Fort Collins/Loveland Residents (Derby, Berthoud: real estate, apartment, lease)

[Mike Laughlin]

My wife and I are moving to the Fort Collins/Loveland area in two years from Seattle. We have driven all over this area looking at different neighborhoods but have not made up our mind as to where we feel we should focus a serious house search when we do make our move. We do have contact with an agent, but for right now we would like to hear from residents who already live in these two areas.

My question is this; what part of town and in what neighborhood do you live in and what is it about your neighborhood that you like (or don't like)? My other question and which could be more valuable is if you had the money to move anywhere else in the Fort Collins/Loveland area where else would you move to and why? Please be specific with a neighborhood name (and/or intersection)as I do have a detailed area map and am already familiar with the geographical area in general (such as major E/W, N/S streets).

At this point I think we are leaning towards Loveland because it seemed less congested when we were driving around, especially on the west end. We do like the older,more established neighborhoods in Fort Collins and especially the Old Town area , but don't want to be around college kids and the noise they might be making. We won't be working so a commute is not a factor. I think overall we like the west end (west of the interstate), but are still open if anyone had another area they liked. We saw lots of homes in the $225,000 to $300,000 which we can easily afford. We could pay more if the neighborhood was something we really liked, but don't really want to as we don't need anything bigger than a 3 bedroom home. We are wide open to suggestions and is why we would like to hear from residents who already live here and could give us specific locality suggestions to think about for our next visit.

[StealthRabbit]

What are your future interests that you might want to be close to? Do you desire rural spot? Do you want good soil for gardening

sports, swimming, club activities, parks, golf, theater, schools (continuing ed), library, hiking, medical, shopping, groceries, farmers market, coffee shop ?

I am thinking it is potentially a good idea to be CLOSE enough to walk or ride a bike to local activities. I will be looking for 'non-suburbia' sites myself. Older, walkable neighborhoods, close to indoor swimming, and adult ed classes + library. & 1 hr max to an international airport and on a shortcut route to Wyoming (Snowy Range is one of my favorite recreation sites). - this is just my 'short' list. I just got back to WA from a house / location shopping trip to FC / Lvld. I spent my first 25 yrs there (Loveland / Masonville / Estes), and hopefully some of my last 50 yrs there again. It has changed a lot, but the older areas have not changed much, and you are 'isolated' from most of the pitfalls of 'sprawl'. My preference is in Loveland - south of Lake Loveland and between Garfield and Taft, north of 4th st. I had 3 homes in that area, and one each in Northeast, southeast, + rural sites to the west. I visited friends on the far south (Derby Hill) West and North, but we were always having to get in the car to go somewhere. That's no fun. Downtown, westside could use a grocery store... like Milligan's (circa 1970)

I would like to find someone in Loveland with a Guesthouse and parking spot for a small car and a motorcycle (or apartment over their garage,or daylight basement) that would like to long-term rent or consider a 'fractional ownership') I'm thinking SMALL for low taxes, maint, heat, repairs. I will only be there a few months of the year and traveling / living internationally much of the time.

[Mike Laughlin]

To answer your question....we don't need to be within walking (or biking) distance of any amenity or service. Close into a city has its advantages for sure and being "in the country" can be good too as long as it is not too isolated from people. What we want is an in-city location preferably in an established area (older, well kept homes, mature trees....price of homes in the $300-$350,000 range; $400,000 at the very most). We are hoping that some FC/Loveland folks would have some ideas for us to check out, perhaps tooting their horn for their own neighborhood or another that they would love to move to if they had the money. Our preferences right now are based on living in Seattle in an older home (2000 square feet) with lots of character and having tall mature trees in yard and lining the street. I do see a lack of trees in FC, perhaps because of the altitude. We defintely do not like the new construction developments where it is flat and treeless. But if there was new construction in an area of rolling hills with mature trees that would definitely be worth checking out. We just don't know where to look for that, but hoping that a reader here will and give us some areas to check out for the next time we are in town.

[golfgod]

We just moved to Loveland a few months ago, liked it more that FC for the reasons you mentioned. We're on the west side, near 37th, between Taft and Wilson. I can walk to the golf course, Benson Scupture park and the lake. I sometimes bike to the grocery (small pick up) and the post office.

There's a neighborhood next to us, Caddoa/Florida and others that skirt the golf course on the east. Not sure of the prices. Also just east of Wilson on the north side of the golf course is a very nice neighborhood. Some of the houses are $500K and up but I've seen some in there in tehe $300K range.

golfgod

[bproven]

I personally prefer Fort Collins over Loveland. More bike trails around neighborhoods and more mature neighborhoods with the landscaping you are looking for (mature trees, etc). Much easier to get around FC on a bike than Loveland in my experience. Loveland seems more Anytown USA and Fort Collins is a much more unique city with "vibe" to it (if you stay north of Drake).

I'll try to post later on areas to consider, but from what I can tell, you want to focus on anything north of Prospect, south of Laporte, west of Lemay and probably east of Shields. There are also some older 50s neighborhoods north of Drake, south of Prospect, west of Lemay and east of College (within those boundaries). Names of some of these are South College Heights, Indian Hills. Also some nice 50s/early 60s areas right around Poudre Valley hospital (University Acres, Highlander Heights, etc).

I found this nice page (kind of old, but somewhat useful) that mentions most of the major neighborhoods in FC when I first moved here 2 years ago. It makes for an OK guide:

http://www.tanderson.com/fortcollins-neighborhoods.htm (yeah it is some realtor's page)

Your best bet is to either spend some time in FC (a few weeks at least) driving around the city to get a feel for the area AND/OR moving here and renting for a 6 months to a year. The latter is probably the best way, but not everyone is willing to do that. However, this is what I did to learn FC before committing to a house.

[Mike Laughlin]

Thanks for those of you who gave some neighborhood names and areas of the city to check out. It is most helpful. If you have more I am all ears! I agree that it is best that we rent and spend time looking first. I wish we didn't have to do a 6 or 12 month lease though in the event that we find the house we want quickly. We're hoping for a month to month lease, but that may not be possible.

[cafegirl21]

I recently moved from the Centerra area of Loveland. VERY nice. Lots of amenities in my opinion. A nice mixture of families, retired folks, young professionals. The neighborhood I moved from is called High Plains Village near the intersection of Hwy. 34 and Boyd Lake Ave. There are some very lovely homes (anywhere from 2 - 6 years old) in the $250,000-$300,000 price range. There are several websites that have information about the Centerra neighborhood. I'll try to post the names of several websites in another post. Welcome to Colorado.
PS: the reason I'm leaving is to relocate to Seattle or Portland

[cafegirl21]

Here are a few websites I mentioned in my last post. Hope this helps.
www.centerracolorado.com
www.ask4doug.com
www.promenadeshopsatcenterra.com
www.cityofloveland.org

[Mike Laughlin]

If anyone is moving to Seattle and wants questions answered, let me know. I previously worked in real estate (12 years) here so I do know neighborhoods, prices, etc.....anything you want to know about the area. This is not a solicitation for your business as I am no longer working with clients. I retired as is my wife. We're moving to Fort Collins in a couple years.

[mrgoodwx]

Mike...my wife and I recently spent some time looking around the Loveland-Fort Collins area, as we are contemplating a move from New Mexico (we're also retired). As much as we liked Fort Collins, Loveland seemed more tranquil to us, especially over on the southwest edge of town. Then, we decided to look around Berthoud a bit, and actually looked at some really neat 75 to 100 year old homes that were priced under $300k. We'll probably go back and check out the entire area again, but...from what you've posted, you may want to at least give the older neighborhoods in Berthoud a "look." Good luck!