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Old 07-19-2009, 03:40 PM
 
Location: in my mind
2,743 posts, read 14,301,699 times
Reputation: 1627

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Okay, here's the deal. We are a family of five in Texas. Two adults, a 17 year old who has graduated HS, an 11 year old and a 6 year old. We want to move to Colorado, no doubts in our mind, we have visited family there and have been in love ever since.

Either one or both of us (the adults, I mean, and possibly my oldest son) will be college students when we make the move. I will hopefully be getting my Associate's degree here (in Texas) then transferring to CU, and obviously with at least 2 of us being full time students we won't have a lot of cash for a while. My partner may or may not continue schooling there, it remains to be seen.

We have family in Colorado... in Lakewood and in Westminster. I don't know what to consider, really, when it comes to the three different CU campuses (Boulder, Denver, and Co Springs, right?)... as a non-traditional student... but we are happy as long as we're within a reasonable driving distance from our family in Lakewood / Westminster. If my partner ends up working for her family (in Westminster) then obviously we'd need to be closer to there.

The biggest issue is affordable housing, and from what research I've done so far, I don't think we'll be able to afford anything more than a trailer, mobile home, etc. Affordable here is apparently a LOT different from affordable in CO... for example, our current mortgage payment is close to $600 for a 3 bedroom, 1 bath house, we paid around $70k for it and it was move-in ready. It's an older home in a poorer area but relatively safe and close to downtown... and we pay less than we'd ever pay in rent for similar sized apartment or even a rental home. I haven't seen much at all in any area of CO (that I've researched) under $1000 a month. I have seen some homes for sale online under 80k but I don't know what kind of condition they are in.

So, we have the house here and we'll be selling to move but our credit is bad so we can't just turn around and buy something else in CO for a while, so we'll just have that money from the sale as cushion, probably around $15 to 20k. We've see some nice looking older trailers / mobile homes for sale that are in parks on rental lots for really good prices (under 15k) which we're considering. Normally we would NOT consider a mobile to purchase, but if we can pay cash in full.... ? Some of the lot rents seem high though, at least compared to what we're familiar with here in Texas (at least if you are renting the home and paying rent on that too), but if we could pay cash in full for something then only have to worry about $550 a month lot rent, for a family of five that's not bad at all. We figure later on we could always sell it or rent it out.

Oh yeah, and if it matters, we're a lesbian couple.

So the number one thing we're wondering about is the mobile home parks. Here, it often means a rough/bad area... with some exceptions. We're hoping to find the exceptions. We really don't want to try and rent an apartment, because we have 2 dogs, and renting a traditional house seems to be something that would be unaffordable to us. Public transportation and / or being able to ride our bikes would be a huge bonus but if we must, we'll drive. Also remember that for us, commute time is relative. It's normal for us to spend 45 minutes in the car to get across our city (San Antonio) due to sprawl and traffic... I spend a good 20 minutes to get to school currently and it's 5 miles away! Visiting other family here in Texas can often mean a six hour road trip. So yeah, we're used to the miles and miles of Texas thing.

As long as the area is close to an appropriate CU campus, and we can see the mountains, we're happy. I've already noticed that there are community colleges pretty much ALL over so that's covered (for my son). Any thoughts on what towns would fit and what areas have nicer mobile home / trailer parks that would fit the bill? Places to absolutely avoid? Boulder seems beautiful... is CU Boulder harder to get into than CU Denver or CO Springs?

Sorry if my question is kind of scattered...
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Old 08-08-2009, 01:27 PM
 
5 posts, read 12,407 times
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Mobile parks in Boulder really aren't too bad at all. I have a couple of friends who live there. Boulder is also a very gay friendly community. Boulder is also a really fun place to live and have a family!
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Old 08-08-2009, 09:23 PM
 
Location: Denver, CO
2,325 posts, read 5,513,843 times
Reputation: 2596
There are a few mobile home parks in Boulder and there is NO bad area in Boulder so any of them would meet your requirements as far as that goes. I couldn't really tell you how much they cost though. Maybe try posting on the Boulder page for more help there. Or check the Daily Camera (Boulder paper). As far as the colleges, you're looking at lot of money if you are paying out-of-state tuition even for community colleges. I paid out-of-state in California and it was three times as much as residents paid. CU Boulder is a very popular college so I'd guess CU Denver is a little easier to get into. There is no CU Colorado Springs but there is CSU in Ft. Collins. Hope that helps...
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Old 08-08-2009, 10:07 PM
 
Location: in my mind
2,743 posts, read 14,301,699 times
Reputation: 1627
Quote:
Originally Posted by whoisjongalt View Post
There are a few mobile home parks in Boulder and there is NO bad area in Boulder so any of them would meet your requirements as far as that goes. I couldn't really tell you how much they cost though. Maybe try posting on the Boulder page for more help there. Or check the Daily Camera (Boulder paper). As far as the colleges, you're looking at lot of money if you are paying out-of-state tuition even for community colleges. I paid out-of-state in California and it was three times as much as residents paid. CU Boulder is a very popular college so I'd guess CU Denver is a little easier to get into. There is no CU Colorado Springs but there is CSU in Ft. Collins. Hope that helps...
Yeah, the Out of State tuition costs are another challenge. Not sure how we'll handle that. May need to take time off school to work and establish residency (don't really want to do that, I'm not getting any younger!), or try and continue classes in Texas via internet courses... even if Texas considers us OOS after moving to CO, it's still cheaper than paying OOS tuition in Colorado!

Either way, I can't stand the thought of having to stay here until I graduate since I plan on getting my Master's... that's too long in Texas!

thanks for the help.
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Old 08-08-2009, 10:08 PM
 
Location: in my mind
2,743 posts, read 14,301,699 times
Reputation: 1627
PS, thanks to all who replied... and we have found out since I posted this that we MIGHT be able to rent from family for just a little more than we pay for this place here. So this may all be moot! Turns out our family member has a rental property that she can afford to rent to us cheaply, if it's vacant when we arrive of course.
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Old 08-09-2009, 10:06 AM
 
Location: Just south of Denver since 1989
11,833 posts, read 34,460,220 times
Reputation: 8991
What area of study are all y'all considering?

If cheap is primary try CSU - Pueblo - honey can't work for family, but it's cheap.

You can get a house for $80,000 in Denver, smaller, older...but if your credit isn't 620+ you are not getting a FHA mortgage, you can go hard money or rent to own...not pretty.
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Old 08-09-2009, 02:36 PM
 
Location: San Marcos
345 posts, read 1,567,817 times
Reputation: 137
Quote:
Originally Posted by whoisjongalt View Post
There is no CU Colorado Springs but there is CSU in Ft. Collins. Hope that helps...
Ah, yes there is... UCCS | University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
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Old 08-09-2009, 04:58 PM
 
Location: Denver, CO
2,325 posts, read 5,513,843 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TexaCo Mom View Post
Oops! Sorry my mistake. I've lived here 6 years and have never even heard of UC Colorado Springs!
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Old 08-09-2009, 07:26 PM
 
Location: in my mind
2,743 posts, read 14,301,699 times
Reputation: 1627
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2bindenver View Post
What area of study are all y'all considering?

If cheap is primary try CSU - Pueblo - honey can't work for family, but it's cheap.

You can get a house for $80,000 in Denver, smaller, older...but if your credit isn't 620+ you are not getting a FHA mortgage, you can go hard money or rent to own...not pretty.
I'm back to "undecided". I was going for my Master's in Library Science but recently have been thinking hard about Speech Language Pathology, and CU Boulder has a Master's program for that. They also have an undergrad program for it but it isn't required that I get my Bachelor's in SLP or Audiology or whatever in order to get into the Master's degree program, just "recommended", so I'd be okay with a Psych degree or something from another campus. I'm only in my Sophomore year at community college though so I could probably go elsewhere as long as I get into the right program for grad school.. ?

My GF will most likely be getting something that only requires an Associate's so the community colleges should be fine and they seem to be plentiful in CO all over!

Our credit is pretty awful. I am fine with smaller / older (hey, that's what we have here! lol). I figured we wouldn't be able to buy anything for YEARS. Being students with no real income won't help, even if she works for family it wouldn't likely be enough. Unless we paid cash for a mobile home or something. I have the house here but I'm not on the mortgage. Long story. I am on the title, put all the down payment money down, and we make and have always made all the payments, but the mortgage is in my Grandma's name. the plan was for her to co-sign but then when it came down to it the interest rate was way better with me out of the picture entirely so that's what we did. So yeah, I don't think buying is in our near future.

We will get whatever $$ from selling though.... which is what we plan on using for the move.
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