Colorado Front Range vs. Western Slope for Retirement (Denver, Colorado Springs: houses, job market)

[COcheesehead]

Just to correct a couple posts, Grand Junction has the third largest airport in the state with major carrier service to LA, Dallas, Salt Lake, Phoenix, Chicago, Denver and a flight to come to San Fran.
Montrose, an hour south of GJ also has regular flights on Southwest, American and United.

[COcheesehead]

To the OP check out my Grand Junction photo tour thread for an accurate depiction of what the Grand Junction area has to offer.
We retired here and love it. Major airport, 3 hospitals, a vibrant retail and restaurant scene. Colorado’s fruit production area and a major wine producing region with over 32 wineries. World class golf courses, hiking, biking, breweries, river activities, vibrant music scene. Home of the JUCO World Series and a great college in Mesa University.
Downtown is all local establishments reminiscent of what Boulder was like 30 years ago.
A hour or two drive to Moab, Ouray, Glenwood Springs, Telluride and cute towns like Paonia.
Do your research, but PM with any questions.
We moved here from Denver and never regretted it a bit.

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by COcheesehead

To the OP check out my Grand Junction photo tour thread for an accurate depiction of what the Grand Junction area has to offer.
We retired here and love it. Major airport, 3 hospitals, a vibrant retail and restaurant scene. Colorado’s fruit production area and a major wine producing region with over 32 wineries. World class golf courses, hiking, biking, breweries, river activities, vibrant music scene. Home of the JUCO World Series and a great college in Mesa University.
Downtown is all local establishments reminiscent of what Boulder was like 30 years ago.
A hour or two drive to Moab, Ouray, Glenwood Springs, Telluride and cute towns like Paonia.
Do your research, but PM with any questions.
We moved here from Denver and never regretted it a bit.

GJT is not a major airport. It may be #3 in the state, but it's a gigantic drop-off between DEN and COS, then another 60% reduction in passenger volume between COS and GJT. GJT averages fewer than 20 flights per day, has a grand total of 8 nonstop destinations, and It takes a solid two months for it to see the same passenger volume that DEN sees in a single day. You're losing Delta in less than a month, too.

[zenith32]

Originally Posted by bluescreen73

GJT is not a major airport. It may be #3 in the state, but it's a gigantic drop-off between DEN and COS, then another 60% reduction in passenger volume between COS and GJT. GJT averages fewer than 20 flights per day, and It takes a solid two months for it to see the same passenger volume that DEN sees in a single day. You're losing Delta in less than a month, too.

Not only that but Aspen is actually the third busiest airport in Colorado as of 2019, not GJT. Even then, DIA handles more than twice the amount of traffic that COS (#2) handles.


All of this, of course, not terribly relevant to the fact that most of what the OP wants to find in a retirement home would not be very realistic in Colorado, period. Most of CO is out of their price range, for starters, and if they don't want to deal with snow they'd be better off looking at Arizona or New Mexico if they're dead set on a western mountainous state.

[StealthRabbit]

. Golf courses, the more the merrier.

Don't want city living, but more suburban or near rural areas.

Moderate weather and reasonable housing costs are key.

TN, NC, GA, FL...fit
But very different than RM states


OP will need to adjust expectations, climate, expenses. Plenty of options, but depending on HC, OP could also be best served by moving it of USA.

. As many shutter at the thought.

[jwest09]

Originally Posted by NW Crow

Never shovel or plow snow? Stay out of Colorado.

Spots around Greeley average 30-40 inches per year but got 60 once 10 years ago. Some spots near Grand Junction average 15-20.

Small town / rural 10-30 miles to Greeley (except to west) might barely be in price range. Same for near Fruita or Loma. Maybe outside Delta.

Learn about what water you can and can't use.

Consider lower elevation parts of Arizona, New Mexico or Oregon like north of Wickenburg AZ, Aztec NM or Prineville OR. Or perhaps north of Weiser ID or Twin Falls area.

Twin Falls. Cold, snowy and very windy. Boise area weather, much better.

[COcheesehead]

Originally Posted by bluescreen73

GJT is not a major airport. It may be #3 in the state, but it's a gigantic drop-off between DEN and COS, then another 60% reduction in passenger volume between COS and GJT. GJT averages fewer than 20 flights per day, has a grand total of 8 nonstop destinations, and It takes a solid two months for it to see the same passenger volume that DEN sees in a single day. You're losing Delta in less than a month, too.

My post was in response to someone who said GJ only has a municipal airport which is not true.
We have multiple flights a day from major carriers.

[zenith32]

Originally Posted by COcheesehead

My post was in response to someone who said GJ only has a municipal airport which is not true.
We have multiple flights a day from major carriers.

I said I believed it to not be an airport of any decent size not that it actually was. I was wrong that it was only a municipal airport and concede that it is in fact a proper regional airport. But having multiple daily flights from major carries does not make it a major airport and it doesn't change the fact that as just a regional airport it is still going to be fairly limited in where they can directly travel to (likely at higher cost) and the amount of traffic it sees is a far margin lower than even COS which itself sees less than half the traffic that DIA sees, nor does it address any of the other potential concerns that the OP stated such as weather concerns, cost of housing, water concerns for gardening, etc.


With that being said, to keep this on topic I'll reiterate what I said in my first response to OP: look elsewhere because chances are you won't find a place that matches all of your criteria the way you would want it to. As another poster said, consider southern states like Tennessee or Florida or specific areas in Arizona or New Mexico. Retirement is pretty important to most folks and I know I wouldn't want to sacrifice personal comforts that are important to me when it comes to picking out what'll likely be the last place you settle down in.

[COcheesehead]

Originally Posted by zenith32

I said I believed it to not be an airport of any decent size not that it actually was. I was wrong that it was only a municipal airport and concede that it is in fact a proper regional airport. But having multiple daily flights from major carries does not make it a major airport and it doesn't change the fact that as just a regional airport it is still going to be fairly limited in where they can directly travel to (likely at higher cost) and the amount of traffic it sees is a far margin lower than even COS which itself sees less than half the traffic that DIA sees, nor does it address any of the other potential concerns that the OP stated such as weather concerns, cost of housing, water concerns for gardening, etc.


With that being said, to keep this on topic I'll reiterate what I said in my first response to OP: look elsewhere because chances are you won't find a place that matches all of your criteria the way you would want it to. As another poster said, consider southern states like Tennessee or Florida or specific areas in Arizona or New Mexico. Retirement is pretty important to most folks and I know I wouldn't want to sacrifice personal comforts that are important to me when it comes to picking out what'll likely be the last place you settle down in.

The OP wanted an airport to get out of Dodge. Slice it, dice it anyway you want. GJ’s airport has allowed us to travel the world with a 10 minute drive to an airport that offers the comfort of jet service on major carriers.
You don’t even live here. Comment on something you have experience with.

[zenith32]

Originally Posted by COcheesehead

The OP wanted an airport to get out of Dodge. Slice it, dice it anyway you want. GJ’s airport has allowed us to travel the world with a 10 minute drive to an airport in the comfort of jet service on major carriers.
You don’t even live here. Comment on something you have experience with.

As stated in the same post you originally referenced, I lived in Longmont for 24 years (moved there in 1996 after spending a year in Arvada), went to UNC in Greeley from 2010 to 2012, and moved out in 2019 for reasons I also mentioned in that same post. I have spent quite a bit of time all over the state, including Grand Junction and other Western Slope locations. In fact I actually still have my CO license due to problems with getting mine transferred (thanks in no small part to COVID and local ID requirements changing thanks to Real ID laws being implemented). So in short, I do in fact have quite a bit of experience with Colorado and its many municipalities and I'll thank you to not presume to know that I don't.

The one thing I often hear from my friends who live(d) in Grand Junction is that they often felt it necessary to make the long drive to Denver to do anything fun (or sometimes even medically or even legally necessary) that didn't involve outdoor activities and that flying in general was rarely an option for them (either due to necessary and undesirable layovers or due to cost). If you managed to make it work, then congratulations. That doesn't invalidate my own experiences or my own contributions to this thread nor does this continued belligerence and insistence on your end to make Grand Junction out to be some kind of haven just because of the type of airport it has have anything to do with addressing the other concerns the OP has, especially since I already conceded that my original understanding about that one specific detail was incorrect.