International/gay/professional couple no kids - Living in Parker or Southeast Aurora (Southlands) (Denver: foreclosures, lease)

[heavenonearth048]

Yes, Platt park is out of question. I'd love to get more opinions on Parker from other folks, hopefully will get a range of thoughts on it before totally excluding it - many of my friends seem to think its a great place to live, so I am confused...

[davebarnes]

Wheat Ridge would be my other suggestion.
Very close to the "action" in Edgewater, Berkeley, and West Highland.
But, you are going to have to be patient.
Inventory is extremely low.

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by heavenonearth048

Yes, Platt park is out of question. I'd love to get more opinions on Parker from other folks, hopefully will get a range of thoughts on it before totally excluding it - many of my friends seem to think its a great place to live, so I am confused...

Here's my take. I've never lived in Parker, but having spent the last 9 years in Southeast Aurora, I've been there plenty of times.

People are generally friendly, but the city is not at all diverse.

Traffic in Parker can be a PITA. Going to Downtown Denver by car on a regular basis would be soul-crushing.

Downtown Parker is smaller than Southlands, but it feels more organic. Southlands is very much a faux downtown feel. Neither are all that big.

Have you been out to Southeast Aurora/Southlands before? Places like Tallyn's Reach will resemble Parker somewhat, but once you get north of Smoky Hill, it looks more like the area out by DIA. Great views of the high peaks of the Front Range, though.

[heavenonearth048]

Yes, I think Southeast Aurora near Southlands is way too artificial and "far out" a feel for me. Parker with its more organic downtown is cute enough. Its really tough to say no to the new homes in Parker, when you compare it to the older homes in Aurora and Centennial. The question will be whether we are okay with an older home to be in a more "diverse" neighborhood".

The Q-Anon stuff and conservative Christian vibe someone mentioned here is really throwing me off - any positive thoughts about Parker from maybe someone who is gay and/or racially diverse?

I think it is hard to tell in USA when people are racist as, unlike in Europe, they will politely smile, yet firmly keep you out of their circle. The racism or homophobia is not overt, but only the person subject to it can sense it, altho they would really like not to be in such a situation!

[mic111]

City data has great and informative statistics on all the cities you are considering.

//www.city-data.com/city/Parker-Colorado.html

[suzco]

Originally Posted by heavenonearth048

Yes, I think Southeast Aurora near Southlands is way too artificial and "far out" a feel for me. Parker with its more organic downtown is cute enough. Its really tough to say no to the new homes in Parker, when you compare it to the older homes in Aurora and Centennial. The question will be whether we are okay with an older home to be in a more "diverse" neighborhood".

The Q-Anon stuff and conservative Christian vibe someone mentioned here is really throwing me off - any positive thoughts about Parker from maybe someone who is gay and/or racially diverse?

I think it is hard to tell in USA when people are racist as, unlike in Europe, they will politely smile, yet firmly keep you out of their circle. The racism or homophobia is not overt, but only the person subject to it can sense it, altho they would really like not to be in such a situation!

As to The Q-Anon stuff and conservative Christian vibe - Parker is in Douglas County, overall one of the more Christian-right leaning areas. Those kinds of controversial political issues are frequently part of the politics.

Aurora and Centennial are in Araphoe County, a more diverse/tolerant area even though not particularly demographically diverse.

Parker's more republican, aurora and centennial more mixed democrat.

On an individual basis, chances are your neighbors would be fine with you in any community.

[cowboyxjon]

Being that none of us know you as well as your real-life friends, family, and partner know you, I’ll tell you what I think you should do.

1. Don’t buy a place in Parker. I almost feel like you’re trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, and you’re compromising on MANY of the things you are looking for, just to be able to own a new construction home. I don’t think Parker is QAnon hell or anything like that, but it simply doesn’t meet your needs in terms of location (it’s far away), vibrancy (it’s family-oriented, so there may not be many people there who are looking for new friends), racial diversity (it just isn’t as diverse as other parts of Metro Denver), and in general just doesn’t seem to check the box you’re looking for when it comes to people from all walks of life.

2. Look instead at the places that were mentioned, even if you have to take on a little bit of a fixer-upper home. There are a lot of homes out there that may be older, but still are in good shape even if the fixtures, paint colors, etc are dated or not really your style.

3. Consider a duplex. I know you said you want a single family home and yard, and I thought I wanted that too. We ended up in a duplex near Golden that we like very much. We share a wall but can’t ever hear our neighbors as the layout of the homes makes it so that the shared wall isn’t in any of the major rooms (mostly just the stairwell to upstairs), but we have a decent-sized yard and we love the location. The duplex isn’t new construction, but it’s newer (2006). Maybe a duplex would open up some other locations that you would normally be priced out of?

4. Drop the requirement for the walk to a vibrant downtown-type setting. IMO you might want it, but in my experience, you probably won’t go there as much as you think you will. We live close to downtown Golden and thought that I would go there a lot, but honestly, I visit about once/week mostly because I go to a Pilates studio there.

5. Keep looking in suburbs/neighborhoods that are closer to Denver even if none of what has been mentioned here already catches your eye. If you buy near the light rail or a good bus line, you can get downtown easily for fun, dining out, meeting up with people.

Background on me. I’m a dude. I’m gay. I’ve been in a relationship with my partner for like 15 years. We love living in the ‘burbs much more than we liked living in a house I owned in Denver. But that’s us. We have friends, we know our neighbors at a superficial level, and we’re happy. We don’t go to downtown Golden much, even though we thought we would.

Finally, more on Parker. For what it’s worth, even though I don’t think it’s the right fit for you, an ex co-worker of mine and his wife have lived in Parker for years, and they love their subdivision, their home, and their neighbors. But their needs and requirements were different from yours. They happen to be far left in terms of political views, for what it’s worth, and the dominant political views in Parker are not an issue for them.

I wish you the best of luck on finding your new home - but figured I’d tell you what I would do if I were you, knowing what I know based on what you had posted.

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by cowboyxjon

Consider a duplex.

Any duplex built in the last 10 years will have a double firewall (technical term is shaft liner) between the units.
Noise will not be a problem.

[lem316]

Would agree with Dave on Arvada/Wheat Ridge as a 2nd option, but depending on how new of a home (or paired/townhome)and how close you want to be to the downtown center, you might look at being near downtown Littleton or Englewood near Broadway and 285

[Denverpro]

Beware of advice from local people telling you Denver's suburbs are "far out". Both highlands ranch and Parker are close to our version of a "beltway" (hwy 470). In several larger metro areas anything along the beltway would be considered a "close-in" suburb. Several larger metro areas (Dallas/Atlanta, etc.) the suburbs extend much further past their beltway (up to 50 miles!). You can easily get from Parker to downtown Denver in 20 minutes.

However, I'm amending my post. I think that certain people in the LGBT community my sentence above might not be right depending on the person and their wants. It all really depends on you, how often you go out, etc. For a metro area that is basically sitting on land that was grazed by Buffalo for thousands of years, It sure is hard to find a decent home with a yard. I was down in Miami recently and you can be a condo there for $150... Personally I'd rather do that, heck, I'd sleep on my couch in a studio and be happy down there at that price.