Where would you consider? (Denver, Colorado Springs: how much, house, employment)

[Grover73]

My family and I are currently living in Chicagoland and planning to move to Colorado. We are trying to narrow it down to an actual town. (

Here's some background:

We are in our early 40's and have two kids, 3 years and an infant.
' Hoping to find a place that has some yard space and/or open space views, yet is relatively close (10-15 min) to amenities of town, like restaurants and parks.
We are both outdoorsy people.
I work from home and she is home with the kids, so commute is not a concern.
We have a good budget to work with. Maybe 1M-2M.
I play a lot of golf, and will probably join a private but casual golf club for both golf and social reasons. - We don't know anyone so we are starting over socially.
With two kids, we would want either excellent public schools or an option for excellent non-secular private schools if need be. Prefer public.

My wife likes what she has seen in Boulder - nice views and a vibrant downtown area. She really like the feel of Pearl Street Mall.
I'm a little concerned about what I've read...that Boulder has a lot of strange hippies liberals. But I'm guessing all that stuff is over stated to some degree.

We have looked at Cherry Creek, but the lot sizes are small and there isn't much in the way of views. On the plus side is that it has lots of amenities.
Englewood seemed too suburban, strip mall-like for my wife.

We are planning to look at Littleton next weekend, as it seems to be good size yet have lots of open spaces. We don't know much about it at this point though.

Golden seemed to have lower temperatures, than other areas. We are partly moving from Chicagoland due to the cold weather.

Evergreen seemed to rural for us.

Anyone have any advice on where we should be looking based on the above?

Thanks!

[randomparent]

Just based on your initial post, I have a couple of suggestions right off the bat. The first is Ken-Caryl Valley, especially the North Ranch. It's not remote, but it provides a little separation from the rest of the metro, and it's family-oriented. My second suggestion is Greenwood Village. GV is part of the well-regarded Cherry Creek School District and has some very nice properties that are not apparent at first glance. The area offers fantastic accessibility. I'll leave it to others to add to the list.

It might be helpful to know a little bit about your current housing. Are you looking to maintain your current lifestyle or upgrade? What does your desired house/neighborhood look like? (In addition to having more than a postage-stamp lot, that is.) Do you like new and modern or are you traditionalists? Are you willing to renovate? What kind of people make you most comfortable? What do they do on the weekend?

Does your wife see herself getting involved in the kids' school? What does she like to do on the weekend? Is she a play in the park with the kids kind of mom or a take the kids to preschool and head for the Country Club kind of mom? A volunteer at the local food bank kind of mom or an organize a fundraiser for the arts kind of mom? Or maybe she's something completely different? Tell us a little about her. It will help us narrow down communities, which can have very different social climates and expectations. Figuring out where she fits in is just as, if not even more important, than finding you a golf course. If she's not feeling it, you'll all be miserable. Been there, done that.

[Idunn]

Boulder is a great town and, as you surmised, not every citizen a hippie. Those of the true cloth are rather an endangered species, and more likely to be found in Nederland, west of Boulder in the mountains. If overall liberal, particularly by rural Colorado standards, Boulder has a good mix of all persuasions.

My greater concern with children would be living in what now is a small city, with those inevitable influences. Then, more broadly throughout Colorado and elsewhere, it becoming increasingly difficult to discern a school from a prison. Be that as it may, any larger community will have its pluses and minuses in that respect, with one plus surely the children less parochial in result.

Due weather and other factors it seems you would prefer to reside along the Front Range. Not in the mountains. Thus you might also consider Colorado Springs. But my suggestion, especially, to give a good look at Fort Collins. Many consider it a fine town, and it is, if again a small city as even larger than Boulder, if more isolated. The only difficulty many have with Fort Collins is in finding employment that will pay a decent enough wage, given the overabundance of the highly skilled wishing to live there, thus competition. Something you can bypass, and with a housing budget which should allow you to select from any number of fine neighborhoods.

[Grover73]

Originally Posted by randomparent

It might be helpful to know a little bit about your current housing. Are you looking to maintain your current lifestyle or upgrade? What does your desired house/neighborhood look like? (In addition to having more than a postage-stamp lot, that is.) Do you like new and modern or are you traditionalists? Are you willing to renovate? What kind of people make you most comfortable? What do they do on the weekend?

Does your wife see herself getting involved in the kids' school? What does she like to do on the weekend? Is she a play in the park with the kids kind of mom or a take the kids to preschool and head for the Country Club kind of mom? A volunteer at the local food bank kind of mom or an organize a fundraiser for the arts kind of mom? Or maybe she's something completely different? Tell us a little about her. It will help us narrow down communities, which can have very different social climates and expectations. Figuring out where she fits in is just as, if not even more important, than finding you a golf course. If she's not feeling it, you'll all be miserable. Been there, done that.

Current housing is a 1.4M house that is too big for us. It's about 7000 sq feet including the finished basement and finished attic. That gives it 4 levels and my wife complains that it's too hard to keep clean and too hard to know where every is at. It's on a 10,000 square foot lot. My wife wants the next house to be a little more manageable and less ornate.
Ideal neighborhood is to have some neighbors, just not be right on top of each other.
Minimal renovation is okay, but we two small children and a big move, we may not have enough time for a major renovation. We are both casual people. My wife is in to organic foods, yoga, and that sort of thing. She volunteers for the Farmer's Market here and her typical day is geared more to taking the kids to the park and such. She loves to walk to Starbucks and then to Lake Michigan. The older kid plays there at the playground and she enjoys the view of the lake. She wants to be somewhere she can walk. Either walk in nice parks, in open space trails, or just walk to town for coffee.
She is definitely not the country club type. She's an only child and she values here alone time.
Her main requirement for relocation was somewhere with "natural beauty". That could be an ocean, a great lake, or the mountains, for example.
She does not like suburban strip mall type feel. She would rather be in some place with more of a city feel or out in the country. Just not the "boring suburb" type thing.
She doesn't want to live up in the mountains. I think part of it is that the drive in the snow on a daily basis scares her. But also she feels that we might be too isolated up there, especially considering we don't know anyone to start with.

[Grover73]

Originally Posted by Idunn

Boulder is a great town and, as you surmised, not every citizen a hippie. Those of the true cloth are rather an endangered species, and more likely to be found in Nederland, west of Boulder in the mountains. If overall liberal, particularly by rural Colorado standards, Boulder has a good mix of all persuasions.

My greater concern with children would be living in what now is a small city, with those inevitable influences. Then, more broadly throughout Colorado and elsewhere, it becoming increasingly difficult to discern a school from a prison. Be that as it may, any larger community will have its pluses and minuses in that respect, with one plus surely the children less parochial in result.

Due weather and other factors it seems you would prefer to reside along the Front Range. Not in the mountains. Thus you might also consider Colorado Springs. But my suggestion, especially, to give a good look at Fort Collins. Many consider it a fine town, and it is, if again a small city as even larger than Boulder, if more isolated. The only difficulty many have with Fort Collins is in finding employment that will pay a decent enough wage, given the overabundance of the highly skilled wishing to live there, thus competition. Something you can bypass, and with a housing budget which should allow you to select from any number of fine neighborhoods.

Thanks. I did want to check out Fort Collins. We did look briefly at Colorado Springs. From what I've read, it might not be the best place for an atheist (wife) and an agnostic (me). Again, who know how much of that is just stereo typing.

We did look briefly at Greenwood Village. I liked the neighborhoods but my wife complained of that sterile suburban feel. We will probably give it another look on this trip though.

[randomparent]

When you visit Littleton next weekend, ask your agent to show you around Bow Mar, and come back and let us know your impressions. It has homes in your in your price range, it's near a golf course, and it's a short drive from quaint, historic Littleton. There is plenty of open space hiking in the area, and the neighborhood has excellent views. And then there's the lake, which might please your wife, since you mention she enjoys walking to Lake Michigan. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Zillow's Listings for Bow Mar

[otowi]

Colorado Springs is not at all religiously like what the media portrays - while there are some big businesses there of that 'ilk', particularly Focus on the Family, Colorado Springs itself is religiously very normal - lots of not religious people and people of different faiths, and very little proselytizing - and most of what little there is would be the occasional Mormon going door to door - just like anywhere else.

[SkyDog77]

I think you will get better responses in the Denver forum.

Boulder is a good bet. If you want to avoid the suburban feel, older Denver neighborhoods like Wash Park, Congress Park and Country Club are worth looking at and are within you price point. New builds in Wash Park are going for $1.2M+. Lot sizes might be smaller than what you are looking for, but there is the best park in the city a few blocks away.

[suzco]

Boulder would be a great fit, and also may be possibilities in nearby areas, like Niwot, Louisville, Lafayette

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

I think you will get better responses in the Denver forum. ....

Agree, thus I've moved this to the Denver forum.