Move from SF Bay Area to Denver? (Lakewood, Highlands Ranch: real estate, daycares)

[buggyssocute]

I would really appreciate your advice. My husband and I and brand new baby live in the bay area. I think this place is overrated. Everything is too expensive here, everyones in debt over their heads, homes are way too expensive, the city is dirty and there are so many weirdos. Im so bored of this place. We are in our early 30's, and just want a better life for the little guy, and a place for us to live where people are nice and friendly, and where we can own a beautiful spacious home without having to live in a boring town so far from your work you spend most of your time commuting (I hate to drive) but i dont like living in SF - so many weirdos. Diversity is great and all, but I guess there is just too much of it here for me. I have worked in high-tech/ procurement as well as investment banking, and my husband is in pension funds so we would be looking for work in these areas - how is the job market? We both have college degrees, i in business & econ, and my husband in polisci from berkeley.

Some of my questions are:
Is life better in Denver than SF? (i know this is subjective, but just tell me your thoughts).
Do you know your neighbors?
Would people dislike us because we came from california?
Would my son be able to go to a daycare that is safe? (here it seems there are child abusers everywhere - look at meganslaw.com, its terrifying)
Is the lifestyle generaly healthy? (Northern california is not, i dont care what anyone says, everyone i see is very unhealthy, gamblers, drug addicts, a lot of alcoholics, its just soo negative and self destructive. The men are all scrawny and metro, the women are obsessed about their highlights and their shoes and dressing half naked)
What are the state taxes?
what about education? schools from k-12, what are they rated?
Ideally i would like to buy a nice home with big yard (3+brdm) for < $350,000 maybe near a lake, a kids park, good daycare and best schools, can you recommend a neighborhood? fyi, My husband loves to ski and i love to go horseback riding, here its too expensive.

Please help - desperate for a change!
Thanks so much for your time.

[Kibbiekat]

I moved to the south Denver suburbs from Fresno, CA. This area reminds me of the east bay, kind of. There is a lot to do here even if you are not outdoorsey. There are a ton of museums and places to take kids. I hear native Coloradoans hate Californians but where I live in Highlands Ranch, I meet far more people who have come here from out of state than I meet natives. I don't know how friendly people are here compared to anyplace else. I guess it depends on your personality and how you put yourself out there. Although, our first week here at least 5 neighbors stopped by to welcome us. That never happened in my 2 previous Fresno neighborhoods. Like I said, this area reminds me of the east bay. If you don't like it there, you might not like it here either. But, your could have the same lifestyle here for a lot less money than Walnut Creek. If it is the city of SF you don't care for, Denver seems a lot less crowded to me. Traffic is not as bad. This is a very healthy place. CO has one of the lowest obesity rates in the country. Possibly the lowest. You will find all types of people here (keeping in mind a lot of them came from CA, and might be what you are trying to escape). It depends on where you live and hang out I guess. Go to Park Meadows Mall, and you'll see a lot of people obsessed with highlights and shoes. I hardly go there, personally. Go to Target or the Castle Rock Outlets you'll probably see people less obsessed with their appearance. I'm sure the daycares here are as safe as anywhere. I noticed there are a lot of Kindercares and not a lot of other options. So, the Denver area would probably be a change for you in some ways, and not so much in other ways.

[buggyssocute]

Thanks for your feedback. I like the area, i just don't like the people. My cousin used to live in highlands ranch and she looooved it! around how much is a home there? I like the outdoors, i like the mountains... here you have to drive hours to be anywhere pretty like monterrey or tahoe or santa cruz. Does it really look like the east bay though? everything out here was built in the 70's, its horrible - or its all brand new and looks the same as every other city: costco, starbucks, mcdonalds, best buy.... ugh

[zman0457]

WOW! different strokes! $$ for value would be the only reason I'm not moving my family to the Bay Area. Personally I'm far from conservative which you didn't state, but seems implicit from your remarks.

I find Denver to be a mix of progressive and traditional America.

[Kibbiekat]

Highlands Ranch is almost all newer homes. The oldest are about 25 years old. It is adjacent to Littleton and Centennial, though, and those areas seem to be a lot of homes from the 70's. A lot of the nearby shopping is in Lone Tree at I25 and C470. That area and the shopping in HR is a lot of chain and big box stores. Downtown Littleton has a cute mom and pop shopping district. Aspen Grove is in Littleton, and has some of the more upscale chain stores. HR and all or most of the Denver area has some great views of the mountains. In under an hour you could be in a quaint mountain town off I70. HR has a lot of trails for walking and biking with great views. The HR area itself is what I would call "high plains". It is rather dry right now. Landscaped areas are green, but there is a lot of dry grass and rolling hills. I think you mentioned a price range in the $400,000 for a home. You could probably get 2500 sf on a smallish lot for that (I'm making an educated guess. Check a real estate web site). HR is mostly small lots, but not entirely. We have a 2000 sf home on a 8000 sf lot that is worth about $300,000. Coming from the bay area, this might not seem like a huge change or a step up to you. But coming from Fresno, this place is wonderful!

[UTorCO?]

Originally Posted by buggyssocute

Does it really look like the east bay though? everything out here was built in the 70's, its horrible - or its all brand new and looks the same as every other city: costco, starbucks, mcdonalds, best buy.... ugh

We were just out in CO last month and my comment to my husband was "was this entire metro area built in 1968??" So from my perspective (don't live there, just visiting to look at areas as we might be moving there) there are some gorgeous historic areas downtown Denver, and a few other places scattered about but the overriding impression to me was yes, the overarching architecture is not attractive and seems to be from the 60s/70s. Or brand new (there are some very nice brand new areas, and some major cookie cutter areas. In fact it seemed like some entire towns were cookie cutter).

I know people love Highland Ranch but if you're saying "yuk" to all brand new and looking the same as every other city...well....that's Highland Ranch.

All that said, I think downtown Denver looks great, as do some outlying areas. And all the things it has going for it outweigh the look of the housing.

But...I LOVE the SF area. Used to live there and would move back in a heartbeat if it were an option. I found people to be friendly, healthy, and no more nutjobs than anywhere else in the country. No one I knew was materialistic (except maybe about camping gear...). Certainly not "mall types." All depends on the friends you make and that's probably as true in Denver as SF area as anywhere else...

[Kibbiekat]

Originally Posted by UTorCO?

We were just out in CO last month and my comment to my husband was "was this entire metro area built in 1968??" So from my perspective (don't live there, just visiting to look at areas as we might be moving there) there are some gorgeous historic areas downtown Denver, and a few other places scattered about but the overriding impression to me was yes, the overarching architecture is not attractive and seems to be from the 60s/70s. Or brand new (there are some very nice brand new areas, and some major cookie cutter areas. In fact it seemed like some entire towns were cookie cutter).

I know people love Highland Ranch but if you're saying "yuk" to all brand new and looking the same as every other city...well....that's Highland Ranch.

All that said, I think downtown Denver looks great, as do some outlying areas. And all the things it has going for it outweigh the look of the housing.

But...I LOVE the SF area. Used to live there and would move back in a heartbeat if it were an option. I found people to be friendly, healthy, and no more nutjobs than anywhere else in the country. No one I knew was materialistic (except maybe about camping gear...). Certainly not "mall types." All depends on the friends you make and that's probably as true in Denver as SF area as anywhere else...

Centennial was only incorporated as a city a few years ago. It is entirely 1970's-ish suburbs. There are a lot of cookie cutter tract homes of all ages. I found the more traditional style of the houses a refreshing change from the Spanish and Mediterranean stucco style of CA. That's just me though.

[2bindenver]

Don't forget our houses have basements!

HR runs from $200,000-more than a million for homes 27 years old to brand new.

There are some under $200 - but they need serious work.

You might be just as happy in Littleton, Lakewood, Auora, Denver, Broomfield...

What about work? Where will that be?

[2bindenver]

Originally Posted by rkb0305

Centennial was only incorporated as a city a few years ago. It is entirely 1970's-ish suburbs. There are a lot of cookie cutter tract homes of all ages. I found the more traditional style of the houses a refreshing change from the Spanish and Mediterranean stucco style of CA. That's just me though.

I wouldn't say entirely. Centennial became a city in early 2001. Lots of brick 1970's ranches, some newer subdivisions - from Walnut Creek in the 1980's to Arapahoe at the Farm this century - there is the new Southglen redevelopment - about 105,000 residents call Centennial "home."

[Katarina Witt]

I think the late 60s/early 70s was a time of rapid growth here; that's why there are so many houses from that era, especially in the closer-in suburbs.