Possibly moving from Atlanta to Denver with family..need help on where to live (to rent, safe neighborhood)

[cmd001]

My family may be relocating to the Denver area in a few months. I need advice on where to live. If you are familiar with Atlanta, we currently live near downtown Decatur area and love it. We also love the small neighborhood restaurants and bars you find in the different neighborhoods around the Atlanta area like, Virginia Highlands, Little Five, Oakhurst, Candler Park etc... We would love to find a place similar in Denver. My husband would be working in town so we would like to be close to the city. But we HATE the traffic and congestion of ATL and the crime. Here are our wishes in Denver...
-no more than a 30 min commute into town during rush hour, even less would be better
-close to restaurants/bars, hopefully in walking distance
-safe neighborhood
-close to the mountains so we could ski on the weekends
-home prices around 200-250, but we ousl like to rent first to get a feel of the area
-GREAT public or Catholic schools in the area
-would love to have trails and open space to walk/bike...we are moving to Denver for the outdoorsy lifestyle and skiing
-would love to find a neighborhood with a community pool

Any advice would be appreciated!!!

[thealansanders]

All of those things are easily doable, but for double the price.

[2bindenver]

Average price in Metro Denver is $237,900 - where is the job, how many beds, bath, garages....will all factor in.

[cmd001]

230's are in our price range...we're looking for at least 3br 2 bath, 2 car garage....what neighborhoods do you know of that would fit our wishes?... Oh, job is right in the city.

[2bindenver]

Where is work?

[cmd001]

i can't say...just because my husband hasn't officially got the job yet, but it would be right in the middle of the city.

[maciesmom]

I don't think 2b is looking for a company name - just a more clear definition of "in the city" - technically "in the city" could be a variety of places...but to keep your commute in mind, which part of the city really does matter..more toward the east side or west side or smack in the middle of downtown....

[2bindenver]

Central Denver is not Downtown, there is SE or DTC, SW, NW, or NE...It could easily take 30 minutes to get from one half to the other.

It's important to know what's important to you.

[cmd001]

A commute under 30 min is very important, especially after being in Atlanta. However since Atlanta is our frame of reference, we are used to it taking 30 minutes to get 5 miles down the road. So I am trying to get an idea of how long it would take to get from place to place there too. My husband would be working close to the central business district (according to Google Maps), if that helps.

[Brian_M]

Atlanta traffic is MUCH worse than here in Denver (I lived in ATL 2000~2004). Heck, the 75/575 commute from Woodstock/Acworth to/from the Atlanta perimeter was worse than even DC traffic (lived there 1996~2000).

But as a reference point, my wife and I live in the actual city of Denver on the SW side (vs one of the suburbs) and getting to her work 5 miles away is a 15~20 minute commute in Normal traffic. She works at Denver Health, so that's a couple blocks SW of the capitol (and about 7 blocks south of the central business district listing in Google).

Highlands (NW on Speer, easy commute) would be a recommendation if your price point were higher. Or maybe not, the news was making it sound like this is a Massive buyers market right now ~ perhaps 2bindenver will know better.