Help - Techies Moving with Horses to Denver Area (Lakewood: for sale, real estate)

[ponyupgrl]

Hi All - would love some opinions on good areas that have horse property commutable to tech jobs. Our story:

Hubby and I are moving from the SF Bay Area to the Denver area in a few months. We've always loved trips to Colorado and decided to pick up and move at a flexible time in our lives (no kids yet, can keep jobs).

We're trying to find a good area to settle in, and quickly realizing that there are many towns/ neighborhoods that might fit the bill. Given the low inventory, it's tough to figure out the best area for us. Ideally, we'd like to buy this year - but willing to rent for a bit if we can't find the right house right away. Prefer something around 750k, but can go up to 900k for the right property.

We're finding it really hard to narrow down on an area: We're both going to be keeping our jobs and working remote when we move out there. We both work for tech companies, and would like to stay around an area with tech jobs (boulder? denver downtown? DTC? they're all so spread out!!). Although we both like our jobs, we want to be around other opportunities when we inevitably look for new jobs in the future.

From browsing the forums, it also appears that some areas may have water issues? Horses + water issues = $$$. We were looking at the Castle Rock/ Sedalia area originally, but have seen some posts referencing a water shortage there?

For all of you locals - are there any areas that seem like they might fit the bill? Thanks in advance!

[LarsMac]

I suggest looking to the North. Larimer County, Weld County, Eastern Boulder County. Eastern Adams County. Lot of horse country this side of town.

[bluescreen73]

Work in DTC and live in Northwestern Elbert County.

[StealthRabbit]

Parker area (se denver / Castle Rock) near to high tech, near to equestrian activities.
Water is a huge issue in Rocky Mtn west. Arid front range means you will be FEEDING your livestock, horses require a lot of acreage to graze. (More than you can find / afford) hay is imported from NE or KS.

I Previously spent 25+ yrs on horse / ranch near Estes Park. Great place if you can work from home. Winters are very windy and cold. Nearby Loveland / Masonville is spectacular horse country too, and more 'banana belt'. Close to Ft Collins (10,000 displaced high tech workers, have endured / searched for jobs for 30 yrs). This points to how desirable it is to have the priviledge to live there., thus... Come with a job!

Can you do WY? Big Horns have superb horse areas, Snowy Range is close to CO, and nice area of WY. It is income tax free. . Same in SD, and some really nice horse places + high tech near Rapid / Spearfish.

Personally.... I would seek a staff residence on a large dude ranch, where you can board your horses and ride daily. Offer lodging space in your staff residence during high season (while you escape for the summer). You can do an Equity share, or keep your real estate investments in a high cash flowing, and prop 13 benefited CA property. During my high tech career, Colorado and Wa, OR workers from Palo Alto kept their CA real estate. This proved very beneficial for them. Most returned PT to CA, but kept a tax free domicile state for retirement. Just be careful to NOT trigger CA domicile... 180+ days / yr? I.e. Leave soon!

[mic111]

There is an area of Broomfield with alot of horse properties. It puts you about 30 min. from Boulder and 30 min from Denver. We have lived in this area and it is convenient to many things, especially jobs. Take a look at it on the map. You can work conveniently in Longmont also but that is not a tech. hub. Certainly many tech. jobs between Boulder and Denver along the 36 corridor.

Here are some current listings but they are under your price range which will make them seem less nice. However there are all price ranges in this area, just not alot on the market at any one time. Many already have horse barns and come with ditch water rights.

12543 Dillon Rd, Broomfield, CO 80020 | MLS #784770 | Zillow



14490 Lowell Blvd, Broomfield, CO 80023 | MLS #785319 | Zillow

Also nearby Thornton & Brighton have horse properties.
14757 Madison St, Brighton, CO 80602 | MLS #785234 | Zillow

2280 E 138th Ave, Brighton, CO 80602 | Zillow

These are just to get you into the area. Inventory is tight and so ones backing to major streets or train tracks are what is available but once you decide if your interested you could put a watch on the area to pounce when something comes up that you like. Zoom around on google map and you will see the horse properties.

Rail is coming to 124th in 2018 so there will be easy access to downtown Denver. It is planned to go beyond 124th but hasn't been scheduled yet.

[sunsprit]

With your price range, you have many options for equine property, but limited acreage for functional grazing. You'll be buying horse hay for all but a few weeks per year, on average ... especially if you have limited acreage.

The fastest way to destroy your native grass stand coverage in this area on pastures will be to run your horses on it to the point of overgrazing, which can happen very quickly. The soils/grasses/water here have a very limited grazing capacity and the grasses will not rebound for years if overgrazed even one season.

You'll find lots of area horse hay production all along the Front Range from Wellington south down through the C Springs area. (importing horse hay from KS or NE is pure insanity given the cost of transportation for small quantities ... even a semi-load approaching 40 tons is pricey and way beyond the needs of most horse owners unless you've got a large operation. I brought in semi-loads for my commercial horse boarding operation where we had 40-60 horses and that quantity lasted for months ... but the cost of transport oft times was 50-75% additional to the cost of they hay). Water, of course, is the big issue for hay production in this arid area and in drought years horse hay can be very expensive. Buying it by the bale at a feed store has recently seen prices in the $8-10/bale (65 lb bales, nominally), and you've got to buy a lot of tonnage before you'll see a significant price break. In big rounds, horse hay has been running $150-200/ton, but you've got to have the ability to transport, handle and feed from that instead of small squares.

I'd also caution you that many horse hay producers in this area don't bother to test their hay. So neither you nor they know what %protein, RFV, or other qualities of their hay are for sale. I've customers who prefer my 22% protein/189RFV (that's dairy quality alfalfa hay!) for their horse, and others who want only 12%/120 alfalfa/grass mix ... and some who want stuff in-between. Depends a lot on your horses and how hard you're working them ... my trail Morgans kept best on the lower quality stuff (easy to founder them on the higher protein hay) when they were being ridden a lot, but even 12% was "high" during those months when we couldn't put them to work very much.

Locations combining jobs access and equine properties in your price range:

Parker-Franktown area would be high on the list. You could keep your horses at home, or there's boarding there.

Ken-Caryl ranch area. Board at the local facilites, use the arenas or access to trail riding and open spaces in the foothills is excellent there.

Ft Collins area. Head East for more affordable properties yet still retain access for jobs and access to equine trails.

Broomfield -Thornton area very workable, too.

Along the I-25 corridor, check out some of the Longmont area. We had a gorgeous house off of Hwy 52, just East of the Boulder county line (so out of the Boulder price ranges) on 5 acres with established landscaping and mature trees. Room to keep our 3 horses at the time, although we had no grazing. A neighbor with a commercial horse boarding facility would pasture our horses and feed them in the winter months for a reasonable amount.

While the "mountain" communities offer housing/acreage and equine properties, I'd avoid them for several reasons ... access to jobs in the winter months can be problematic, and the longer winter/mud season up there can limit you to many months of keeping horses but not able to use them very much compared to the front range (unless you've got an indoor arena, preferably heated ... but after owning one for a few years, I simply lost interest in just ground working my horses for exercise compared to trail riding).

After the job/access considerations, I'd rank the intended use of your horses as a big priority in selecting a location in this area. Are you an arena rider? a trail rider? an activity rider, such as roping? show horse rider, maybe dressage? there's areas where you'll find more or less of these activities. You may want to locate in an area where you have better access to your equine pursuits.

I'd also avoid Boulder, given the price range for acreage and equine properties there. Do keep in mind that there's an aggressive anti-equine/farming/ranching stance in the area over the last couple decades due to smells/insects/noise/pollution from the formerly very popular equine presence in the area. I've had friends with modest sized decades long established equine operations forced by zoning changes to shut down or limit their number of head per facility to a point where the properties were money losing operations after years of success there. Lots of readily accessible trail riding in the open spaces and public lands there, but you'll need to trailer in to take advantage of these.

Also, be aware that there's sometimes less than a "share the land" civility between 'cyclists and equine in some of the open space trails ... we've had a few encounters that were less than a pleasure there over the last few years. A lot of cyclists resent the horse biscuits on the trails or the obstacle that a horse can represent when the cyclist is descending a trail. We got to a point where we sought out the places that were foot traffic and equine only, or so remote that the cyclists didn't care to ride there.

PS: when looking at equine HOA controlled properties, be sure to know the limits on head per site if you own more than a couple of horses or intend to have more.

Good luck in your search. There's lot of equine activities in the area and you should be able to find nice housing/acreage, facilities, and opportunities for any equine use you'd like to enjoy out here.

[Indigo Cardinal]

Foxfield (the southeast area of Arapahoe/Parker in Arapahoe County) seems to have a lot of horse properties in the area, and would be about 15-20 minutes drive from the DTC.

[2bindenver]

Parker, Elizabeth, Franktown, Larkspur all have a stable for horses on the property for less than $800k.

If you board your horses somewhere else, you have more options.

[step33]

I used to drive past a lot of horse properties along Orchard Rd. Not a clue on the price or availability - but very pretty area.

Also there are small horse properties all over, even in Lakewood. Some have good access to riding areas - though you may literally be riding your horse down a city street for a couple blocks to reach a nearby open space park that allows horses.

[ponyupgrl]

Thank you all for the detailed responses. VERY hugely appreciated! Hoping more houses start popping up on the market :-)