Moving to COS Question (Denver, Colorado Springs: real estate, HOA, condos)

[suaz]

Is it possible to get a nice home/townhome for $200-230k? I want a nice, safe neighborhood. I'm retired so location is not an issue.

[shanen]

That's a tough one in this market. If you buy at that price right now, you are very likely overpaying and aren't going to get the "nice" or "safe neighborhood" parts. You might get lucky, but it won't be easy. The market at that price is completely a seller's market right now.

[Vision67]

Originally Posted by suaz

Is it possible to get a nice home/townhome for $200-230k? I want a nice, safe neighborhood. I'm retired so location is not an issue.

Her is a townhouse in that range:

7522 Los Banos Ct, Colorado Springs, CO 80920 | Zillow

I think that neighborhood is safe.

[otowi]

I think so. I would suggest looking down in Security/Widefield/Fountain as one option.

[TCHP]

I agree that it is entirely possible. Several homes in the Bonforte area just outside the ONEN historic district just sold for around $200k. Begin your search here: PPAR.com - Trusted And Accurate Real Estate Listing Information

[Mike Ryan]

Yes, it's very possible. There's a number of townhomes in the nw, briargate, and ne in that price range. Don't forget to factor in HOA's when looking at townhomes, most are at least $150/mo on average.

[abcdefg567]

We bought a home and closed about 10 days ago in the Powers area in that price range. We really like it. It seems there's a lot of active duty/retired military. The crime maps were pretty good from various sites and the only home we had competition on was a ranch in Stetson Hills. The agent said that the ranches go the fastest. Coming from Denver, we were gleeful with the neighborhood and area for the price.

We looked in the Powers area minus Cimarron Hills, the older parts of Briargate/attached housing in Briargate, Falcon, and Fountain for SFHs in that price range. There were also a lot of nicer attached homes. We also looked at a few town homes in Rockrimmon on the west side of i25, which seemed like a really nice area too. There were probably other areas too, but I forgot.

I would check crime maps obviously. I think it is doable, although after we closed our agent said that we were lucky because she was having a harder time finding homes in that area/price range for her new clients. It could just be the season though.

The one we got had a price markdown of $10,000 and is newer to us (2003), updated, and although it is small, it had a decent size yard. The crime maps showed almost no crime in the area as well. It had been on 10 days and we were the only offer. I am assuming because it was one of the smaller homes in the neighborhood, but we also got a warranty and they fixed all of the very minor inspection issues as well, which we were shocked by as in Denver all of our potential buyers waived inspection in their offers and offered to pay over appraisal, and instead of a markdown all of our offers were $10-20k over asking, for a tiny town home in a terrible neighborhood.

Anyways, I think it is doable! It seems there were a lot in the older areas as well towards the center of the city more, many of which looked like safe areas and decent homes. Good luck! We found an agent who gave us 1/2 her commission as a rebate at closing, which was very nice. Many of the condos/town homes we looked at were nicer/bigger than the house we ended up getting...but probably around the same price after the HOA.

[little pink]

I live in Stetson Hills, it is completely safe here. We are just about a mile from the police station on Tutt. I absolutely love being so close to King Soopers during snowy weather. The homes are 200k and up , larger older homes and perfect neighbors.

[PA2UK]

There's plenty of options that meet this criteria, though the point about HOA is a good one.

6576 Emerald Isle Hts, Colorado Springs, CO 80923 | MLS #6775901 | Zillow

7044 Vasalias Hts, Colorado Springs, CO 80923 | MLS #8523049 | Zillow

4741 Rowell Pt, Colorado Springs, CO 80923 | Zillow

3839 Smoke Tree Dr, Colorado Springs, CO 80920 | MLS #4343385 | Zillow

8432 Artesian Springs Pt, Colorado Springs, CO 80920 | MLS #2024030 | Zillow

All in excellent, low crime areas.

There's even some up in Northgate still being built: The Cayla - Promontory at Northgate by Lokal Homes | Zillow

These two are in a very low crime area but they are kind of near the airport, I don't know if they are close enough to be noisy or not though, you'd have to look into it:

8158 Confluence Pt, Colorado Springs, CO 80951 | Zillow

1865 Reilly Grv, Colorado Springs, CO 80951 | MLS #5406427 | Zillow

And if you want to consider Falcon: 6570 Gelbvieh Rd, Peyton, CO 80831 | MLS #7419704 | Zillow