Best place to live with a young teen? Possibly relocating to Denver area (Aurora: crime, houses)

[Skr72]

Points to know ….We are a family of three. My husband,who is retired military, and I are in our late 40s we live with our youngest that is a 12-year-old boy. My husband is from Chicago and I am from Tampa. We’ve spent most of our married life in Florida but now are no longer interested in staying there long term. I am over the hot weather. We’ve been to Denver once and really liked it and we’re kind of scoping it out for a place to move due to the relatively mild summers and winters. We currently live in Hawaii, so we are used to expensive! We would live to find a community (if it exist in the Denver area) that has social situations for the residents maybe some amenities like community pool. The community is safe to let our 12 year old ride his bike from a friend’s house without issue. Now for the question… lol
I spoke to a realtor they suggested “ south side of the Denver Metro area. That would include Highlands Ranch, Parker, Castle Pines, Castle Rock, and Southeast Aurora (specifically 80015 and 80016). ”. Do you agree with his suggestion and where out of those areas would be best place for teens to grow up? He and my husband love to ride electric bikes and would prefer trails. Need good school too.

[GypsyPeak75]

You future lies in Boulder, CO.

[Mike from back east]

The realtor gave you decent advice.

Boulder is awfully expensive.

I'd stick closer to Denver than Castle Rock.

Highland Ranch has 4 community centers, should be pools there, as do other areas.

Where is work? That could be an overriding factor.

Does the 12-year old have any specific interests, school or otherwise?

[mkwensky]

Originally Posted by Skr72

Points to know ….We are a family of three. My husband,who is retired military, and I are in our late 40s we live with our youngest that is a 12-year-old boy. My husband is from Chicago and I am from Tampa. We’ve spent most of our married life in Florida but now are no longer interested in staying there long term. I am over the hot weather. We’ve been to Denver once and really liked it and we’re kind of scoping it out for a place to move due to the relatively mild summers and winters. We currently live in Hawaii, so we are used to expensive! We would live to find a community (if it exist in the Denver area) that has social situations for the residents maybe some amenities like community pool. The community is safe to let our 12 year old ride his bike from a friend’s house without issue. Now for the question… lol
I spoke to a realtor they suggested “ south side of the Denver Metro area. That would include Highlands Ranch, Parker, Castle Pines, Castle Rock, and Southeast Aurora (specifically 80015 and 80016). ”. Do you agree with his suggestion and where out of those areas would be best place for teens to grow up? He and my husband love to ride electric bikes and would prefer trails. Need good school too.

Highlands Ranch has lots of bikes trails suitable for electric bike, and there are good schools there. The 4 rec centers have indoor and outdoor pools so the amenities are there. I would also look in Littleton as the trails and hiking seem better than Highlands Ranch, and the amenities are much better. Highlands Ranch is kind of cookie cutter and boring, with mostly chain restaurants and retail.

The other areas suggested by the realtor are fine, but if proximity to city life is important than they can be a bit far.

[davebarnes]

Are you planning to have your son remain at 12 years of age?
Or, will he grow older?

[klemmaniac]

While Denver on paper is great (weather, mountains, city, jobs...), in practice it has become overcrowded and crime and homelessness just seems to be getting worse and worse. Cost of living continues to increase with no stopping in sight as well. I would advise you to spend some more time here to make sure you really want to move here. I know everyone else is, but you might be leaving one thing that you don't like and replacing it with another. If it's possible to stay for an extended period in an AirBnB or something like that, see if the traffic on I-25/I-70 doesn't drive you nuts, make sure the crowds on the trails don't get to you and see how the yearly summer long wildfire smoke smothering the front range might affect you (now's a good time to find out..).

Not trying to be a debbie downer - just giving you the other side of the picture you might not see on a vacation that's become reality out here and encouraging you to be sure the cons of this area won't get to you like the heat in FL did. For a while the pros outweighed the cons in Denver for me, but in my opinion that is changing as of late. Take in what others' opinions are, just throwing my 2 cents in to give you more data to base a decision on. Have you considered Idaho?


I can't speak much to which area would be the best to grow up for a teen, but of the neighborhoods you mentioned, Highlands Ranch is nice, but $$$$, though it sounds like you are prepared for that. I'm not familiar with southeast Aurora, but I would definitely do my due diligence in Aurora - I get mixed reviews from a lot of people about that neck of the woods. Not familiar with Parker, but Castle Pines and Castle Rock I believe have a reputation of being more conservative just in case that is a factor for you. Highlands Ranch sounds like the nicest of the bunch, just be ready to shell out.

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by klemmaniac

While Denver on paper is great (weather, mountains, city, jobs...), in practice it has become overcrowded and crime and homelessness just seems to be getting worse and worse. Cost of living continues to increase with no stopping in sight as well. I would advise you to spend some more time here to make sure you really want to move here. I know everyone else is, but you might be leaving one thing that you don't like and replacing it with another. If it's possible to stay for an extended period in an AirBnB or something like that, see if the traffic on I-25/I-70 doesn't drive you nuts, make sure the crowds on the trails don't get to you and see how the yearly summer long wildfire smoke smothering the front range might affect you (now's a good time to find out..).

Not trying to be a debbie downer - just giving you the other side of the picture you might not see on a vacation that's become reality out here and encouraging you to be sure the cons of this area won't get to you like the heat in FL did. For a while the pros outweighed the cons in Denver for me, but in my opinion that is changing as of late. Take in what others' opinions are, just throwing my 2 cents in to give you more data to base a decision on. Have you considered Idaho?


I can't speak much to which area would be the best to grow up for a teen, but of the neighborhoods you mentioned, Highlands Ranch is nice, but $$$$, though it sounds like you are prepared for that. I'm not familiar with southeast Aurora, but I would definitely do my due diligence in Aurora - I get mixed reviews from a lot of people about that neck of the woods. Not familiar with Parker, but Castle Pines and Castle Rock I believe have a reputation of being more conservative just in case that is a factor for you. Highlands Ranch sounds like the nicest of the bunch, just be ready to shell out.

Not to be too snarky, but maybe you should take your own advice instead of blindly repeating crap told to you by people who've likely never lived in Aurora or ventured beyond East Colfax. Just sayin'. It's not perfect, but it's also not the dump that many ignorant jackasses try to make it out to be.

We've lived in Southeast Aurora for a decade. It's a very affluent area, and it's significantly more diverse than Douglas County. It's a little cookie cutter, very suburban and further from downtown and the mountains than the west side burbs are. On the flip side the schools are excellent, Aurora Reservoir and Cherry Creek Reservoir are close by, it's a 20-minute drive down E-470 to the airport, and you can get to the Denver Tech Center in 30 mins down Arapahoe Road.

[Lopez9569]

Originally Posted by bluescreen73

Not to be too snarky, but maybe you should take your own advice instead of blindly repeating crap told to you by people who've likely never lived in Aurora or ventured beyond East Colfax. Just sayin'. It's not perfect, but it's also not the dump that many ignorant jackasses try to make it out to be.

We've lived in Southeast Aurora for a decade. It's a very affluent area, and it's significantly more diverse than Douglas County. It's a little cookie cutter, very suburban and further from downtown and the mountains than the west side burbs are. On the flip side the schools are excellent, Aurora Reservoir and Cherry Creek Reservoir are close by, it's a 20-minute drive down E-470 to the airport, and you can get to the Denver Tech Center in 30 mins down Arapahoe Road.

Much agreed! I live in West Central Aurora (80012 - Expo Park) and people like to make it seem worse then it really is. In fact, I think it is much more quiet then many neighborhoods in Denver let alone bigger houses and way bigger lots.

[mettler]

I'd look into Ken Caryl Ranch.. lots of pools and good location.

https://ken-carylranch.org/

[Gorges]

Originally Posted by bluescreen73

....We've lived in Southeast Aurora for a decade. It's a very affluent area, and it's significantly more diverse than Douglas County. It's a little cookie cutter, very suburban and further from downtown and the mountains than the west side burbs are. On the flip side the schools are excellent, Aurora Reservoir and Cherry Creek Reservoir are close by, it's a 20-minute drive down E-470 to the airport, and you can get to the Denver Tech Center in 30 mins down Arapahoe Road.

Definitely check out SE Aurora (80016). We've lived here for 7 years. We're getting ready to leave now because we've overstayed our 4-year job assignment by 3 years, but if we were to return to Denver, it would be to the same area. I like the proximity to the airport, the Park Meadows shopping area, Denver, the Springs, multiple bike paths. rolling hills and beautiful mountain views. Being near several E470 exits makes it easy to get around. A new YMCA just opened and there's a new rec center being built. So many new public schools have been built in the past 20 or so years, and they are still being built.

All the areas you've mentioned are good choices, all are newer suburban. All will have many many trails. Check them out and see what appeals.