Affordable Apartment Living in Denver Metro (nearer to DTC/Greenwood Village/Centennial) (Evans: rental, insurance)

[Tekkie]

I am trying to find some cheaper (but relatively safe) apartments in the Denver Metro area. I am currently living off of Colorado Blvd. near the Congress Park neighborhood and I really want to get out of here. It's extremely noisy, the traffic is horrible, and the commute to work is becoming increasingly unpleasant.

I work in Centennial (near I-25 and Arapahoe). I am relatively younger (and single ), so I don't necessarily want to move far outside of the city. I find that people my age tend to congregate more in the Cap Hill, Uptown and Lodo neighborhoods than they do out in Greenwood Village. That is why my preference is to stay closer to Denver, but also nearer to the DTC/Greenwood Village/Centennial area (the east side of town).

Today I spent the day looking at apartments and was surprised at how tough the renter's market has become. Granted, I looked at nicer places than I live at now, but they were much further outside the city than where I'm at now. I was expecting that their rents would be lower given their location further out of the city. Rents were running well over $700/month for 1 BR apartments at most places I looked. Once you include utilities, electricity, pet rent, and renter's insurance (required at most places now), I'm looking at closer to $850-900/month.

As a renter, I'm not fond of the idea of paying exorbitant amounts of money in rent, as I'm not building any equity in the place that I'm living. My goal is to live somewhere relatively cheap so that I can save money to buy a place of my own. But I also don't want to live in the "hood" where I'd feel unsafe or vulnerable. My ideal price range (including all utilities and misc. fees) is between $600-$750/month.

Some places I checked out today that I assumed would be cheaper based on what people have told me: Glendale, Tamarac Square, Evans/Monaco. These places were not cheap by any means. The best place I found was near Evans and Oneida, where the rent with all misc. charges would have been around $750/month. The places in Glendale and Tamarac Square were easily $800+/month.

So, can you offer me some ideas of where I can start looking for cheaper apartments? Preferably, looking to get closer to work in DTC/Centennial, but not necessarily out of the city of Denver. My ideal price range is $600-$750.

Thanks!

[evan arellano]

Have you tried padmapper.com. At your price range it might be hard. Have you tried looking for a roommate?

I found a few using padmapper.com

[vegaspilgrim]

Don't plan on spending any less than $750/mo for an apartment anywhere in the Denver metro area. Apartments that used to rent for $600-750 a few years ago are now in the $750-900 range.

SE Denver, as you've discovered, does have more affordable rents than other parts of the city, but there's a reason for that-- some of the apartment complexes in the area resemble slums. Personally I would NOT want to live in those apartments off Evans/Oneida or Evans/Monaco. There are some nice apartment complexes in SE Denver, but they all will cost at least $750 if not more. And that's just rent, not including utilities. If it's cheap, it's cheap for a reason.

Is there any reason why it HAS TO BE an apartment? There is a shortage of apartments in Denver currently. A better bang for your buck would be to rent a room in a house (tons of these arrangements on Craigslist-- meet prospective roommates in person and choose wisely). You could live in a nicer, quieter, safer area for less money.

And if it does have to be an apartment, you usually can get a better value for your rental dollar by renting a condo from a private landlord, rather than living in an apartment complex.

Also, you didn't mention your age or define what "relatively younger" is, but there are TONS of people in their 20's and 30's who live in apartments in Greenwood Village and the Tech Center (and work in the area).

[Tekkie]

Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim

Don't plan on spending any less than $750/mo for an apartment anywhere in the Denver metro area. Apartments that used to rent for $600-750 a few years ago are now in the $750-900 range.

SE Denver, as you've discovered, does have more affordable rents than other parts of the city, but there's a reason for that-- some of the apartment complexes in the area resemble slums. Personally I would NOT want to live in those apartments off Evans/Oneida or Evans/Monaco. There are some nice apartment complexes in SE Denver, but they all will cost at least $750 if not more. And that's just rent, not including utilities. If it's cheap, it's cheap for a reason.

Is there any reason why it HAS TO BE an apartment? There is a shortage of apartments in Denver currently. A better bang for your buck would be to rent a room in a house (tons of these arrangements on Craigslist-- meet prospective roommates in person and choose wisely). You could live in a nicer, quieter, safer area for less money.

And if it does have to be an apartment, you usually can get a better value for your rental dollar by renting a condo from a private landlord, rather than living in an apartment complex.

Also, you didn't mention your age or define what "relatively younger" is, but there are TONS of people in their 20's and 30's who live in apartments in Greenwood Village and the Tech Center (and work in the area).

I will check out the condo idea. I'd rather not have roommates if I don't have to. There are very few of those situations that do well in my experience. It could just be me. I have a particular way I like things.

I was afraid to admit it, but I feel that Denver is quickly becoming an expensive, congested city. It is like the Chicago of the Mountain West.

[vegaspilgrim]

Originally Posted by Tekkie

I was afraid to admit it, but I feel that Denver is quickly becoming an expensive, congested city. It is like the Chicago of the Mountain West.

You're totally right. Personally I think the quality of life in Denver for people who have to work for a living is going downhill fast. And if you think renting is expensive... just wait until you're ready to buy a place, and then find out how unaffordable and/or difficult to buy even a condo is here.

[Snikt]

The affordability of buying is still much better here vs renting, at least in my experience in the south/southwest metro area. Yeah it's more expensive than a lot of areas, but that's for a reason.

You can buy a 3-4 bedroom house where my brother lives in central Missouri for like 40-50k, because nobody wants to live there

[FreeStone]

Out of curiosity, how bad is your commute to the DTC? I'm moving back to Denver next month and will be working a few miles east of Arapaho & I25. I've always liked the area you currently live and figured it would be a pretty easy commute. (This coming from someone that has never been to DTC in rush hour)

Also, has the Monaco/Evans area gone down hill since say 2004 -'07? I lived up on Monaco near the Cherry Creek trail and really liked that area too. I was in a nice privately owned town home instead of a big apartment complex, so I'm sure that had a lot to do with my experience.

I'm still amazed at the rent increases over the past 5 years, even more so when looking back to '04 when I had a 2br 2 story town house for $800/mo! I realize that was 8 years ago and I'm sure a lot has changed since then.

[vegaspilgrim]

Originally Posted by FreeStone

Out of curiosity, how bad is your commute to the DTC? I'm moving back to Denver next month and will be working a few miles east of Arapaho & I25. I've always liked the area you currently live and figured it would be a pretty easy commute. (This coming from someone that has never been to DTC in rush hour)

Congress Park to Centennial Airport area? Not easy. Being stuck on Colorado Blvd backed up traffic twice a day every day, just to get to I-25 will eat up a lot of time. The other N-S street alternatives aren't much better. I-25 to get down to/from Arapahoe can often be very slow during rush hour. Overall, the traffic heading from downtown/Central Denver to the Denver Tech Center/south suburbs area in the morning is actually worse than the traffic from the south suburbs to downtown in the morning, and vice versa in the evenings. If you're thinking this is a reverse commute, it's not.

[kevin_in_Denver]

There are some more good suggestions on the sticky thread, which is where everyone with this question should start (no offense):
//www.city-data.com/forum/denve...-listings.html

[strawberrykiki]

Good luck...apartment hunting is beyond frustrating, and I really think you're going to have to increase your rent budget if you want anything halfway decent. I pay 975 and it's not easy...I live only a mile from the heart of downtown though. Being able to walk everywhere and not having to pay for parking (it's included in my rent) or gas allowed me to afford more in rent. Not to mention the sanity I've regained not having to sit in traffic everyday. Could you take the light rail or bus to work? That might save you in car related expenses so you could up your rent budget?