Moving to colorado and need help (Denver, Colorado Springs: condo, employment, buy)

[missionride686]

So my husband and I want to move to Colorado for the outdoors and riding. He is the free spirit let's just go and we will be fine. I'm more of the one who is hesitant due to needing everything set in place. We both snowboard and want to move to an area where there are plenty of ski areas. What are our chances of moving with no jobs and being able to make it in Colorado? What is the best place to move? I am a licensed special education teacher and he works odd jobs. By the way we are from the northern east coast and we have one dog.

[jim9251]

Where in Colorado? The front range? The mountains? The northern part? The western slope? It's a big state. I would suggest finding a job FIRST.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by missionride686

What are our chances of moving with no jobs and being able to make it in Colorado?

Very low. Read my post #34 here. //www.city-data.com/forum/color...olorado-4.html

[davidv]

Originally Posted by missionride686

So my husband and I want to move to Colorado for the outdoors and riding. He is the free spirit let's just go and we will be fine. I'm more of the one who is hesitant due to needing everything set in place. We both snowboard and want to move to an area where there are plenty of ski areas. What are our chances of moving with no jobs and being able to make it in Colorado? What is the best place to move? I am a licensed special education teacher and he works odd jobs. By the way we are from the northern east coast and we have one dog.

Places "where there are plenty of ski areas" are:
a) in the mountains, obviously
b) expensive to live
c) sparsely populated
d) areas where full-time employment is hard to find (no this is not a quiz)

As a special education teacher you would be more likely to find employment in a small mountain school district than a regular teacher. If you did not secure employment (and the hiring season in schools starts NOW and runs through mid-May, you could not survive on a substitute teacher's salary. Teacher salaries here are much lower than in the northeast.

Your husband would just be white noise in an area full of people who do anything, fix anything, build anything or haul anything for a living. In fact, because no one knows him, he would be at a disadvantage.

Read this forum. There are probably more people willing to move here without jobs than any other place that I have seen.

If you want to be near ski areas and live in a city, move to Salt Lake City.

[missionride686]

Hats what I am wondering...definitely the mountain ranges...near ski areas...looking for some insight from some people who currently live in colorado

[hollyt00]

Teaching job site

Says 34 jobs, but 20 of them are general jobs out here in Colorado Springs. Looks like of the 34 jobs, there's one in Telluride.

Good luck.

Teaching salaries are very low here, and like in many states, there has been movement for Pay-for-Performance (senate bill 191), the set-up of which is, if you ask any teacher, ridiculous. If you want to live in the mountains and teach, I suggest you have another job or two lined up. Many teachers who teach in places like Vail live with three or four roommates and leave their teaching job for two or three other jobs.

[sunsprit]

Just to put a little further edge on the "odd jobs" outlook on employment ...

"Your husband would just be white noise in an area full of people who do anything, fix anything, build anything or haul anything for a living. In fact, because no one knows him, he would be at a disadvantage." Posted above, very true in my experience in the Vail area.

I've got neighbors who got into Vail many years ago and were contractors with lots of work, who managed to make a living, buy residences, and have a good livlihood for decades.

But a few years ago, their work slacked off and they were having a hard time making a living anymore. Some moved on to better opportunities in other states, or headed to the oil patch. Some stayed for the recent build-outs in the Village area ... all the major projects & new construction ... thinking they would have opportunities there. But the GC's brought in subs and crews from out of the area for less cost than the locals. Essentially, the trades people in Vail who historically made a good living from these major projects were shut out of the most recent ones. I know several carpenters, finish trim carpenters, painters, electricians, and plumbers who weren't able to get any work at all from this ... and were only able to hang on because their spouses have good paying (managerial & sales) jobs in the area and they're debt free.

Unless you want to live the multiple job/shared housing scenario of most worker bees in the resort areas, you'll have more time to enjoy your riding habit by taking gainful employment in locales out of the tourist town areas and using your days off and disposable income to head to the slopes when you've got the opportunities to do so.

This is not a new scenario. Years ago, I had a friend who was an Aspen native. He was a high school math teacher, and even though his folks gave him a condo to live in in Aspen, he couldn't afford to live there when the place got upscale. He moved to Denver and had more time to ski or hike in season as an Adams 5-star school district teacher than when he was living in Aspen ... even with the commute to Aspen on Friday nights and returning on late Sunday evenings. Oh ... to make ends meet in Denver, he worked a swing shift janitorial job to supplement his teaching salary (with a Master's in teaching) so he could support his 3 kids. He did have a lot of interesting tales to tell about teaching the children of some very prominent actors or very wealthy people in Aspen ....

Absent having a job lined up and knowing what your housing and overhead expenses would be in the Colorado area, I wouldn't advise moving here and thinking that things will "just work out", especially with the prospect of low paying work that your husband is seeking.

[jazzlover]

One big thing that people can't seem to "get" is that moving to Colorado if one is a skilled, very employable middle-aged person with skills that are in demand in Colorado, or being retired with a substantial pension and or savings is one hell of a lot different than being someone with limited work history, or just out of college, or lacking skills that will pay enough to live even a subsistence life in Colorado. The harsh reality of today's economy--even more so than in pretty recent history--is that a lot of better jobs, especially for younger people with limited experience and education are, like it or not, in places much less aesthetically attractive than a place like Colorado. Another sad fact is that a LOT of Colorado young people, people who love and know Colorado as their home, have to leave the state every year in order to make a living, and many wind up in just such less "pleasing" places. Some may make it back to Colorado someday, but a lot never do. Those are just the hard facts these days.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by missionride686

So my husband and I want to move to Colorado for the outdoors and riding. He is the free spirit let's just go and we will be fine. I'm more of the one who is hesitant due to needing everything set in place. We both snowboard and want to move to an area where there are plenty of ski areas. What are our chances of moving with no jobs and being able to make it in Colorado? What is the best place to move? I am a licensed special education teacher and he works odd jobs. By the way we are from the northern east coast and we have one dog.

Most work is in the Denver metro area of 3M+ people. Schools are starting their hiring practices now and hope to have picked applicants by May. Use our search tool to find many threads on teaching in COLO, where IIRC you'll have to obtain COLO certification to teach.


Here's a post by David with good info:

Originally Posted by davidv

First of all, the hiring season for teachers starts now.

Teachers who will not have their contracts renewed had to be notified by April 1. Districts will post their openings within the next couple of weeks, conduct their interviews and hire teachers for next year by May 15.

The best district to work for up north would be Boulder Valley. Arvada is part of Jeffco schools. You could end up working in the northern part of the district, but you could end up in the southwestern suburbs (Ken Caryl, Morrison) or even in the mountains (Conifer, Evergreen).

Adams 12 Five Star schools are okay, but they can be pretty hit and miss.

Westminster (Adams Co Dist 50), Adams 14, Mapleton, and Brighton are not great districts. I would not recommend working in any of them.

[otterprods]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Another sad fact is that a LOT of Colorado young people, people who love and know Colorado as their home, have to leave the state every year in order to make a living, and many wind up in just such less "pleasing" places. Some may make it back to Colorado someday, but a lot never do. Those are just the hard facts these days.

I don't know one single person in that situation. Not one. I'm not saying they don't exits, but JL's use of the word 'many' may be a bit liberal in this case.