Best place to live Colorado

[Warren1726]

All,
Other than the military, I’ve lived in Kentucky my whole life (39 yo). My family of wife and 2 kids (9 boy) (5 girl) recently went to Denver and hiked in RMNP, Red Rocks and had a great time. I’ve been a few other times. We are seriously contemplating a move there. I don’t think we can afford the house we would need in Denver. What towns should we look into most? I’ve been looking at Aurora, Longmont, Greeley to name a few. Need access to Denver airport within ~an hour. Would like good schools. Obviously, hunting, fishing, I kayak fish and Mountain Bike. Any opinions are appreciated.

 

[Clarkdale17]

Might want to look into either Lochbuie or Elizabeth as well

 

[burlap]

Texas. Please. No more.

 

[cnelk]

Idaho

 

[Tahoe1305]

Castle rock south. Golden west. Awesome places. Still fairly pricey though.

 

[All American Boy]

Been in Colorado 25+ years and it has gone to sh*t. The Front Range area has way too many people. The major corridor for the mountains is I70, and it is a parking lot in winter (skiing) and summer (campers). Definitely no to Aurora, that is a cesspool.

Get as far away from the Metro area as possible. Northern Colorado is slightly better. Outside of Colorado Springs is slightly better.

 

[Vandy321]

Sounds like you have to live near a major airport? I do as well, if I didn't, I would not live anywhere near Denver... unless you just really enjoy sitting in traffic for 4 hours coming home from the woods, or standing in line at Deckers to throw flys at trout

You'll be much happier in C-Springs unless you need downtown Denver for some reason.

 

[brsnow]

I like Denver and the front range. All the hobbies you listed I do constantly. Great place to raise a family as well. You will hear a lot of negativity about Denver/CO but there are also a lot of miserable people theses days.

 

[ramsdude47]

I would echo the best places are most definitely over an hour away from DIA.

With that requirement I would look W/SW of the city: Lakewood, Littleton, Morrison. NW towards Boulder would be good too, but probably pricier/snootier.

 

[Nickofthewoods]

Greeley might technically be an hour to DIA, but with traffic it will be much more, if that is a big deal to you. Same with Longmont. Aurora will be closer, but it's...Aurora. I'll second Golden/Arvada area but now your back on par with Denver home prices.

 

[John pettimore]

Following this post closely, I just “moved” to Denver. Trying now to find a place to park my camper to live in until I get my house sold and can find somewhere here to buy. I don’t want, nor can afford the city so my requirements are almost identical to yours.

 

[Phaseolus]

Grand Junction has an airport, it is a little more expensive to fly into and out of. I would not live in the Front Range for anything. I grew up just outside Fort Collins but have been on the Best Slope for 33 years.

 

[HighDesertSage]

I would not consider CO a good place to live anymore. We left after 9 years and never looked back.

If you want good schools, you'll pay a premium for housing. Also accessing the mountains on a Friday afternoon can be rough. If 500K for a house fits your budget comfortably I would look at Littleton for good schools and access to the mountain. 285 is slightly less of a CF heading west.

Longmont might not be to bad. Aurora sucks.

 

[William Sublette]

You and eleventy billion other people.



CO is full.


Have you looked at Belize?

 

[Jbehredt]

I like Denver and the front range. All the hobbies you listed I do constantly. Great place to raise a family as well. You will hear a lot of negativity about Denver/CO but there are also a lot of miserable people theses days.

I like to quip when I’m sitting on 70 that “we’re so blessed to live so close to the most scenic parking lot in the world”

 

[brsnow]

I like to quip when I’m sitting on 70 that “we’re so blessed to live so close to the most scenic parking lot in the world”

Depends when you leave for sure, we are early morning people, so getting the kids to ski school or heading up last week to scout for example we typically don’t hit traffic. You are right though if you do get stuck in traffic the views are great

 

[HornPorn]

Stay away from Denver unless you are a leftwing liberal snowflake and need the security of being surrounded by like minds.

 

[30338]

Denver proper is a crap hole. I live southeast of Denver and 1 hour from DIA. Not really close to mountains or stuff you are looking for. Maybe check out Woodland Park.

 

[brsnow]

Stay away from Denver unless you are a leftwing liberal snowflake and need the security of being surrounded by like minds.

Sounds like you need the security of being around like minds.

 

[Eagle]

All,
Other than the military, I’ve lived in Kentucky my whole life (39 yo). My family of wife and 2 kids (9 boy) (5 girl) recently went to Denver and hiked in RMNP, Red Rocks and had a great time. I’ve been a few other times. We are seriously contemplating a move there. I don’t think we can afford the house we would need in Denver. What towns should we look into most? I’ve been looking at Aurora, Longmont, Greeley to name a few. Need access to Denver airport within ~an hour. Would like good schools. Obviously, hunting, fishing, I kayak fish and Mountain Bike. Any opinions are appreciated.

Here’s some advice from a fellow Kentuckian who just spent the last 2.5 years living south of Denver in Castle Rock. We just moved back to KY this summer. Moved for a job that after two years would allow me to work from home full time, and had the wife not missed her family like crazy, we might still be there, but the flexibility allowed us to move back. I loved it out there, but it’s not the CO of 10, or even 5 years ago. People are EVERYWHERE, you just can’t seem to get away from the crowds anymore. Pollution along the front range is starting to get seriously bad, inverted smog during the winter is the new normal. Housing has gone nuts, even in Castle Rock, our home increased 100k over the 2.5 years we were there.

Probably the biggest thing, for me at least, living along the front range makes getting into the mountains for a quick hunting trip impossible. I never knew how much I missed my quick squirrel/rabbit and even deer hunts where I could just drive out and go. Those types of hunts aren’t possible if you live within an hour of DIA unless you settle in somewhere like Franktown or Elizabeth, but then your even further from the mountains.
If you guys love KY, I’d just keep the Rockies as a vacation destination, until you don’t need to live an hour from an airport. Once that requirement is off the table, the whole west opens up, and places like Pinedale, WY and Red Lodge, MT become incredible options.