A nice place to relocate to? (Black Forest, Woodland Park: vacation home, job market, prices)

[Den Mathias]

A friend has expressed interest in COS for a vacation home. I am helping out with some if the research. They are mainly concerned the winter may be too long. Does it really have an 8 month winter?

I have always found the weather pretty reasonable during my visits but then I grew up in Chicago!

The area is very beautiful and people are friendly so that is big plus.

It appears the job market is still pretty good and home prices are low.

Any locals have some insider thoughts??

[otowi]

I think it is a fine place, but I'm not unbiased, either.
Eight-month winter - depends on one's definition. If someone means there is a possibility that any snowflakes might fall during that period, then yes, we have a winter at least that long. But if someone means the weather is cold, snow and miserable the majority of the time, by that definition we probably don't have even one consecutive month of winter.

[springshomeblog]

I would definitely NOT describe COS as having an 8-month winter, unless, like Otowi said, you define winter as a season in which snow *might* fall at any time.

We just talked to some friends who relocated from Minnesota to the Springs and they said winter is NO WAY the same here. We rarely have significant snow on the ground for more than a few days, and the roads are almost always clear within less than a day.

In the mountain areas like Woodland Park or higher altitudes like Black Forest, there's more snow than there is in the Springs, but it's still pretty minor, IMHO.

If they want a winter home here because they think it's a winter wonderland, this is not the place! We do get snow, but it's really pretty mild here... Which is honestly great by me!

Carrie

[CTownNative]

We definetly don't have an 8 month winter thats for sure. We really don't get much snow here during the winter, and we also have a pretty decent amount of 60 degree days in the winter too.