Relocating from NYC (Denver, Highlands Ranch, Littleton: transplants, for sale, homes)

[Denverpro]

Originally Posted by baycurious123

-We never quite fit in with people there. East Coast people tend to be more sarcastic, ironic etc. Not sure what it was, but we just never quite clicked. People are nice, but the sense of humour is just different.

Its more of a south park "haha that's funny" type of humor here. Its more deep cutting, run you over type of humor. I liked your subtle use the word "nice" and not "friendly".

[BarryK123]

Originally Posted by baycurious123

People are nice, but the sense of humour is just different.

Given your spelling of humour, wonder which British Commonwealth country you're from? If Britain itself, people there have a very different sense of humor than Americans.

[baycurious123]

Originally Posted by BarryK123

Given your spelling of humour, wonder which British Commonwealth country you're from? If Britain itself, people there have a very different sense of humor than Americans.

I'm from London originally.

Well, yes, that's certainly true in general. I'd say in humour terms, the East Coast has more in common with British style. Denver felt more stereotypically American. People don't really get sarcasm, or they might say something deadpan and then needlessly say 'just kidding!'. My wife felt the same way, and she's from NJ. Don't really know how to explain it, it just felt culturally different (or rather, an absence of culture).

[baycurious123]

Originally Posted by Denverpro

Its more of a south park "haha that's funny" type of humor here. Its more deep cutting, run you over type of humor. I liked your subtle use the word "nice" and not "friendly".

In my pro list I said people were very friendly. That was one of the things I liked about Denver.

[davebarnes]

When I moved to Colorado in 1980 from the Boston area, I was advised to tone it down as people here did not get East Coast sarcasm.
I tried and failed. But tried again as it was in the “work” environment.
Now, as an old fart, I just say f—k ‘em. I love NYC sarcasm and obnoxious behavior.
You have a problem with that?

[Traveler1026]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

When I moved to Colorado in 1980 from the Boston area, I was advised to tone it down as people here did not get East Coast sarcasm.
I tried and failed. But tried again as it was in the “work” environment.
Now, as an old fart, I just say f—k ‘em. I love NYC sarcasm and obnoxious behavior.
You have a problem with that?

I’m also originally from New England which is probably why I absolutely love davebarnes posts! I get his humor and am always cracking up at his sarcastic posts. I think a lot of people don’t understand his posts and they think he is being serious. I also lived in NYC for 7 years and i definitely felt totally at home there, give me sarcasm any day of the week!

We lived in Jacksonville before moving to Denver, and those Southerners really don’t understand sarcasm at all. Don’t get me wrong, some very nice people down there but I found it hard to find people I could really relate to.

[BarryK123]

Originally Posted by baycurious123

I'm from London originally.

Well, yes, that's certainly true in general. I'd say in humour terms, the East Coast has more in common with British style. Denver felt more stereotypically American. People don't really get sarcasm, or they might say something deadpan and then needlessly say 'just kidding!'. My wife felt the same way, and she's from NJ. Don't really know how to explain it, it just felt culturally different (or rather, an absence of culture).

I understand. I grew up in the NYC area and lived most of my adult life in the Phila area.

The two things I miss most are the sarcastic sense of humore and good pizza.

Originally Posted by Traveler1026

I’m also originally from New England which is probably why I absolutely love davebarnes posts!

Yeah, it's funny. Sometimes I 'll read a thread, then when I'm about to make a comment, I see davebarnes has already posted what I was about to write. We also went to the same college, so maybe that was an influence, too.

[Orghiplove]

Thank you all for your honesty-it’s greatly appreciated!

[Gaylord_Focker]

Originally Posted by baycurious123

On the suburbs question, we both liked Arvada, as it's a still bland but has a good downtown, but the location would be no good for you. You didn't mention budget, that might change things.

Lots of reasons really. Here is a very quick rundown, obviously some of these are specific to our situation:-

Pros

-The weather is amazing. By far the best thing about living there imo.

-People are friendly

-Pretty easy to get around. Locals complain about the traffic, but it's nothing really.

-Denver Airport is one of the best in the country

-Central location means it's nice to only fly 90mins-2hrs to get to San Diego, LA, SF. We both loved going to San Diego every year, and being able to leave in the morning and be on the beach by lunch was a great feeling.

-Generally laid back, people don't typically ask what you do for a living within 10 seconds of meeting

-Fairly decent restaurant scene, great beer

-Access to the mountains. Also, easy drive to Santa Fe, which we both really liked.

Cons

-We never quite fit in with people there. East Coast people tend to be more sarcastic, ironic etc. Not sure what it was, but we just never quite clicked. People are nice, but the sense of humour is just different.

-This is kind of counter intuitive, but Denver is really expensive for what it is. When we first moved there, the lower cost of living was great. However, over time, it felt less and less worth it considering Denver's limitations as a city. For example, we lived in Wash Park, which is beautiful, but we grew out of our condo and needed a 4 bed house, which in Wash Park is going to be $1.3m+ for something that doesn't need work. Even going out to the nicer suburbs, we'd still be looking at 800-1m for a good size house with a yard (in Denver, and even in the some of the suburbs, lot sizes are small). We just moved back to the East Coast, and we've found a house in a NJ suburb for $1m (taxes are a lot higher, so $1m + tax on a monthly payment basis equates to around $1.25m in Denver). We are both city people and both love NYC, and to me, paying roughly the same amount monthly to be 45 mins train to one of the best cities on the planet, vs paying the same amount to be somewhat closer but still in a suburby feeling neigborhood of a fairly generic medium sized city, didn't really feel like a good tradeoff. Obviously it depends on what you prioritize, and yes the property taxes here suck, but we feel it's worth it to us to be close to NYC, plus easy access to DC, Boston, the shore.

- Very limited public transport. The light rail is good, but coverage is limited. Denver is still very much a driving city.

- Downtown Denver. Pretty bland. Some good bars and restaurants and Union Station is great, but it really is overrun with homeless and people with addiction issues. It's the kind of Downtown you literally don't need more than a day to cover. It's not the kind of city you might stroll around in or feel inspired by. Obviously with kids that didn't matter so much to us towards the end, but it felt kind of isolating sometimes. There are other medium sized cities with far superior downtowns. There are a few hidden gems, like the Opera House and some of the museums, but for the most part going downtown just felt like a waste of time.

- 90mins-2hr flight to the nearest ocean.

-I work in finance and there isn't a big industry there. If I lost my job I'd find it very hard to replace my income there, so there was kind of a risk management aspect. I didn't want to settle somewhere that we might be forced to leave.

-In the end, we just didn't like being so far away from family and it never really felt like home to us.

Great post. Hard to argue. Maybe not in your case, but I thought if I were gonna spend 1M in Denver, I may as well live where I really want, in my case California. I also didn't think the downtown was special, not for a big city Some locals bragged about the mall area, which to me wasn't anything extaordinary. Yes, my house would be a bit smaller in California. Before any locals get upset, I do like Denver a lot, would move back if necessary. Ok, that last line probably annoyed locals who would prefer outsiders not come back.

[Kathy884]

Originally Posted by baycurious123

-This is kind of counter intuitive, but Denver is really expensive for what it is. When we first moved there, the lower cost of living was great. However, over time, it felt less and less worth it considering Denver's limitations as a city. For example, we lived in Wash Park, which is beautiful, but we grew out of our condo and needed a 4 bed house, which in Wash Park is going to be $1.3m+ for something that doesn't need work. Even going out to the nicer suburbs, we'd still be looking at 800-1m for a good size house with a yard (in Denver, and even in the some of the suburbs, lot sizes are small). We just moved back to the East Coast, and we've found a house in a NJ suburb for $1m (taxes are a lot higher, so $1m + tax on a monthly payment basis equates to around $1.25m in Denver). We are both city people and both love NYC, and to me, paying roughly the same amount monthly to be 45 mins train to one of the best cities on the planet, vs paying the same amount to be somewhat closer but still in a suburb feeling neighborhood of a fairly generic medium sized city, didn't really feel like a good tradeoff. Obviously it depends on what you prioritize, and yes the property taxes here suck, but we feel it's worth it to us to be close to NYC, plus easy access to DC, Boston, the shore.

I can so relate to what you are saying about costs of housing in Denver for what you get. We had a little house in Wash Park back in the 80s that we sold in 1989 for 89K when we moved to St. Louis for job opportunity for DH (His company was moving to Southern California and we didn't want to move there / take the transfer). That little Denver Wash Park house is worth about 800K per Zillow now (more than double what our current home would sell for) and would be way too small for us at this point too. We loved the weather, Wash Park neighborhood, and going to the mountains regularly for day trips back then and considered relocating to Denver with DH retired and me with a full time WFH portable IT job. For us the cost for Wash Park for a similar situation to what we have in our charming close in older St. Louis suburb was prohibitive. We looked at other areas (e.g. Denver suburbs, farther out communities) which were not nearly as pricey as Wash Park. In the end, it wasn't worth it to us to move (a lot of this is what we would have to spend to have the kind of house we want / have now). Also, I think we are partial to older neighborhoods with lots of charm (With Denver being a much newer city, there is such a premium for those it seems due to limited supply). Denver too has way more traffic than it did in the 80s -- still lovely, but increased traffic made it a little less appealing than before. My main complaint about where we live now are the hot humid summers, but I am really embracing and appreciating our long lovely spring season and great mild fall Indian Summer weather even though Denver weather in general is far superior to ours.