New here! Relocating to Colorado Springs! (Fountain: for sale, apartment, rentals)

[Bift3r]

Hi everyone! I have been browsing this forum for a while and decided to sign up! My husband got a new job located at Peterson AFB. We will be moving there early January if we can get all the relocation things in order. Would love some advice on good places to start looking for a house.

Things we want/need in a home

-under 30 minute commute to base( he prefers less than 20)
- must be SAFE as he might travel some and leave me behind!
- we would like a mountain view as well
- 4 bedroom max as its just DH and I right now
- 350K is about our max bit would like to spend under that!

We have been looking around online and it seems that Stetson hills would be a good distance from the base but I have seen mixed things regarding safety. Is it really that bad especially for those coming from a bigger crime area?

We have also looked at Wolf Ranch and Bannin-Lewis. I didn't see many available homes at Wolf ranch- is it more common to build new? How long does building typically take?

Regarding Banning-Lewis- is the oil drilling really a huge concern. It's hard to tell if it is visible from homes on the ranch or can hear any noise?

Thanks everyone in advance!

[Jcelmer]

Banning lewis has fracking and I would avoid. Concern has less to do with current noise and much more to do with future consequences. Don't risk a considerable headache. It is very far north anyway and more removed from amenities than many areas.

Indigo ranch has new builds and they are quite nice. The stetson hills area is very nice. If i could augment my budget I would live in pronghorn meadows. You can find absolutely beautiful homes there for under 300K (250-300). I believe that anywhere north of 'Carefree' would meet your search nicely. You can go pretty far north and still be within 30 of Pete. There are *many* homes for sale, so you will not have a problem meeting your specifications, although 'less than 4 bedrooms' is a new one. Many homes have 3 so you are fine that way but with 350K you could afford many more than that! I also really like Springs ranch...there are some homes there that back to a golf course and have amazing views. Not positive if any are on the market this instance but the market seems to evolve quickly. Views though will be house specific, though many have at least a partial.

I have never heard anything about crime in the stetson hills area. I have only really heard about it in the southeast area, around 80916, 80910. Crime here is laughable compared to many cities. You asked if he could leave you while he goes to work and that is an unequivocal yes.

I was talking to new home builders yesterday who told me 90-120 days. Less than that i would be dubious regarding quality. It seems like many people are taking the new home route (considering all the talk about economy and the market, you would expect it to stagnate), but developers are whipping through areas. There are plenty of existing homes to choose from though, especially at your budget.

You could probably branch into Briargate with your commute limit, but i really like the Powers corridor. It is 80922/80923

When you get here join the spouse's club

[Bift3r]

Thank you so much for your response! It was very helpful. I will definitely look into joining the spouses club when we get there. Since I won't be working I will need a way to connect with other people

[Sonic_Spork]

Time for me to chime in and say, don't write off Fountain Valley!

Lots of new builds happening along Grinnell, and near the Grinnell/Powers intersection is a brand new development. You can get a new home, a very nice one, for under 300K. Also, given you're looking at Peterson, look at a map and follow a road called Marksheffel south...where it intersects with Bradley, look off to the right (east) up Horizonview. The homes on the north end of that little cluster of development are nice and new. However, it is surrounded by Banning Lewis Ranch land...so my recommendation would be, if I were building my own home, to maybe look even further south in Fountain behind the Safeway...so continue to look south beyond the intersection with Fontaine, down there it is nice as well. More of a "in the country" feel but still close to Peterson and stores and such. The thing with the fracking, there might not be a lot of activity now, and you might never have an issue with noise or whatever...but we all wonder if there is a threat to water sources. That is the biggest fear, I think.

If you're moving from a bigger city with more crime, you probably won't notice a problem with danger of any kind unless you move into a really seedy apartment building or a tiny cheap older house...most people will tell you to look at the north or west sides of town because they are the trendy areas, but I still say don't write off the newer parts of Security/Widefield and Fountain...particularly to anyone looking to be convenient to Peterson. Marksheffel takes you right to the east gate with almost zero traffic. Of course coming down from the north that way isn't a bad plan either.

Oh, and the builders here can have a house up in no time...I swear the development at Powers/Grinnell like...appeared overnight!

Good luck to you!

[Mike from back east]

With a budget of $350k there are tons of possibilities, which is rather nice, eh. Search on ppar.com or realtor.com to see what's out there; both do rentals as well as padmapper.com

East-West traffic flows here are not good, the North-South commute pattern is a lot easier; so I'd say to stick to the Powers corridor, from Briargate (zip 80920) down to Fountain as Sonic suggests.

I'd avoid B-L Ranch due to the fracking concerns, now, and at resale time.

Wolf Ranch and Cordera are worth a look.

Our new house took 5 months to complete. Still, we recommend people rent for a while to get an idea of where they want to live.

My preference is that people live in an area served by COLO SPGS UTILs, who provide gas, electric, water, and sewerage, all on one bill and IMO provide awesome service at very low rates compared to most other cities in COLO.

[ryanek9freak]

30 minutes to Peterson is doable form anywhere in Colorado Springs. Hell, i live on the NW side, and I can get to Schriever in 30 minutes.

The key is to live near I-25. Power corridor is nice, and there's enough crap there now so that you never have to leave the area, but I couldn't live that far east, I perfer to be near the mountains.

[Jcelmer]

....yikes. It takes me 40 min to get to Schriever from UCCS at midnight (no traffic) speeding *slightly*

For the most part i have found google maps driving times to be very accurate - if you choose to obey posted limits.

[MrsMac]

I live in Grey Hawk at Northgate up by Flying Horse and there are tons of people here who commute to Peterson (30 minutes on a good day, up to 40 if there is heavy traffic) so you can live pretty much anywhere in Colorado Springs as long as you are close to I-25 and meet your commuting criteria. I would rent first, though, as Mike has suggested. We ended up building our house way on the other side of town from where we first rented (and were sure we wanted to stay). Turned out we were really unhappy with the schools and wanted to be closer to the mountains, things we would never have known until we actually experienced life here and got to know the area. We ended up looking at every development in the Springs over a 6 month period and fell in love with Northgate and Grey Hawk; chances are we would never have found it if we hadn't taken our time looking and tried to buy right away after we moved!

That being said, Challenger Homes and Richmond Homes are closing out construction here at Grey Hawk and really want to sell those last few homes so there are deals to be had here!

[Bift3r]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions! I will be looking into all those areas. We will have two months of temporary housing. We would really rather not rent as that would make us have to move three times! If we don't find something we love though we might just have to rent. There are so many unknowns and pieces to this whole relocating thing! Just a little stressful!!

[lurtsman]

North half of powers corridor. You'll easily find what you want in your price range. Do you have a realtor lined up? I'd recommend checking out Indigo Ranch. It is absolutely beautiful. By virtue of being in the powers area (the area around powers blvd) he will have a fairly straight commute and move at a decent speed.