Moving from Dallas to Colorado Springs (Denver: apartments, rent, vehicle registration)

[Bradley4288]

Hey everyone, I’m new to this forum but desperate for help and advise.

First let me tell you about myself. I am 22 years old and will be 23 in May. I am engaged to a wonderful woman who is 20 and will be 21 3 days before my birthday in May. We have no kids.

I have a wide variety of work history on my resume but the most relevant being my current job. I’m going on 3 years security for a high end establishment.

My fiancé has 2 years serving experience and has recently been promoted to assistant manager.

We currently spend close to $3k a month on bills and have never been late on any of them. we have 2 brand new cars that are front wheel drive.

Well now to the point. We travel ALOT and our favorite place by far is Colorado. Colorado Springs to be exact. We love the atmosphere and the outdoors. I have cousins who live in Denver and have been encouraging us to move up there.

I have a small list of things I will need to do in order to move, like changing drivers license and vehicle registrations. Utilities. And a few more things. This is gonna be the biggest move ever for us, and both our families are here in dallas. As a couple trying to figure out life’s our still, we are very scared to move so far from family but we want to see the world.

We only plan on moving there for a couple years. Is there any advise on our move that could help us with the anxiety!? A little reassurance? I have found multiple well paying security jobs for me. My fiancé shouldn’t have any problem finding a job either. We are going up there in May to look at apartments and jobs.

We are looking to move there December 2019.

I’m sorry this is so long and not a clear question but any and all advise will be greatly appreciated! Advise of moving, things to expect. Pros/cons. Different areas to consider. Thank you again !

[KathrynAragon]

Be sure you consider the "hidden costs" for instance, differences in housing costs, taxes, gas, services, utilities, groceries, tolls, registrations, etc. Many people don't consider these things and are surprised to find that the differences really add up.

There are lots of sites (including C-D) where you can look up differences in costs of living by city and state. Get this - a few years ago my parents moved to Hot Springs Village Arkansas and wow, it was beautiful up there. Long story short, we considered moving up there because of the prices of property, lower property taxes, etc and my husband's job can be from anywhere close to an airport, so that was good. But after researching, we found out that living in HSV, AR would actually cost us $7000 MORE A YEAR, and honestly, to live in Arkansas? Totally not worth it, even though the Ouachita and Ozark mountains and lakes were gorgeous. We scrapped plans after researching.

[Bradley4288]

I appreciate the feedback! My cousin has actually sent me a picture of his utility bill and he pays very close to what I pay right now for electricity and water. I live in a 1 bedroom apartment in dallas and he lives in a 2 bedroom apartment in Denver. He quoted me a possible $10 per month increase for me. Nothing more though. We have already found an apartment we are interested in. Had plenty good reviews and would run us $1100/month for 700sqft 1 bedroom. (Our current rent is $1200 for 780sqft 1 bedroom). I was also quoted $1200 for a UPACK shipping container to ship all my furniture and stuff. It’s all over whelming but I’m a very organized person and I have been going thru everything I would need to be prepared for in our journey. There’s always gonna be a reason not to do it but we are young and have no kids right now. I know that won’t be the case forever so I’m trying to take advantage this and live our lives to the fullest while we still have them.

[NW Crow]

Read tons of threads in the Colorado forum and / or post specific questions there.


Moving in May is a good idea to make it easier. As long as you are clear about accepting Colorado winter later.

[Mike from back east]

If you only plan to be in COLO SPGS a couple of years then you'll be renter, so check rents on padmapper.com

[Mithrane]

This sounds like your first "big move". As such, a few words of caution. Be very meticulous with your packing. Track everything. The good news is if you're using a U-Pack, you're doing the actual manual movement of items yourself, so that's covered. Still, things can easily get damaged on a cross-country haul. Take the truly important or fragile things with you, and carefully pack everything else.

You've already been out to Colorado, so you know that you are going to want to drink a lot of water. The elevation and lack of humidity can take some people by surprise.

Colorado Springs gets hit by more snow than the Denver area, but less than the mountains. Be ready to deal with a few big dumps through-out the year, and have appropriate attire / gear to handle that weather-wise.

You'll probably want at least one of your vehicles to be a 4-wheel drive or all-wheel drive if you stay in Colorado for long, so be thinking on that if you end up falling in love with the region and are considering a longer stay.

As an ex-Texan, I can say that you're going really miss having good grocery stores. Learn to use HEB's shipping option. ;-)

[LHS79]

Originally Posted by Mithrane

This sounds like your first "big move". As such, a few words of caution. Be very meticulous with your packing. Track everything. The good news is if you're using a U-Pack, you're doing the actual manual movement of items yourself, so that's covered. Still, things can easily get damaged on a cross-country haul. Take the truly important or fragile things with you, and carefully pack everything else.

You've already been out to Colorado, so you know that you are going to want to drink a lot of water. The elevation and lack of humidity can take some people by surprise.

Colorado Springs gets hit by more snow than the Denver area, but less than the mountains. Be ready to deal with a few big dumps through-out the year, and have appropriate attire / gear to handle that weather-wise.

You'll probably want at least one of your vehicles to be a 4-wheel drive or all-wheel drive if you stay in Colorado for long, so be thinking on that if you end up falling in love with the region and are considering a longer stay.

As an ex-Texan, I can say that you're going really miss having good grocery stores. Learn to use HEB's shipping option. ;-)

Most people that grew up here never had 4WD or even All Wheel Drive-

A quality set of M/S tires and competent driving skills will get you through our winters.

[DrDog]

Originally Posted by Mithrane

This sounds like your first "big move". As such, a few words of caution. Be very meticulous with your packing. Track everything. The good news is if you're using a U-Pack, you're doing the actual manual movement of items yourself, so that's covered. Still, things can easily get damaged on a cross-country haul. Take the truly important or fragile things with you, and carefully pack everything else.

You've already been out to Colorado, so you know that you are going to want to drink a lot of water. The elevation and lack of humidity can take some people by surprise.

Colorado Springs gets hit by more snow than the Denver area, but less than the mountains. Be ready to deal with a few big dumps through-out the year, and have appropriate attire / gear to handle that weather-wise.

You'll probably want at least one of your vehicles to be a 4-wheel drive or all-wheel drive if you stay in Colorado for long, so be thinking on that if you end up falling in love with the region and are considering a longer stay.

As an ex-Texan, I can say that you're going really miss having good grocery stores. Learn to use HEB's shipping option. ;-)

As far as I know Colorado Springs gets about 12” less snow than Denver.

[Bradley4288]

Thank you everybody for the advise! It is greatly appreciated! I have been to Colorado 4 tines now, 3 of those beings with my fiancé. I’ve stayed in Colorado sprints, Divide, and Denver. The springs just has more of a ‘home’ feel to me. I have not been during a major snow storm, although couple of my trips were in February and we did run into some good snow (for a Texan). At one point there was a good 4 feet on the side of the roads. Im confident in my driving abilities but I’m also nervous for that first real bad snow storm lol. As for the elevation, my body does fine as far as I’ve learned. I once hiked up pikes peak via Bar Trail which took me over 15 hours to complete but that’s a whole other story lol. I have since drove to the top with my fiancé and her body did fine as well although it was definitely harder on her. I’m not saying we have everything covered but I do ALOT of research on things I’m interested in. I like to be prepared for every possible outcome. I read a lot of good things about Colorado Springs but I recently met someone from Colorado who told me the springs is the worst place to live. Any opinions on that? Everything I read says for the most part that is a great place. Keep in mind I love the mountains but don’t want to be deep in them. Just close by. I don’t like the city life either. I want the perfect mix. If y’all know any other areas that I might be interested in please let me know! We would like to keep our rent less that 1200 and would like stainless steel appliances. I’ve noticed most apartments in the springs have the ugly white ones I assume is because of how old the city is.

[ienblack]

I am also from dallas, Moved to the Springs 2 years ago.... I would just advise that you know what your getting into, Colorado Springs is a VERY small feeling town, and a very conservative one at that.... Dallas is a Metropolitan city with everything at your fingertips... Even though there are pluses like weather, I regret moving here, just want to make sure you don't as well.
Good luck!