For those that moved here in the past 5 years

[robertgoodman]

Originally Posted by Texas Ag 93

Edit to Add: Why does the "quote" feature sometimes not work for me? I must be rushing through it and not highlighting everything I need. I hate errors in my posts.

You bolded the trailing quote tag so when the html rendered it was thrown off.

This works:

Originally Posted by Texas Ag 93

I hate errors in my posts.

This doesn't:

[quote=Texas Ag 93;40983214]I hate errors in my posts.[/QUOTE]

[rumline]

edit: robertgoodman beat me to it.

[skins_fan82]

Interesting question. cool thread, OP.

We moved here to Denver from Seattle in 2011. We moved here because:

1. Cost of living was cheaper
2. Less rain (oh my GOD)
3. My wife's industry is here (healthcare)

I love Denver. Seattle was awesome, but my wife and i both prefer Denver more. I'm an east coaster, and I miss DC and the Redskins, but you couldn't pay me to move back to the east cast.

That said, cost of living has sky-rocketed since we've been here (we sold our house for $78k more in 2014 than what we paid to build it in 2011). Even though my wife and I make pretty good money combined, we'd definitely be open to other big cities....versus four years ago when we were set on Denver. compared to 2011 when we were living in Seattle, we looked at the Colorado COL and were like "hell yeah!" LOL

[DenverBound41]

Denver can certainly use a few thousand new residences in downtown condo towers, but if you think Denver is expensive, look at the prices of the new Millennium Tower in Boston. $3,000 sq/ft?!?!? Holy crap.

The lowdown on 5 condo towers coming to Boston - The Boston Globe

[guyatwork37]

Originally Posted by emm74

If you expect your cost of living to be cut in half, you will be disappointed. Yes, it will be lower, but more like 20%, not 50% once you get past buying a house and even that isn't a 50% difference. A big drop but not that big. And some things may be more expensive if they are applicable to you - for instance, childcare in Denver is quite expensive and I paid more than friends who lived in LA (although not more than those in San Francisco). That may not apply to you so you may not care specifically, but you are likely to bump into things that do matter to you where the cost is the same or more than you are currently paying. But childcare is a particularly large ticket item that doesn't usually get taken into account in those cost of living calculators.

The cut in half, was hyperbole, but actually, housing in the area of I'm looking in (Highlands Ranch) is probably 50% to 60% cheaper than comparable homes in the area I'm coming from (Pasadena) and those homes in the Pasadena area are old and require a lot of work. Also, I've looked in to the daycare in the southern suburbs and it's cheaper than what I pay in my neighborhood. Like you said, those are going to be the biggest expenses and one is about 50% cheaper and the other is maybe 10% to 15% cheaper. At the end of the day, we make out like bandits to live in a city we really enjoy while getting out of a city we really don't care for anymore. I'm cautiously optimistic

[guyatwork37]

Originally Posted by Deezy303

Ha. You get what you pay for..


But seriously, the value of the COL here really depends on what you're into.

I'd just like to spend time at the park with my family and watch them play soccer on the weekend and whatever else they get in to. We like to hike and camp and those are relatively cheap adventures. My wife and I ski in the sense that we know how and enjoy it when we do, but it's not something we're dying to get in to since we don't do it all that much here anyways. Maybe we'll get in to it more as the kids get older, who knows. We're fairly simple in terms of needs, but just want a safe place to raise a family that doesn't force you to be poor to do so.

[2bindenver]

We have a program that 5th graders ski free and 6th graders ski for $99. 5th & 6th Grade Passport | Colorado Ski Country USA

[Mach50]

Originally Posted by 2bindenver

We have a program that 5th graders ski free and 6th graders ski for $99. 5th & 6th Grade Passport | Colorado Ski Country USA

Here is one which is FREE for Kindergarten through 5th:
Epic Schoolkids FAQ | EpicPass.com