"Older" College students moving to Fort Collins, location, location, location (apartments)

[Garrettm112]

In need of some local advice. My wife (26) and I (35) are moving to Fort Collins. My wife will be a transfer student to CSU and I am finishing my Masters at USC for Public Health (online). We're looking for advice on great neighborhoods in FC to look for apartments in. While we are still college students, we're obviously older and don't want to live too close to campus or questionable areas. Additionally, we don't want to live in complete suburbs and family-ville. We ideally want an energetic community where acts of stupidity are rare. We have a 2 year old German Shepard so a dog park or lake would be fantastic if it's close by. ANY suggestions would be great. And please put it in laymen terms. Identifying neighborhoods with their local names does not do us any good. Try to identify areas with regards to landmarks we can see in google earth. For example, we seem to like the area around Warren Lake. Not too far, not too close to campus....etc. Again, your time is much appreciated and any help you can provide would be of great assistance. Thank you!

[Sunderpig2]

That's a little tricky offhand, because places do seem either young/collegy or "family-ville" (as you mentioned). Since Fort Collins is no large town/metropolis, there really are no suburbs, per se. You might want to define what might be "too far" from campus. That could be less than a mile to many miles.

The realm of CSU will probably extend down to at least Drake, west to Taft, east to probably Lemay, and north to ? (well, I'd avoid the northern areas). The SE part of town is very family-dominated. The Warren Lake area seems to be more upscale and established. You've got a golf course near there and probably more expensive homes. If you're looking for park space, I don't think Warren Lake has much. I've tried to go to all the parks at least once, and have never been there because it looks small and near busy roads.

Maybe around Troutman Park, though that's several miles from CSU. I'm sure others will have some good suggestions.

You probably want to identify your budget, and do research online to see what homes you might be able to afford, whether rent or purchase. It might be easier to point to which area might make the most sense with actual home locations. But a bigger issue might be obtaining a home in the first place due to shortage and high competition. Nothing ever seems available and/or the market for very long.

[Bucketfoot]

I'm not sure about apartments in area, but I'd consider looking in the area around Spring Canyon Park.

One of our daughters attends CSU and lives in that general area (right around Horsetooth & Taft Hill). It's a good combination of being both close enough and far enough away from the school.