NYC--> Denver-- Wash Park or bust? (Colorado Springs, Aurora: appointed, HOA)

[takenwakki]

Originally Posted by woob

Wash park is not walkable. There are only a handful of shops on the west side that are walking distance. We moved from NYC to the baker neighborhood which was a good transition with lots of restaurants and independent businesses. You would be close to the alameda light rail for commuting to work. DCIS school at fairmont is a new charter that has been ranking high recently.

Woob, thanks for the reply. We've been focusing on West Wash Park, but I'll take a look at Baker.


The ability to walk to a park for our kid would be great plus, which is why we've been focused on Washington Park.


The independent businesses are a huge draw. I know it's going to be a shock to move to a more car-centric culture, but we'd like to have less dependence on a car than what we've seen from our friends out in Parker and Littleton. Although those home prices are way more reasonable!


What can we expect in property taxes? The real estate sites all seem to be in the 3k range for a 700k house, but then our mortgage broker said we should expect to be in the 6k range based depending on sale price and when it's reassessed.


Many Thanks!

[2bindenver]

Properties are reassessed every two years - so next year.

40 minutes in good weather is 2 hours in bad weather.

Live closer to work and come home happy.

[mundele]

i'd say look anywhere along the e & f light rail lines, with particular attention to the louisana/pearl, university, colorado, or yale stops. these are established, non-cookie-cutter neighborhoods.

all should have homes in your price range and are walkable to one degree or another to what you want.

louisana/pearl - access to boutiques, restaurants, and stores along pearl st
university - bit more limited in terms of retail, but lots of coffee shops and restaurants. plenty of small parks and childcare and preschool options around here too. be aware you're close to DU, which may or may not be a good thing.
colorado + yale - more retail, but most stores are along a busier road which is not as walkable as the retail areas listed above. also, the retail around these areas are more chains, less independent shops.

i agree with skydog in that i'd rather raise a kid in west wash park as opposed to baker. baker's great, but i think it caters a bit more to singles and DINKs compared to the other areas.

i would totally try to line things up with the light rail if your office is close to the lincoln stop. if you're used to taking PT, short walk to light rail + light rail ride + short walk or rtd shuttle to work. way easier than dealing with traffic, imo.

[denver_hacker]

Originally Posted by takenwakki

My husband, 3 yr old, and me are moving to Denver in September. We want to live in an area that is very walkable (to parks, transit, coffee, and stores), which is one of the things we will miss most about New York City. However, we can't live in an apartment anymore and would like a home. One of our jobs is in Englewood, near the Lincoln light rail station. The other will work from home.


When we tell people what we are looking for, they continually say Wash Park. We are looking for a 3 bedroom home under 800k. Willing to do some work and want an established neighborhood. We are not fans of cookie-cutter suburbs that we see way out in the new communities.


We are in a crunch to see homes and buy them on a short timeframe so I really need some confirmation that Wash Park is the spot. We really like the Southeast corner of the park for the whole foods and ability to walk to the light rail. Is there something less desirable about that section?


How does this area compare to Platt Park and Bonnie Brae? I don't see us living here more than 5 years so daycare and elementary schools are the most important for us in terms of schooling.


Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

Eh, a commute from Wash Park to Lincoln Light Rail isn't the worst in Denver and not bad by NYC/SF/LA standards. If it were me, I'd figure out bike and/or Light Rail and/or Uber/Lyft/Car2Go and avoid driving on I25 (the DU station has ample free parking, I park there and then take rail to downtown).

In terms of private pre-schools, you're fine. There's a ton of good ones around Platt Park/Wash Park/Bonnie Brae.

If you're looking at Denver Public Schools, you need to keep school boundaries in mind as you look:

DPS School List Map

Colorado does allow your kid to 'choice in' wherever they want, but only if the target school has room. Most of the good schools in Southeast Denver are maxed out and non-neighborhood kids can't get in. There are great charter schools, but you have to do a lot of work to apply and get in to them (plus then you're looking at a commute to get them there because they're not close).

I know lots of people with kids all over central and southwest Denver and also folks who teach in DPS. The upshot is that the Denver Public Schools are hit or miss and it's really hard to know if a school is right for you from someone else's recommendation. Sites like greatschools.com and coloradoschoolgrades.com only give you one piece of the puzzle, albeit a pretty strong one. Here's coloradoschoolgrades.com top 50 list of Colorado schools (again, these rankings are a very broad gauge):

Search Colorado Schools

The marquee non-charter DPS schools are: Steck, Cory, Bromwell, and Slavens. Most families with kids in them love those schools, but I know some people in those areas whose kids don't go to the neighborhood school. Most often, the kid choices into a specialized charter school or the family wants a religious education, but some need a different social group for a variety of reasons. Beyond that, I know families at Asbury, U Park, Southmoor, and Bradley who love those schools as well. I do know people who've tried other public schools in the area but generally they haven't lasted - the parents start off thinking they can compensate for the school's shortcomings and help turn the school around, but the reality is very different and when you see your kid's education failing you fix it.

Other than that, Wash Park is great - there are a lot of people moving in and out of there all the time, so people are generally very friendly but I know some folks there who lament the lack of strong neighborhood feel with people who've put down roots. Not a big deal for people new to Colorado and who think they'll move out within five years.

[emm74]

Charter schools in Denver use the same DPS choice process as the regular public schools. They can have some requirements such as testing but most of them don't have any.

Some of the magnet schools such as DSA are harder to get in because you have to audition and the GT schools require testing, but mostly the charters don't have those requirements, it's just a lottery if there aren't enough seats for everyone.

[denver_hacker]

Originally Posted by emm74

Charter schools in Denver use the same DPS choice process as the regular public schools. They can have some requirements such as testing but most of them don't have any.

Some of the magnet schools such as DSA are harder to get in because you have to audition and the GT schools require testing, but mostly the charters don't have those requirements, it's just a lottery if there aren't enough seats for everyone.

Right - magnet has can have specialized requirements, but charters follow district school choice. Here's a nice breakdown of what school is what:

Individual School Priorities 2016-17 | Choice and Enrollment Services

You can see each school's Non-boundary priority list in the 5th column on that page. The charters mostly look like this:

http://schoolchoice.dpsk12.org/wp-co.../Charter-B.pdf

From what I've seen, the desirable charters are maxed, which puts folks on the school choice path. School choice does have those different priority lottery pools, so people do try to get a best position. I've seen people join school boards before their kid starts (usually doing stuff nobody else wants to do) or take a job at the school to get in the top priority pool. In terms of final selection within each priority pool, I would guess the principal has some leeway.

[davebarnes]

Real estate taxes are around 0.7% of market value.
Ours are 0.6% in Denver. Annual Property Taxes for 3968 Vrain Street, Denver, CO

45 minutes! I would never consider that long a drive.
I have enough trouble with the 30-second walk from bedroom to office.

[takenwakki]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

Real estate taxes are around 0.7% of market value.
Ours are 0.6% in Denver. Annual Property Taxes for 3968 Vrain Street, Denver, CO

45 minutes! I would never consider that long a drive.
I have enough trouble with the 30-second walk from bedroom to office.

Your website is great BTW. Tons of info in a good format. I had been budgeting about $400 for utilities and about $2400 on homeowners insurance (which seems high to me, but people keep saying it's the roof/hail problem).


I agree, the commute is a drawback, but we will likely have one person eventually commuting into downtown and another down south to "unincorporated Douglas County" as someone pointed out. Take the commute out of it, would Wash Park make sense based on my criteria?

[Amanda333]

alot seemed to have changed in the past month for your family!

Originally Posted by takenwakki

My husband, 3 yr old, and me are moving to Denver in September. We want to live in an area that is very walkable (to parks, transit, coffee, and stores), which is one of the things we will miss most about New York City. However, we can't live in an apartment anymore and would like a home. One of our jobs is in Englewood, near the Lincoln light rail station. The other will work from home.
...I don't see us living here more than 5 years so daycare and elementary schools are the most important for us in terms of schooling.

[dude_reino]

Is this 2005? Wash Park is old news. It does not surprise me that people from NYC would recommend Wash Park. It's the most bourgeois neighborhood in all of Denver. I would forget about it. Plenty of other great neighborhoods are much easier to get into. Expand your search beyond Wash Park.