Thinking about moving out to CO

T

tommymo

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 1, 2016
Location
NJ
Can't take living the hustle and bustle of NJ/NYC life anymore and I am pretty sure my wife is coming along with the idea the more we talk about the possibility of relocating to a suburb of Denver. We are looking for any town with in 20 miles of Denver, the town needs to have great schools and a strong sense of community, right now our focus has been on Superior, Centennial, and Evergreen based on some quick internet searches. If any one has any advice it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Tom
 
Do it, I left NY about a year ago and it was the best decision I've made in my life. CO is definitely the place to go.
 
My wife and I are looking at moving away from Denver as it's getting too busy, guess hustle and bustle is all relative! I live in Thornton (suburb of Denver) and can help answer any questions you have other than schools as we don't have kids yet. Of the 3 towns you listed, Evergreen and Superior would have better "sense of community", as they're not directly connected to Denver. Superior is close to Boulder, so you're on the edge of a very liberal area. Centennial is close to the Denver Tech Center, so depending on what type of jobs you're looking for, this could be a great spot for work. If the "Colorado Dream" (living in the mountains, seeing deer/elk in the neighborhood, etc) is what you're looking for, Evergreen would be the spot based on the 3 options you gave.
 
I teach high school just north of Denver (Westminster). I'm fairly familiar with the school districts in and around the Denver area. FYI, the housing market in Denver is crazy expensive right now. I don't know if that is different from what you have in NJ. If I had to be close to Denver (20 miles or so), I'd live outside a city like Golden, CO.
 
I don't live in Denver but travel there a bunch. I would definitely practice my commute before I bought a house anywhere there. Traffic is something not to be underestimated in and around the metro areas

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Golden is the town I'd live in if I was starting anew. It's where I first lived when I moved here and it is one of the easiest communities to commute from. Light rail, three of the major arteries come together in Golden. Plus it puts you just that much closer to the mountains and it's kind of still a small town feel. I personally wouldn't live in one of the mountain communities unless you can work from home
 
wooduckman said:
My wife and I are looking at moving away from Denver as it's getting too busy, guess hustle and bustle is all relative! I live in Thornton (suburb of Denver) and can help answer any questions you have other than schools as we don't have kids yet. Of the 3 towns you listed, Evergreen and Superior would have better "sense of community", as they're not directly connected to Denver. Superior is close to Boulder, so you're on the edge of a very liberal area. Centennial is close to the Denver Tech Center, so depending on what type of jobs you're looking for, this could be a great spot for work. If the "Colorado Dream" (living in the mountains, seeing deer/elk in the neighborhood, etc) is what you're looking for, Evergreen would be the spot based on the 3 options you gave.
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Hustle and bustle is relative! I avoid Denver like the plague. If I had to drive to Superior or Centennial I would call that "going to Denver". Kind hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. Every second I spend in these areas is hustle and bustle to me. Evergreen is not as connected to Denver and is a nice, quiet little town. It's a haven for hippies, but also a haven for elk. I actually saw a dude hugging a tree there. Anyway.... Plenty of amenities (for foothill folk)....they have the major grocery chains for the area, a Wal-Mart and Home Depot, Starbucks if you like $6 coffee among other things. Evergreen would be a good place to raise kids. You ought to make a trip and see for yourself the drastic difference between Superior/Centennial and Evergreen. I'm a transplant too. Been here about 4 years. Love it!
 
Stay away if you plan on making CO another NY west or CA east. Welcome if you are willing to adjust to CO and become your own person and not drag the crap that screwed up the state you're fleeing from!




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LandYacht said:
Stay away if you plan on making CO another NY west or CA east. Welcome if you are willing to adjust to CO and become your own person and not drag the crap that screwed up the state you're fleeing from!




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I don't believe you were directing this quote at me, but what screwed up the state that I'm from is industry....and transplants. Sad to say. Life there is about a nice house, nice yard, and nice vehicles. The American Dream just became extremely stagnant to me and I wanted to live in the mountains and hunt bigger game for less money and logistics. I've embraced the laid back, conservative lifestyle of the people that mostly inhabit where I live, and refrain from telling everyone about "how it is in Texas". On the other hand, I find Colorado to be becoming insufferably liberal in some parts. I think a lot of that lies in the fact that lots of people want to move here because of a certain idea of the lifestyle coupled with the climate and most people who have the luxury of being able to do that, don't have "real" problems, and plenty of time to manifest liberal ideas. I can't blame anyone for wanting to come here because I did it. You don't have to forget where you came from but like said above, embrace it. But embrace the wilderness, not Boulder! ;)
 
bbrown said:
Nailed it!!!!!!!!Almost ashamed to admit to being born there....
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Like they say in Boulder, "you were born that way". I guess you can't help it. ;) Just kidding. I've done a lot of recreational hiking in the Flat Irons. Ignorance was bliss back then. I was brand new. It was a good workout and a good way to get acclimated on safe trails with lots of people. I have 3 small children and took them all to hike to the Royal Arch recently. Figured it would be a good one for them at the end of Spring before the real snow came. Probably saw 20 dogs on the trail, half of them pit bulls. Odd. I grew up with more pit bulls than I can remember. We used them for catching hogs. Never knew of another animal that loved attacking something like a pit. Are hippies into pits now?
 
I don't know that hippies are into pits but I personally know a few younger DINK families that I would (non-derogatory) label as "hipsters" that are now into pits. I can't speak for Boulder but these couples would fit the bill, dual income, no-kids, lots of trendy attire and nice new crossover and/or hybrid cars. Well versed in wine, coffee and love organic anything.... they're great people and although we're vastily different on some ends of the spectrum we share some of the same ideologies on things like where our food comes from..... but I do question their choice in K9's. None-the-less it's become a trendy thing in this crowd to own a pure pit.
 
Home prices for older homes in the west suburbs would range from $350,000-$450,000 depending on upgrades. Thats for a 2200 sq.ft. ranch 2car garage with yard no hoa.

Schools are like anywhere, you can find a bad school in a good district. Jeffco schools and Douglas county schools are generally average at worst. Can't say much about other districts since those two are where me and relatives have recent experience.

I get to Evergreen often for work in the last decade. You need to consider where you work and flexibility to work from home due to weather. Major roads get plowed well and major subdivisions have private plowing ( hiwan, bergen park, troutdale) If you get way west of evergreen its remote with very little road maintenance, some back roads are best suited for rock crawling. Ice and fog is what is likely to keep you from getting out. North evergreen is mostly conservative with a lot of former military. Get closer to kittridge and its a little hippy but alot of them fish and are ok with ethical hunting. Elk are abundant around evergreen but extremely little public land to hunt. My favorite neighborhood there is across the street from the high school. Its a flat meadow with modest homes, good yards. Just west from there is a couple open space parks. Day use only but great place to train, or just hike. I think some connect to n.f.

If looking into Littleton keep in mind the actual town is central and south of denver. The entire s.w. corner of the metro is considered Littleton by mail but is actually unincorporated Jefferson county. (80127,80128). So that should be considered if researching. Taxes are generally lower there.

Centennial is a nice town but you have to get through Denver to the mountains, my opinion is live west of Denver.

Traffic is bad for two reasons, one not enough roads for the population, only one major road cuts all the way across east to west. Any highways get congested from that. Try to live and work where you don't need to take a highway, or Arapahoe road.

Parker at least rural parker is laid back.

Elizabeth is a quite small prairie town. Every other home has an archery target in the yard. That county is relatively poor because of tax revenue. Volunteering is almost mandatory for school stuff, but that can be a good thing. County maintenance, emergency response suffers from lack of revenue. That area won't have the luxuries of a city like highspeed internet, solid cell service. Hopefully that isn't a must for your line of work.

Feel free to pick my brain anytime.
 
Boulder is 10 sq miles surrounded by reality
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That right there is funny and soooo true! I agree with the others that Golden is a good place to consider. My last trip to Golden illustrated in the photo below. :)
MuleDeerCo03Troy1_zpsrevywk5u.jpg
 
I don't do enough hanging out in the Denver area to know all the ends and outs but if I were going to pick a spot east of Evergreen to live, it would be in the Golden/Lakewood/Littleton area. After that, Arvada/Westminster/Superior. We have friends that live in Castle Rock that we go visit from time to time. There's a little separation between Denver and Castle Rock. Traffic between there and Denver can be pretty busted sometimes. They really like it there but it's typical suburbia. As for Denver and schools, everyone talks about Cherry Creek having the best schools but that's been hearsay.

When I came out here, I came alone while my wife stayed back to sell the house in TX. I lived in a co-workers basement in Lakewood. It was a decent area, close to Colorado Mills. I started looking at houses starting there, to Highlands Ranch and was eventually drawn to the foothills, then to the mountains. House prices and taxes got better the farther west I went but work was in Denver so I couldn't go too far out. I ended up in Park County, and I really like it here. My house is at 9000 feet elevation. This place reminds me of Narnia. I no longer have to work in Denver and hopefully I can continue to move further west.
 
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