A small, pretty, inexpensive town ro move to in Colorado (Fort Collins: apartment complex, rentals)

[jessilove]

I currently live in Estes Park. It is absolutely beautiful and often sunny, although I would like to live in a less touristy area. I pay $750 a month for a two bedroom apartment, and with a baby on the way, my boyfriend and I are looking for a less expensive town. $500-$650 a month for a two bedroom house or something like it would be ideal. Am I going to be able to find that anywhere in Colorado? I love the mountains, but am not fond of the long winters that come with living at 7500 feet. An ideal location for us would be a small town around 8000-12,000 people with milder winters (around 40° would be wonderful), beautiful landscape (rivers, mountains on the horizon, forests, or hillsides), various job opportunities, good schools, and enough rain to garden but not a whole lot. I have also been contemplating Oregon, as it would be amazing to live near the coast. Any input whatsoever would be greatly appreciated!

[Idunn]

Better Oregon for that you wish climatically. The most temperate area would be within the Willamette Valley, or that essentially from Eugene in the south to Portland to the north. Far lower elevations. Decidedly less rigorous climate—although you might grow tired of the rain.

Estes Park is overrun with tourists in the summer. One can easily enough escape that, if not the geographic realities of Colorado. Maybe try places such as La Veta or Westcliffe for small and quieter towns. One might even secure housing in either for less than $750, maybe. There was one apartment complex in Westcliffe advertising rentals at your given preferred budget. However La Veta is a bit over 7,000 feet, Westcliffe even higher, and neither may prove as warm as one would like. Not to mention how ever lived in, if needing employment.

If not that more realistically found on the eastern plains, then maybe also explore that south of Durango. Like maybe almost in New Mexico, if not just within it.

Otherwise, consider the pluses and minuses of Oregon.

[otterprods]

Your wishlist has some conflicts so you'll need to prioritize. For example, things like mild weather, beautiful scenery, good schools, plentiful work and living near the coast are inherently at odds with $"500-$650 a month for a two bedroom house". $750 for a 2 br place in Estes sounds pretty darn good to me, but the western slope could meet some of your wishes without necessarily being more expensive than what you're already paying.

[sunsprit]

your desired combination is not in Colorado.

From Estes Park, you've seen a typical mountain area climate. You'll not see "milder winters" out on the plains, particularly not 40F winters. Nor does much of Colorado lend itself to gardening without irrigation.

"mountains on the horizon" is essentially the Front Range of Colorado. You'll not escape the winter climate nor find much less expensive housing, particularly a two bedroom SFH for rent.

you want ready access to scenery, jobs, low cost of living, small town pace of life ... it's not here. Try another state.

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by otterprods

Your wishlist has some conflicts so you'll need to prioritize. For example, things like mild weather, beautiful scenery, good schools, plentiful work and living near the coast are inherently at odds with $"500-$650 a month for a two bedroom house". $750 for a 2 br place in Estes sounds pretty darn good to me, but the western slope could meet some of your wishes without necessarily being more expensive than what you're already paying.

Good luck with that one. I can think of no town on the Western Slope where the rent on a 2 br place would be as little as $750.00/month - not unless you want to live in the local meth lab/trailer park part of town. And I can think of nowhere in Colorado where winter temps don't fall below 40 degrees. OP should just concentrate on the PNW and forget Colorado.

[wycoyote]

Originally Posted by jessilove

An ideal location for us would be a small town around 8000-12,000 people with milder winters (around 40° would be wonderful), beautiful landscape (rivers, mountains on the horizon, forests, or hillsides), various job opportunities, good schools, and enough rain to garden but not a whole lot. I have also been contemplating Oregon, as it would be amazing to live near the coast. Any input whatsoever would be greatly appreciated!

I do not believe you'll find a location near the Oregon coast without "a whole lot" of rain. For that you'd need to be in eastern Oregon - Bend comes to mind.

Your major contradiction however is " small town" and "various job opportunities". Those two rarely go together except in a resort town - which is where you are now. And in Colorado resort town generally = winter weather.

As for temps around 40 - that's mostly doable on the western slope...how about Durango?

//www.city-data.com/city/Durango-Colorado.html

That fits the bill as being a "resort town" and you'll have lot less winter than Estes does. SW Colorado is really scenic too.

Good luck.

[jazzlover]

Temperature-wise in winter, Durango is not significantly different than Estes Park. And Durango is certainly not "affordable" under the criteria stated by the OP, nor it a place with "plentiful" jobs.

Durango climate normals: http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/w...s=21357&units=

Estes Park climate normals: http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/w...=957250&units=

Does anybody actually read climate stats these days?

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by wycoyote

I do not believe you'll find a location near the Oregon coast without "a whole lot" of rain. For that you'd need to be in eastern Oregon - Bend comes to mind.

Your major contradiction however is " small town" and "various job opportunities". Those two rarely go together except in a resort town - which is where you are now. And in Colorado resort town generally = winter weather.

As for temps around 40 - that's mostly doable on the western slope...how about Durango?

//www.city-data.com/city/Durango-Colorado.html

That fits the bill as being a "resort town" and you'll have lot less winter than Estes does. SW Colorado is really scenic too.

Good luck.

It's mostly NOT doable on the Western Slope. I don't know why so many people think the western half of the state is the tropics. Durango has temperatures way below freezing for the better part of the winter. Here in the most southern, most western part of Colorado 10 miles south of Cortez, the night time lows have been hovering between 0 and the early teens. I just came in from a romp in the snow with my corgi and I got chilled to the bone despite my warm winter clothes. Tonight the low is predicted to be 5 degrees F.

[Sobe Itsavized]

Originally Posted by otterprods

Your wishlist has some conflicts so you'll need to prioritize. For example, things like mild weather, beautiful scenery, good schools, plentiful work and living near the coast are inherently at odds with $"500-$650 a month for a two bedroom house". $750 for a 2 br place in Estes sounds pretty darn good to me

Lol, that's exactly what I was thinking. $750 for a "nice" place on the front range is blasphemy or heresy (or both). It was -13 degrees Fahrenheit last week during one of the nights and only in Lousiville/Lafayette. I've never seen it get that cold in the past 9-10 years living in Boulder county until this year but maybe I missed a cold spell or two.

[JMM64]

OP,

You must consider these key factors...

-In both Colorado and Oregon you can have everything you wish for but just not all in the same location.

-If you want lots of job possibilities then you can pretty much forget living in a small town

-Wintertime lows above 40 degrees at night in either Colorado or Oregon are nearly impossible to find. Western Oregon does stay around 35 to 40 at night but it feels much colder due to the humidity.

-Gardening in the dry climate of Colorado and eastern Oregon is possible but there will be many limitations.


Anyways....

The front range cities of Colorado literally just 15 miles east of Estes Park have a more temperate winter climate and are still near mountains and forests with rivers running through town. However finding a place to live for less than 700 dollars a month that is not a dump will be tricky if not impossible. Most of Colorado does not get much rain, and although the temperatures along the front range permit gardening for half of the year the lack of rain does not. You can have mountains, forests, and rivers near Fort Collins for example but you won't be living in a two bedroom for $600 a month nor will you be gardening as much as you would want to.

In Oregon you will encounter similar issues. If you choose to live in western Oregon then you will have to deal with quite a bit of rain. It's great for gardening but if you don't want too much rain then you can pretty much eliminate the western/coastal areas of Oregon. Central to eastern Oregon has much less rain, and is very similar to the Colorado front range in terms of temperature and snowfall so the gardening limitations would also apply. COL in Oregon will also be much higher than you're ideal figures if you want to live in a nice area.

Also if by 40 degree winters you are referring to the daily high temps then anywhere along the Colorado front range or in Oregon would work. As you know the sunshine in a dry climate like Colorado also helps with cold temperatures so you can't always just go by temperature when determining the feel of a climate. However there are no places in Colorado where the temp stays above 25 degrees at night during the wintertime and it usually averages around 18 degrees in front range cities. Central and eastern Oregon also have winter lows in the low 20s so it will not be 40 degrees there at night either. Western Oregon usually stays above 35 degrees at night in the wintertime but all the humidity in that part of the state makes 35 degrees feel like 15 compared to the dry cold of Colorado or eastern Oregon. So both regions will have the cold weather or cold feeling weather in the wintertime, you just can't escape it in these states.

Canon City, CO or Medford, OR are both fairly mild weather places in regards to the surrounding cities/regions. However both are still very dry and not the best place for extensive gardens.

As far as schools go I unfortunately cant help you there.

So just pick the things most important to you and find a place by balancing the pluses and minuses. Good Luck!