Opinions on Greeley? (Denver, Fort Collins, Longmont: real estate market, insurance, crime rate)

[Vesper]

I have read a lot of posts on this forum in the last couple weeks. Some good, some not so good. One post says that Ft. Collins/Greeley are huge with illegal immigrants and bad smells from meat packing plant etc. Other posts say best place in the world to live.

I am looking for as much info as possible, good or bad and maybe a few pics

[Vesper]

No one knows about Greeley

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

Ft. Collins is far superior to Greeley in many ways. Greeley does smell very, very bad. People say they get used to it, but YUCK. New subdivisions being built west and south of town; maybe they are far enough away to not smell.

[tfox]

There was an article about gang problems in smaller towns in today's Rocky. It mentions Greeley and nearby Evans.

Rocky Mountain News - Denver and Colorado's reliable source for breaking news, sports and entertainment: Local (http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5574475,00.html - broken link)

[jazzlover]

I get sick of some of the "Greeley-bashing" on this forum. It is still somewhat of an ag town with a packing plant. The people (usually the yuppie high-tech newbies) who bash it all the time don't have to live there if they don't want to.

I don't live in Greeley, but I get down there fairly often. Here's my assessment:

The bad or not so good:

1. Yes, you can get some smell from the packing plant located at the north end of town and from the feedlots east of town sometimes. It's not very agreeable, but I would prefer that to the smell of smog any day.

2. There are illegal aliens in Greeley, probably more than in some Colorado towns, but that is an issue just about anywhere in the state.

3. Greeley is a ways from the mountains, and tends to be a little warmer and more humid in the summer than other Front Range cities.

4. Like all of the Front Range, sprawl is out of control around Greeley and a lot of ag land and its associated culture and way of life is being lost. Still, Greeley has not totally renounced its agricultural roots like most all of the rest of the Front Range communities.

The good:

1. Greeley isn't so totally caught up in the upscale yuppie "vibe" that infects most of the rest of the Front Range. It still is a working middle class town.

2. There still is a fair amount of farming and ranching country around Greeley that hasn't been totally devoured by sprawl.

3. Thanks to the overbuilding, the real estate market in Greeley is soft--a person might actually be able to afford to buy a decent house there these days.

4. There are still some nice older neighborhoods in Greeley that aren't either run-down ghettos or ridiculously overpriced "yuppievilles."

A couple of other notes. Greeley has (and has always had) a substantial Hispanic population, many of them who trace their heritage in Greeley back several generations. It still has an attractive downtown, though I would admit that the Fort Collins downtown is probably more attractive. The shopping is better elsewhere than in Greeley, but there is plenty of shopping within close proximity--I don't consider that a factor. I find that the people in Greeley tend to be of a more "small-town" temperament, and it seems that more of them have lived in Greeley for a long-time, compared to most Front Range cities.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

Jazzlover - I'm not "Greely bashing". Vesper asked a question and I provided an answer. I've been there many times and the smell is gross. It happens to be the truth.

[Vesper]

Thanks for the replies.

I have been looking for a nice family spot for a month or so. As I am a facility manager, unfortunately I need to be near oil or retail fuel type areas near main interstate fwys. My requirements are a little fussy due to my son's autism and hubby's medical needs.

I almost bought a house in Greensburg, such a lovely little town and AFFORDABLE, but then it blew away

Anyway the search goes on......

[jazzlover]

Dreaming of Hawaii,

That smell you complain about is just the smell of the food you and your neighbors eat being produced and processed. Thank God, there are still places like Greeley that actually do that, or we all would be starving. Yeah, the smell can be "gross"--maybe a little less so to those of us who have actually lived and worked on farms and ranches and produced food for people like you to eat. It doesn't just magically appear in the grocery store . . .

[BabyBoomers2]

We have been there for their GREAT 4th of July parade and their GREAT rodeo. But, we would NEVER, EVER live there. That is just our opinion....in which we are entitled to!!

[SomeGuyinEvans]

I've lived in the Greeley/Evans area nearly all 33 years of my life, with the exception of the 4 years I lived in Dayton, Ohio. This is what is going on in Greeley:

Yes there is a bad smell at times from the Swift plant out on north 8th avenue, but it seems to me that it is apparent only on very hot or windy days

There is a HUGE immigration problem. Many other neighboring cities like FT.C. and Loveland and Longmont have a nickname for Greeley known as Little Mexico. Ft. Lupton is called by mant Ft. Mexico

There are actually bus lines that bring in immigrants to the Greeley area. You may have seen them Green, white and red busses that say they travel from Albequerque, Santa Fe, Los Angeles, Denver, hmmmm, and the Greeley! Gee, I wonder whats on them busses.

Crime rates in Greeley tend to be higher, again because of the immigrant population. This results in much lower property values (this is a well studied conclusion from many economists), not to mention higher homeowner and automobile insurance premiums

Just a couple of anecdotes to get you thinkin'

I had a buddy who bought a house in 1991 for 99,000 dollars. The neighborhoor was an older one, a lot of retired and elderly folk, but then they stareted dying off and their houses was being filled by Hispanics, legal and illegal. In 2001 when he tried to sell the house, he couldn't get an offer of 70,000 dollars because the crime rate went up, the neighborhood went to junk, and he was constantly being harrassed or vandalized.

How about this one! I got pulled over south of Brighton one afternoon coming home from work by an Adams County Sherriff's deputy. He told me I was speeding and collected the usual required papers. When he saw my Evans address, he tells me that there aren't many of my kind in that area anymore. I said not really. He then told me of a story of when he had to teach a DUI class in Greeley. He couldn't do it because EVERYONE in the room spoke only spanish. He advised me to leave the area as quick as possible! This comeing from a law enforcment officer....hmmmmmm......

A few good things, house prices are down compared to other local cities because of the hispanics and we will soon be getting an ICE office here to try to control the immigrant situation. This may be a decent time to look into Greeley or Evans. The future is definitely beginning to brighten up, especially after ICE raided the Swift plant!