Anyone from Denver move to Dallas (Atlanta: real estate market, apartment, to rent)

[oping00]

Hello,
I am weighing job offers from Denver and Dallas and wanted to know if anybody here lived in both cities and which one you prefer. Thanks all.

[LeagleEagleDFW]

What is important to you? They are very different cities, so knowing what you like will be a huge factor. For instance, Dallas has a lot to offer, but if you love to be outdoors and doing outdoors-y type of things, then Denver wins easily.

[oping00]

Originally Posted by LeagleEagleDFW

What is important to you? They are very different cities, so knowing what you like will be a huge factor. For instance, Dallas has a lot to offer, but if you love to be outdoors and doing outdoors-y type of things, then Denver wins easily.

Yeah I do like outdoors and mountains, I used to live in Chicago so cold not big deal, but dallas seems to have better job market and cheaper am I right on this?

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by oping00

Hello,
I am weighing job offers from Denver and Dallas and wanted to know if anybody here lived in both cities and which one you prefer. Thanks all.

I've never lived in Denver but I used to go for business and pleasure a lot and we have a second home in Beaver Creek.

Money:
I'll send you the links if you'd like.......all in Denver is about 10/11% more expensive to live in than Dallas and the aggregate tax burden in Colorado is roughly 10/12% higher than Texas.

Fun:
Dallas/DFW has more and better bars, restaurants, movie theaters, a vastly better cultured arts scene -museums, art, architecture etc.

Denver, as mentioned earlier if you like outdoor activities Denver and the surrounding area wins by a mile.

Both places have all manner of pro and college sports - push.

Economy:
Dallas more or less always wins. DFW has a lot more people than all of Colorado. DFW has 18 Fortune 500 company HQs, Colorado has 9. People in DFW are significantly richer than those in Denver by most reasonable measures, excepting some unadjsuted, and very misleading, statistics like nominal median income etc.

I'd wager the decision will come down to this:

What's the pay difference between the Dallas gig and the Denver gig? And how much of a premium might you be willing to pay to live in Denver?

I'd guess that if the Denver gig pays less than a 13/17% premium over the Dallas gig you'd be better of here financially. That said if you are a 70 day per year skier or a serious hiker, mountain biker etc. the allure of Denver may overcome any net, net pay deficit.


Good luck.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by oping00

Yeah I do like outdoors and mountains, I used to live in Chicago so cold not big deal, but dallas seems to have better job market and cheaper am I right on this?

The winter weather in Denver is a lot easier to deal with than Chicago.

[oping00]

Originally Posted by EDS_

I've never lived in Denver but I used to go for business and pleasure a lot and we have a second home in Beaver Creek.

Money:
I'll send you the links if you'd like.......all in Denver is about 10/11% more expensive to live in than Dallas and the aggregate tax burden in Colorado is roughly 10/12% higher than Texas.

Fun:
Dallas/DFW has more and better bars, restaurants, movie theaters, a vastly better cultured arts scene -museums, art, architecture etc.

Denver, as mentioned earlier if you like outdoor activities Denver and the surrounding area wins by a mile.

Both places have all manner of pro and college sports - push.

Economy:
Dallas more or less always wins. DFW has a lot more people than all of Colorado. DFW has 18 Fortune 500 company HQs, Colorado has 9. People in DFW are significantly richer than those in Denver by most reasonable measures, excepting some unadjsuted, and very misleading, statistics like nominal median income etc.

I'd wager the decision will come down to this:

What's the pay difference between the Dallas gig and the Denver gig? And how much of a premium might you be willing to pay to live in Denver?

I'd guess that if the Denver gig pays less than a 13/17% premium over the Dallas gig you'd be better of here financially. That said if you are a 70 day per year skier or a serious hiker, mountain biker etc. the allure of Denver may overcome any net, net pay deficit.


Good luck.

Hey thats some good information, I keep hearing Denver housing and rents are getting more expensive so yeah that does factor in.

[TrueDat]

It really comes down to how much you want to engage in outdoor activities. I've had lots of friends move to Denver from Dallas but they're all avid mountain bikers/skiiers/hikers/snowboarders and they love it, no matter if it's more expensive and has far colder winters. For them, it's the perfect blend of big-city amenities/job opportunities and outdoor activities.

But if that's not so much your thing -- and you don't mind a flat landscape and hot summers (looks like you're in Arizona now so you know a little about that though Dallas will not be quite as intense but more humid) -- then Dallas will have a slightly lower cost of living and more economic opportunities. It's kind of a hassle if you're used to having ski slopes practically in your back yard, but many people from here take a vacation/long weekend to go skiing in New Mexico or Colorado.

NOTE: Dallas isn't as cheap as it used to be, as has been noted on other threads on here. Some move here and are shocked it's not quite as inexpensive as they had imagined. Rents and housing prices have gone up here as they have in other places.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by oping00

Hey thats some good information, I keep hearing Denver housing and rents are getting more expensive so yeah that does factor in.

I know nothing about the Denver housing market, but wanted to say our real estate market is one of the hottest in the nation (being driven by strong economy & job growth), so be realistic about what your apartment / future home will look like in Dallas.

If you want to live in Uptown where many young professionals live, a cheap studio rents for $1200/mo. Anything "upscale" is more like $1500++ for a 1br. You won't be able to rent in a cool fun area for $750/mo (not saying you are....but we get like 10 posts a week with people moving from NYC/northeast/Chicago who want to live in a fun cool neighborhood and pay peanuts in rent...not happening here!)

For home purchases, a suburban home zoned to great schools is running close to $300k with prices forecasted to go up 10-12% per year for the next 3 years. In the city, you're looking at $300-500k MIN range for good schools....the top school district starts around $1M for a crappy tear-down that isn't on a busy street. If you think you'll want to buy a house in a fun young professional neighborhood, $300-450k range. Condos start around $200k but tend to have high HOA dues ($200-600/mo not uncommon). Property taxes will run you 2-2.5% of market value each year, so around $4-5k for that $200k condo or $6-7k for a $300k home. Again you may not even have home purchases or schools on your radar, but do not expect to get a brand new 4,000sf home for $200k zoned to great schools and a 30 minute drive downtown. Even at a 1-hour drive to downtown, you can't get that!!

[oping00]

Originally Posted by TurtleCreek80

I know nothing about the Denver housing market, but wanted to say our real estate market is one of the hottest in the nation (being driven by strong economy & job growth), so be realistic about what your apartment / future home will look like in Dallas.

If you want to live in Uptown where many young professionals live, a cheap studio rents for $1200/mo. Anything "upscale" is more like $1500++ for a 1br. You won't be able to rent in a cool fun area for $750/mo (not saying you are....but we get like 10 posts a week with people moving from NYC/northeast/Chicago who want to live in a fun cool neighborhood and pay peanuts in rent...not happening here!)

For home purchases, a suburban home zoned to great schools is running close to $300k with prices forecasted to go up 10-12% per year for the next 3 years. In the city, you're looking at $300-500k MIN range for good schools....the top school district starts around $1M for a crappy tear-down that isn't on a busy street. If you think you'll want to buy a house in a fun young professional neighborhood, $300-450k range. Condos start around $200k but tend to have high HOA dues ($200-600/mo not uncommon). Property taxes will run you 2-2.5% of market value each year, so around $4-5k for that $200k condo or $6-7k for a $300k home. Again you may not even have home purchases or schools on your radar, but do not expect to get a brand new 4,000sf home for $200k zoned to great schools and a 30 minute drive downtown. Even at a 1-hour drive to downtown, you can't get that!!

Since I used to live in Chicago, everyone that moves to Tx, GA or Az expect lower cost of living, but it doesn't sound like Dallas is cheap, I was in Atlanta for 3 years and 1 bd goes now 1200 and up.

[RJ312]

Others did some good analysis here.

In this economy, consider yourself lucky to have 2 job offers as a long distance candidate.

Either place will be an upgrade over the Phoenix area IMO. A major problem with the Phoenix area is that the job infrastructure has lagged population growth there. Quality of jobs in pretty low there without a lot of Fortune 500 companies. That was the major reason why I left Phoenix.

Think long and hard about your own interests and the nature of the job. Both Denver and Dallas have a lot going for them.