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Old 02-14-2009, 01:43 AM
 
Location: San Francisco
62 posts, read 250,060 times
Reputation: 43

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I just made this same decision myself - Centennial or Highlands Ranch - during my early January house hunt (you can check my earlier thread on this for more detail). Centennial was closer to work for me, too, and I preferred the area overall for the reasons fomercalifornian mentioned - more established neighborhoods, mainly - but settled on Highlands Ranch because I could get what seemed like a much better house for the money.

I don't have kids, but I did care about the schools all the same, and it seems to me that Cherry Creek School District is the "premium" district, but that Littleton and Douglas County schools (which you would get in western Centennial and Highlands Ranch, respectively) are also excellent school districts. You really can't go wrong in this area. I wasn't willing to pay the Cherry Creek Schools premium in the end, but your experience may well differ.
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Old 02-14-2009, 06:45 AM
 
Location: Centennial, CO
156 posts, read 717,858 times
Reputation: 74
We recently relocated to Denver and had been looking at homes in the Douglas County School District, specifically Highlands Ranch. We could not find anything that met our needs in the $350 range...we found a few more options in Parker. But then we decided on the Cherry Creek school district, and have find quite a few homes in the southeast Aurora area (the only part of the CCSD we can afford :lol ), and you seem to get a LOT more for your money in that area vs. Highlands Ranch OR Parker. We are finding newer (less than 10 years old) homes with 2500+ sf, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths and 3 car garage in the $350K +/- range. We couldn't even get CLOSE to that in Highlands Ranch.
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Old 02-14-2009, 07:29 AM
 
97 posts, read 266,299 times
Reputation: 202
Sheridan, you are correct, you can get nicer, larger homes in SE Aurora for less than Highlands Ranch or Parker. They are mostly new, some of them quite nice, especially around the Southlands Mall (off Smoky Hill Rd and E470). That area is also part of CCSD and the school facilities are new. Both Highlands Ranch and Parker are excellent choices. Parker is a nice historic town that has seen enormous suburban growth. HR is a large master planned community that is approaching buildout. HR is more expensive than Parker or SE Aurora because of its more central location to Metro Denver. This is why Centennial is more expensive than HR, and Greenwood villiage is more than Centennial and Cherry Hills villiage is most expensive.

Good luck with your search. BTW, CCSD, DCSD and Littleton are all good. We are very fortunatey to have a plethora of quality schools in the south metro region.
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Old 02-14-2009, 12:46 PM
 
2 posts, read 7,722 times
Reputation: 18
highlands ranch is the best city on earth!
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Old 02-14-2009, 02:31 PM
 
11,715 posts, read 40,451,929 times
Reputation: 7586
Quote:
Originally Posted by HighlandsRanchUrbanite View Post
highlands ranch is the best city on earth!
Its not even a city.
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Old 02-15-2009, 12:08 AM
 
1,176 posts, read 4,483,117 times
Reputation: 470
Quote:
My observation was that Denver public schools were not consistently great in the areas we could afford to live in.
Incorrect.

As to the original question, Macdonalds or Burger King? Either way both areas have and will continue to take big hits in value during the current depression. Are you a Moderator cut: don't be rude please American (most folks in general, almost everyone in your two areas) who thinks that driving for a gallon of milk or living in the middle of nowhere yet right next to your neighbor in a clapped together timber piece of **** is normal? Do you want to live in strip mall hell where variety is the vietnamese resteraunt staffed by highschool kids? Move to these areas. Seriously, for so many reasons, hell on earth, or at least reality for [mod cut] who simply will never know any better.

There are good schools in every district, and bad schools in every district.

I'm honestly surprised to see an urban Seattlite sell out so easily; you are coming from a city with much stronger property values, you can get 1.5X what you have in Seattle for the same money.

There are plenty of areas in Denver that represent Ballard and have great schools too. Washington Park comes to mind first, Mayfair, South Park Hill, Stapleton ..... you lose some of the greatness that is Ballard in terms of resteraunts but you don't sell your soul down the river into exurban stupidity....

Last edited by katzenfreund; 02-15-2009 at 11:07 AM..
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Old 02-15-2009, 01:07 PM
 
5,747 posts, read 12,053,234 times
Reputation: 4512
You make a good point, McZabe. My 30-year-old Centennial neighborhood is full of cookie-cutter houses, but the passing of several decades has provided time for owners to differentiate them through landscaping & renovations. I imagine it looked just like the newer sections of Highlands Ranch when it was built, and attracted similar derogatory comments.

Mike from back east once made mention in a long-ago thread that a lot of the historic east coast rowhouses that now garner such a passionate following were also cookie-cutter in their time, as were Sears bungalows and Chicago brownstones. So, let's all cut Highlands Ranch a break, shall we?
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Old 02-15-2009, 03:45 PM
 
541 posts, read 1,224,793 times
Reputation: 548
Quote:
Originally Posted by steveindenver View Post
There are plenty of areas in Denver that represent Ballard and have great schools too. Washington Park comes to mind first, Mayfair, South Park Hill, Stapleton ..... you lose some of the greatness that is Ballard in terms of resteraunts but you don't sell your soul down the river into exurban stupidity....
Not really. Only if you have piles of money sitting around. The neighborhoods of which you speak are bought up by very affluent individuals and are essentially enclaves in the city for the very wealthy. Outside of these areas, you run into some pretty terrible schools. I've seen many a home in the metro Denver area and thought "Wow!", only to find the school district has about a 20% truency rate and scores a whopping 1 or 2 on GreatSchools. You visit, and kids aren't speaking in English and on occasion, you see a fight in the older grades.

So you have the convenience of walking to your grocery store and at the same time forcing multiple, mutliple kids in one bedroom in one of your said neighborhoods. Or you can buy in the suburbs, live your life, give your kids privacy, have great schools, and get out to the mountains and enjoy nature, which is why you came to Colorado in the first place.

I couldn't care less about driving to the grocery store. Even where I live in a very walkable area at the moment, most people still drive for groceries because they weigh a lot. Sorry, I don't put a big premium on inefficiently running to the market to only pick up milk.

Great ethnic restaurants are nice, true. But I'd consider myself pretty freaking selfish to put my kids in a lousy school or to force them into crimped environments to suit my selfish whims. I'll just get into the city when I can.

The suburbs were built to fill a need. They do it. They're not perfect, but some obviously find the arrangement superior to what the city offers. Hey, curse all you want. I'm all for personal expression. Just don't expect me to agree with you, and don't expect someone else not to curse right back.

Last edited by CMartel2; 02-15-2009 at 04:13 PM..
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Old 02-15-2009, 03:52 PM
 
5,747 posts, read 12,053,234 times
Reputation: 4512
I don't think Highlands Ranch and Centennial qualify as exurbs. Suburbs, yes, but not exurbs.
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Old 02-16-2009, 05:19 AM
 
Location: Arvada, CO
13,827 posts, read 29,939,634 times
Reputation: 14429
Quote:
Originally Posted by CMartel2 View Post
You visit, and kids aren't speaking in English and on occasion, you see a fight in the older grades.
Because kids not speaking English would be the most terrible thing for your/my/their kids to hear, right?

How many times have you visited schools and seen a fight break out? That's crazy luck if it has happened more than once.
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