belleview) in 30 minutes, although not necessarily the newer office parks further south that people sometimes call DTC. You could also probably get to Interlocken/Broomfield in 30 minutes. Reverse commuting usually saves you time, though the DTC area in particular has its own traffic headaches. Not sure where you're going though, so that's kind of hard to say whether it can be done or not. Luckily, you're not likely to commute to Parker, Highlands Ranch, Erie or some place WAY out there since that's not where most of the jobs are.

One advantage of living downtown or in central Denver is that you could reasonably take jobs in all corners of the metro area from Boulder all the way down to the office parks down south. Very few people here can reasonably commute from one side of the metro to the other.

I also think that some of the older suburbs like Westminster can offer their advantages in that, say, from Westminster you could reasonably commute to downtown or to Interlocken or Boulder, since it's between Denver and Boulder.

[Syncmaster414]

Wow, thanks for all the advice! It sounds like downtown Denver is the place for me to live, even if I don't have a job right away.

TFOX, you said something about 50-80k studios in Capitol Hill. If that is the case, I could buy even buy one outright. Do you have any suggestions as to where to look for these places? I checked realtor.com, but its hard to narrow down the search to specific areas, such as LODO or Capitol Hill, etc.

Cost aside, out of all of these downtown areas, which one it the best? In terms of location to nightlife/events/etc. Could someone explain LODO, Capitol Hill, and Cheesman Park to me? What does each offer?

Thanks so much!

[tfox]

Originally Posted by Syncmaster414

TFOX, you said something about 50-80k studios in Capitol Hill. If that is the case, I could buy even buy one outright. Do you have any suggestions as to where to look for these places? I checked realtor.com, but its hard to narrow down the search to specific areas, such as LODO or Capitol Hill, etc.

You could do a search by zip code. 80203 is going to give you the western, more urbanized part of capitol Hill and the CBD east of Broadway. 80218 and 80206 are going to be eastern capitol hill and cheesman park and congress park, as well as some other areas. 80202 includes the CBD west of Broadway, LoDo, and the Central Platte Valley (going from SE to NW).

Originally Posted by Syncmaster414

Cost aside, out of all of these downtown areas, which one it the best? In terms of location to nightlife/events/etc. Could someone explain LODO, Capitol Hill, and Cheesman Park to me? What does each offer?

To get oriented, you might check out one of the following websites:
http://www.livedowntowndenver.com/
http://www.denverinfill.com/

LoDo is the northwestern part of downtown, starting from around Lawrence going to Wewatta, and between about 14th to 22nd Streets. It's where most of the destination nightclubs, bars, sports, and entertainment is. Coors Field is also in Lodo, and the Pepsi Center is an easy walk from LoDo. It's a great area -- most of the buildings are historic, and there's always something going on. It's also expensive and noisy, and getting worse on both counts, though crime other than drunken stuff is not much of a concern. For that reason I woudn't personally want to live there.

The rest of downtown between Lawrence and Broadway is often just called LoDo, but it's officially the CBD, which is less of a residential area and more of an employment center (i.e., high rise office buildings), though there are some lofts and condos there.

Capitol Hill is southeast of downtown around the Capitol Building and extending further east and south It's also got a fair amount of nightlife especially along Broadway and across Broadway (though that is actually the Golden Triangle District). There's more nightlife on East Colfax, concerts and live music venues along there. There's also a lot of neighborhood hangouts and that sort of thing. There's galleries and the art musuem within walking distance, so there's a lot of artist types too. Capitol Hill is more your indie scene than LoDo, which is more of destination stuff, sports-oriented bars, that sort of thing. This is partly because Capitol Hill is much cheaper. CH is a the most densely populated neighborhood in Denver with around 50,000 residents -- compare that to LoDo which has maybe 5000 residents, if that. Crime is an issue there though, though not like it used to be. For example, if you walk along East Colfax late at night someone will offer you drugs. It's not ghetto, but you do have to watch and be aware.

Cheesman Park is essentially the eastern part of Capitol Hill, centered around a beautiful park of the same name. It's a lot quieter, but still has your neighborhood bars, restaurants, and hangouts and hangouts. It has a mix of Victorian and Arts&Crafts mansions (some of which are cut up into condos) as well as high-rise condominium buildings. I prefer it to Capitol Hill because it is safer and quieter but still accessible to Capitol Hill and downtown or even LoDo if you feel like a walk. I also like having the green space there.

East of Cheesman Park is another area called Congress Park -- it's getting further from the nightlife and more of a quiet neighborhood, more single family homes, less high-rise, but it's a great neighborhood as well.

There's a number of other neighborhoods worth considering like Highlands and Wash Park. You have to get out and explore; there are a lot of good neighborhoods and it's hard to summarize in just one post.

[Syncmaster414]

Wow, thanks so much for the information!!

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by Syncmaster414

Wow, thanks so much for the information!!

TFOX is one of the best posters on the site...be sure to feedback him/her and anyone else who is helpful / supportive.

You're gonna love Colorado.

s/Mike

[Syncmaster414]

Will Do.

I have been thinking about renting initially to get a lay of the land. I will probably rent a small, cheap studio apartment downtown. Does anyone know much about Mezzo? It appears to have a great location and the studios are under $600/mo. They also offer 6 month leases, which would be ideal.

Here is the address. I'm assuming this is a good area, right?

901 Sherman St
Denver, CO 80203 -2958

Here is a link to the place (apartments.com)
http://www.apartments.com/summary.as...0.97&srt3=0.17

If anyone has leads for cheap studio rentals in the capitol hilll/cheeseman/uptown/golden triangle/business district areas, please let me know. Thanks again!