Moving to Colorado....

[squidmaster]

Not for weed, first of all. I've been going since I was a child and have fallen in love with the mountains.... Coming from Florida, it's not something we see often....

Anyway, I would like to stay in/around the Denver area. I'm going to open another business (car or food related; I'm a chef by trade and computer engineer by degree), so I'm looking into living somewhere on the cheap (likely renting until I can get my business situated) since I probably won't be home much and won't need much personal space.

I'm thinking Aurora area or a little south of Denver (maybe halfway between ColoSprings). Just looking for some recommendations on not sketchy areas that aren't overpriced because of gentrification and the weed industry.

Looking forward to meeting everyone!
--Jesse

[S14pwrdE30]

Aurora is fine if you stay south of Hampden or close to it. Castle Rock is between Denver and the Springs and is a decent area, but property taxes increase. The housing market here is just about the hottest in the country, so nothing is going to come cheap.

[Griff_]

You may want to look into Westminster. I think it's nice and I always see sweet cars there.

[downforce22]

That is awesome, just beware denver is one of the hottest housing market in the nation.

http://www.zillow.com/blog/hottest-markets-2016-190331/

It depends on what you are coming here for; is it to do things like camping, hiking, skiing, night life, sporting events? Of course with the legalization of weed, you see medical mmj stores on every other street corner so its impossible to avoid altogether but neighborhood choice is important. I didn't like living in denver due to the traffic and construction so I moved an hour south and it is way better for me. I suspect you wouldnt want to live in the middle of downtown and would like a garage. You can find a bunch of neighborhoods that will suit your needs but the question is price and location. How close do you need to be to downtown or a mall or the mountains etc

anyway, goodluck and when you get in join a cruise. There are some bmw facebook groups and local meets so keep an eye out for those!

[hyperE30]

Everything is overpriced here right now as far as homes, gas is cheap!! Alot of areas are getting " a makeover " trying to get rid of the shitty areas.

[squidmaster]

I'm not moving there because of weed, but I am also not looking to avoid it, so that doesn't really bother me if there's a shop around.

I am going because I like the mountain trails (I trail bike a bit, which isn't very interesting in FL to be quite honest), and I like the people, and I like the food, and I like the cities and overall mentality of general kindness-- at least compared to where I live.

Another thing Coloradianites might not appreciate is being able to drink tap water straight out of the faucet. I have to double filter my water here, and it's still bad. It stains everything brown. It's not nice.

Yea, I know the housing market is a bit intense. When I was looking to buy last year everything was about 80k higher than what it should have been. I did find some nice new places out by the airport (the market or something like that) for about 240-300, which is just a little higher than I was looking to spend.

Now I'm really considering just renting until I can get my new business situated.

And no, I'm definitely not looking to live right downtown, but I would like to be able to drive to downtown in less than 45-50 minutes. I had found a few nice places out west of denver in the bear area (bear lake, little bear trail or whatever), and that drive wasn't too bad.

[spdracrm3]

We just moved to Castle Rock last June and like it ,it's seems a bit pricier than other areas and is growing like crazy. We needed a place fast so got a place in a development (read HOA), and finding it not our style after moving from Seattle suburbs so will be looking for something with more acerage once we find an area we like. So yes Castle Rock is a place to look if you like a smaller town but 20min to Denver

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[tschultz]

It seems all areas near Denver are expanding, from Colorado Springs up to Fort Collins.

I-25 is the main corridor and gets pretty busy during rush hour (4-6:30pm) depending how close you are to downtown.

I grew up on the south side of Denver, near Aurora and Centennial and always found myself heading west towards the mountains and/or highways. I live on the north side now, and find that traffic is a bit worse on this side of town. Still I always tend to head west towards I-25 except when I am headed towards the airport. There are fewer routes east/west in this area due to the Platte River, along with more commuter traffic from the Northern towns and suburbs.

E470/Northwest Pkwy is a toll road, but it will save you time if you don't mind spending some money. Just $14 each way for when I was commuting the length of it was too much for me.

As others have mentioned Castle Rock or Longmont are good 'in-between' cities, both growing rapidly.

Close to downtown Denver are a few other areas worth mentioning. Sounds like you might like looking in the Littleton/Golden/Wheatridge/Arvada/Westminster areas. That will keep you closer to the mountains and I70, but maintain proximity to downtown. Highlands ranch is expensive to live in, as is Boulder. Regardless, prices are still going up everywhere. They are slowing of late, but rent is still sky high.

Hope that helps

[Justen]

Rent on a place is ridiculous out here. I know it's been addressed multiple times, but in my home which I purchased for 235k between Aurora and Byers, I can now rent for ~$1900. Even "nice" one bedroom apartments rent for $1k+. If you're trying to rent a house, expect a minimum of ~$1500/month, which is equivalent to buying a $240k house.

Aurora isn't bad, anywhere off of Gun Club Road is nice, south of Hampden.. but there's also Thornton, Broomfield, Arvada, Longmont, Westminster, Lakewood, etc. Tons of places to live, and with anywhere, there are good and bad areas. The further into the "country" you go, the more you'll save for housing costs.

[squidmaster]

My home now is HOA and I'm trying to get away from that... I'm not dirty or loud or anything, but I got a $$$ citation for having too many leaves in my walkway while I was out of town for a week.....

Ah, I'm just nervous about buying a home in a state I've never lived-- where I don't know the areas or anyone. Of course, I could always just rent out my house apparently, so no big deal, right?

Was looking into Castle Rock. Maybe even ColoSprings. I like the "in between" cities. Usually quieter, nicer, and a little less expensive.

[Hansel]

I'd check out west, lakewood/arvada/englewood type areas. West of the expensive downtown areas but not way out east away from everything. Good access to the mountains/trails/hiking/red rocks etc.

I live just west of City Park, cap hill/uptown area. Expensive and no parking, but if you need a room to crash in for a week and check out the surrounding areas, I have 2 extra bedrooms.

GL in your search and welcome to CO!

[jpod999]

My sister moved to Fort Collins a few years ago and loves it there. My wife and I visited her a few months ago and it seemed like a cool town, especially if you like beer. There's been some speak of weed in this thread, let me just say that it's quite enjoyable and I live in the Bay Area.

In the same trip a few months ago we had to run down to CO Springs for work and I really didn't like the town. It wasn't really anything in particular (except for the shitty roads) I just didn't like how it felt compared to Fort Collins.

[S14pwrdE30]

Ft. Collins does keep the small town feel. I lived there for a couple of years, but wouldn't move back. Its a college town and has more of an "old town" feel to it, which some people like but it wasn't for me. It felt outdated, even compared to Loveland which is much smaller. A good in between city up north would be the Longmont/Frederick/Firestone area. I like the Colorado Springs area, but the roads could definitely use some work. Anywhere you go, there will be some BMW people around, though.

[Justen]

Hey brother, dropping you a PM.

[squidmaster]

I'd check out west, lakewood/arvada/englewood type areas. West of the expensive downtown areas but not way out east away from everything. Good access to the mountains/trails/hiking/red rocks etc.

I live just west of City Park, cap hill/uptown area. Expensive and no parking, but if you need a room to crash in for a week and check out the surrounding areas, I have 2 extra bedrooms.

GL in your search and welcome to CO!

Okay! I'm not familiar with those three areas you mentioned, so I'll look into them.

And thank you very much, hopefully everyone can at least get a drink while I'm up there!

My sister moved to Fort Collins a few years ago and loves it there. My wife and I visited her a few months ago and it seemed like a cool town, especially if you like beer. There's been some speak of weed in this thread, let me just say that it's quite enjoyable and I live in the Bay Area.

In the same trip a few months ago we had to run down to CO Springs for work and I really didn't like the town. It wasn't really anything in particular (except for the shitty roads) I just didn't like how it felt compared to Fort Collins.

Colorado Springs seems to have a weird amount of crime, right? I really liked FT Collins, but all I did there was brewery-hop (which I think might become a bad habit for me if I lived there haha).

Ft. Collins does keep the small town feel. I lived there for a couple of years, but wouldn't move back. Its a college town and has more of an "old town" feel to it, which some people like but it wasn't for me. It felt outdated, even compared to Loveland which is much smaller. A good in between city up north would be the Longmont/Frederick/Firestone area. I like the Colorado Springs area, but the roads could definitely use some work. Anywhere you go, there will be some BMW people around, though.

Colorado had some pretty bad roads almost everywhere to be honest, I thought FL had bad roads, but CO was worse somehow. I'll check out those places, thank you!