Young couple moving from AZ to CO need help!! (Denver: low crime, houses)

[soontobecolorodians]

First off thank you for taking the time to even consider helping us out. My boyfriend and I are making a huge leap and moving to Colorado and couldn't be more excited! I recently got accepted into nursing school in "LoDo" while he will be continuing his career as a biologist just North of Denver. Denver is completely foreign to both of us however we are looking to have the convenience of living near the city life while still being able to relax and enjoy the wonderful scenery Colorado has to offer. We both love to wine and dine occassionally but also don't mind visiting a local hole in the wall type bar, blues shows, fishing, snowboarding, you name it. We would like to be near the highways or conveniently located near some sort of public transportation as we are both commuting to different locations daily. Long story short we are planning to visit the denver area in a few weeks to hunt for a place to live and was curious if you could give us any feedback on the following towns/cities:
-Edgewater
-Wheat Ridge
-Lakewood
-Lakeside
-Englewood
-Mountain View
-Westminister
-Littleton
(or if you have any suggestions that's awesome too)

Moving to a completely foreign place can be very overwhelming and we truly appreciate any guidance you could provide. Thanks again!

[tfox]

Most of these have been discussed pretty thoroughly in other threads, so I encourage you to do a search.

Lakeside, Mountain View, and Edgewater are all pretty tiny little municipalities between Denver and Wheat Ridge. Lakeside actually only has about a dozen people living in the "town." There is some interest in all those, as well as the eastern part of Wheat Ridge, due to proximity to gentrifying areas of Denver, but this is fairly recent; before too long ago all those areas were tagged with the "inner suburb" notoriety and pretty much avoided; now, they are becoming more popular, a relatively affordable alternative to the Northwest Denver neighborhoods across Sheridan that are currently among the most trendy and popular in the city.

Littleton has always been a very desirable older suburb (actually it's more of a small town that got swallowed by suburban sprawl) -- and it's one of the nicer suburbs, though most of south Jefferson County has a Littleton address without being Littleton.

Lakewood is quite large and is a mix of some very nice suburban areas and some older areas of blight; the same thing can actually be said of Westminster. Both, on the whole, are fairly desirable, especially in their western portions closer to the mountains.

[Katarina Witt]

Where north of Denver will your bf be working? The north area stretches quite a ways from east to west.

[soontobecolorodians]

Hi there my boyfriend will be working in Broomfield.

[soontobecolorodians]

Originally Posted by tfox

Most of these have been discussed pretty thoroughly in other threads, so I encourage you to do a search.

Lakeside, Mountain View, and Edgewater are all pretty tiny little municipalities between Denver and Wheat Ridge. Lakeside actually only has about a dozen people living in the "town." There is some interest in all those, as well as the eastern part of Wheat Ridge, due to proximity to gentrifying areas of Denver, but this is fairly recent; before too long ago all those areas were tagged with the "inner suburb" notoriety and pretty much avoided; now, they are becoming more popular, a relatively affordable alternative to the Northwest Denver neighborhoods across Sheridan that are currently among the most trendy and popular in the city.

Littleton has always been a very desirable older suburb (actually it's more of a small town that got swallowed by suburban sprawl) -- and it's one of the nicer suburbs, though most of south Jefferson County has a Littleton address without being Littleton.

Lakewood is quite large and is a mix of some very nice suburban areas and some older areas of blight; the same thing can actually be said of Westminster. Both, on the whole, are fairly desirable, especially in their western portions closer to the mountains.

I soon realized that many people are in the same position we are so I have resorted to looking at the resources and advice provided by this site. Thank you for taking the time to clarify that some of the cities mentioned are actually micro-towns. Like I said previously I am clueless about Denver so that helps. take care

[Katarina Witt]

You might look at Broomfield. At least one of you will have a short commute that way. BF can come home and cook dinner, LOL! You can get downtown on public transit from Broomfield. Which nursing school will you be going to?

[mkdude_08]

How is Broomfield? I'm considering a move to the Denver area for a job in Boulder and Broomfield seems like a nice spot in-between the two cities. Housing costs seem reasonable and the area seems relatively nice (e.g., decent houses, low crime, etc.). Is this accurate?

[Katarina Witt]

I like Broomfield and if I didn't live in Louisville I might live there. It's on the northern edge of the metro area and I like that. Some people like the urban feeling of the closer in suburbs, but I don't. It has no real downtown, but it has a lot of community spirit. It has a wonderful library (better than Louisville's, IMO), a fabulous rec center, a small water park, and many other amenities.

[mkdude_08]

That's exactly what I'm looking for - a small, quiet community to live and within reasonable driving distance for things to do (dinner, movies. etc.) and work.