Ft. Collins - Better Neighborhoods (Denver, Aurora: home, to buy, schools)

[sdb158]

I am looking into relocating to the Fort Collins area in the next year or so. I have a wife and 3 children. I travel around the country/world for my job and my wife will soon be a Registered Nurse. Here are the basics we are looking for:

*Low crime
*Friendly people / neighbors
*Good schools
*Large lot, 2+ acres if possible (possible horse property)
*Nearby outdoor recreational opportunities (I'm sure this is a thumbs up)

Any help is appreiciated!

[sunsprit]

The whole area will meet your requirements.

It would help narrow the search if you had a housing price range, need for equine facilities (stalls, corrals, etc), type of housing (older neighborhood, new residential development) you prefer, tolerance for commute to the hospital area (wife's job), how close you want to be to major shopping/commercial areas, etc.

We've got friends who live right on golf courses, city parks, and some who live 15 miles west by Horsetooth Resevoir. All are great places to live, but all ... within the scope of FtFun living ... very different.

What's your pleasure?

[sdb158]

We enjoy mountain biking, boating, water skiing, snowboarding, camping, etc. We prefer new housing developments, or better yet, buying a piece of land. We are looking in the $400k range for a home.

[sunsprit]

I'd look on the West or Northwest side, as close to or just into the foothills as possible. That way, you'd be close to Horsestooth (or maybe South by Carter Lake) for water activities, and mountain biking/cross country skiing, camping ... would be right on your doorstep.

[Fort Collins Native]

We are selling our house 1/2 mile East of I-25 in Vista Bonita. We enjoy boating, water skiing, snow skiing, camping, kayaking, etc. The house is on a half-acre with an RV pad that has electric hook-ups, and you can store your boat/RV etc. on the property. Many HOA's in Fort Collins will not allow any sort of storage of boats or RV's. In fact, they will tow them if they are on the streets for more than 24 hours. There is a $35 annual membership fee for the non-motorized neighborhood lake. My sister is an RN and my brother is a Detention officer in Greeley, and both commute to Greeley 5 days per week from the same neighborhood. It is a quick access to I-25, so your wife would be able to be to work at Poudre Valley Hospital or the Medical Center of the Rockies within 20 minutes. DIA is 45min to 1 hour drive. I have lived here for nearly 40 years, my husband and family are natives. If there is anything else you would like to know about Fort Collins, Timnath, etc., just ask.

[ajvvmommy]

My husband and I have 2 children (6 and 3), and we will probably be starting off on a low income. But we want a safe neighborhood preferably close to schools, parks, hopefully shopping. We really want an older neighborhood if at all possible, with low-cost houses that are still decent and not roach traps . Is any of this possible, or are we getting in way over our heads? We just wanted a better life for the kids.

[Mike from back east]

Hello, welcome to city-data.....

Considerable info provided by many posters is already in the threads, including much of the infomation you seek.

Newbies may find such data on any location by going to the main state or city forum and using the Search this Forum tool. Insert key words like Collins or school or pizza or hockey or whatever is your interest.

Pictures of most cities in the USA are found at www.city-data.com. Drill down to city of choice.

One thing we seek to avoid on this site is the repeating the same info over and over....believe me, almost everyone wants to know where are the parts of town to avoid... where are the good schools.... where are houses cheap... where is it walkable to the things you need.... etc... Newbies can help themselves get much better info, immediately, by using Search.

….the Search function is very specific....if you put in schools it will find every case of schools, but it will NOT find the singular version school. It won't find word segments either, you can put in camp, and it will find camp, but it won't find the word camping.

Savvy surfers will love Advanced Search, where you search multiple states or for posts by a particular member, etc.

If the search tool cannot find the info you seek, let us know what you still need.

Thanks!
s/Mike from back east
You're gonna love Colorado

[tfox]

Originally Posted by ajvvmommy

My husband and I have 2 children (6 and 3), and we will probably be starting off on a low income. But we want a safe neighborhood preferably close to schools, parks, hopefully shopping. We really want an older neighborhood if at all possible, with low-cost houses that are still decent and not roach traps . Is any of this possible, or are we getting in way over our heads? We just wanted a better life for the kids.

Fort Collins really doesn't have a lot of "roach traps". The older part of town is largely north of Prospect Ave. You probably want to avoid anywhere near "Old Town" (too expensive), within a couple blocks of campus (too many students).

I've always liked the housing just to the west of Poudre Valley Hospital -- lots of nice, older homes there.

[airforcebecker]

My wife and I will be retiring from the Air Force later this year and after reading great things about it, want to start our post-military careers in the Fort Collins area.

While shopping online for for a house in the $150k - $200k range I've noticed quite a few for sale in the Waterglen (NW) subdivision. Does anyone know why someone shouldn't purchase a house in that specific subdivision?

Any other recommendations for living in Fort Collins would be very much appreciated. We're currently living in Germany and plan to fly out in June to go house shopping.

Thanks!

[jessame10]

I am thinking about looking out there as well....the prices seem reasonable and the area looks decent when you are driving by it on I-25. However,the houses are all really close together and it doesn't look like they have much for yards. kinda far from 'ammenities' - probably at least a 15 min drive just to get to the superwalmart which would be the closest place for groceries,ect. That is probably the biggest downside IMHO.

Oh and I don't know what you want for employment but the job market in FC is pretty tight.

Originally Posted by sdb158

I am looking into relocating to the Fort Collins area in the next year or so. I have a wife and 3 children. I travel around the country/world for my job and my wife will soon be a Registered Nurse. Here are the basics we are looking for:

*Low crime
*Friendly people / neighbors
*Good schools
*Large lot, 2+ acres if possible (possible horse property)
*Nearby outdoor recreational opportunities (I'm sure this is a thumbs up)

Any help is appreiciated!

If you are banking on your wife's potential RN income, be careful. I am an RN and I can tell you that the job market for them is pretty competitive in FC and all over northern colorado. I know this is contrary to what you hear about the 'nationwide nursing shortage' but, like you, alot of RN's want relocate here from elsewhere for the 'quality of life' and the factors that you listed. It is especially hard to get RN jobs if you don't have prior experience - the local cc's are pumping out more of them than the local hospitals want to hire. Right now, PVHS (both hospitals) is on a hiring freeze. When they opened MCR they overanticipated the number of pt's. they would have and hired more nurses than they needed.