Thinking about moving to Colorado?

[luvmylittleboy2003]

Visited about a week ago and stayed w/a friend and absolutely loved it!! I live in KY now and it didn't even compare.
I stayed in Littleton/Jeffco area. Its hard to not want to pack up and move tomorrow - just cant get CO out of my head -
Would love to know all you could tell me about it, good and bad

 

[Sandy V.]

Glad that you enjoyed our state. It IS beautiful here. We love it too.

Pros - The mountains!!! Lots and lots to do if you like outdoor activites. Hiking trails, skiing, hot springs pools, biking trails, rock climbing, fishing, street fairs, etc. You can spend many long weekends (or weeks!) just seeing the many varied places in the state. People are generally friendly here, the population is well educated. You have sporting and cultural activities on the cities of the Front Range. Despite what many think, our winters (at least on the Front Range - the area that "fronts" the Rocky Mountains, think of a line of towns from Pueblo to Fort Collins, including Colorado Springs, Denver, etc.) are pretty mild except for a few big snowstorms thrown in.

Cons - like many places, the economy isn't the greatest right now. Spending for education has gone down substantially. The housing market is very soft. I would not move anywhere these days without having a job first, but that's me. The Front Range area, especially the Denver metro area, has some days where the pollution "brown cloud" over the city is pretty bad. The pine beetle has badly invested a large number of our evergreen trees in the state, killing many of them. You can see this if you travel up the I-70 corridor towards Vail and beyond. On Sundays, traveling east down the I-70 corridor can become slow torture as everyone returns from a weekend/day up in the mountains - this happens nearly year round.

Springs aren't very pretty here, but the rest of the year is gloriously beautiful, at least to me. Well, that's my two cents' worth. All in all, we love it here and will probably always have a place here in Colorado to call home.

 

[binny]

We are in the process of moving there. My husband was promoted to the Denver area but we have to sell this house first grrrr.

Looking forward to it.

 

[Amy&Dan]

I agree with everything Sandy V said! I have lived in Colorado most of my life (almost 39 years now) and its a great state. We have a wonderful climate in that there is very little to any humidity which means it can be 45 degrees outside and you only need a sweatshirt if the sun is shining, and on the hottest days of summer, if you are the shade its fine and the nights are always pleasant. I love that.

The mountains are obviously wonderful, you can camp, bike, ski, raft, do all sorts of things. On a bad note, everybody else is doing the same thing and its made a lot of our mountain towns that used to be so quaint tourist traps. The gambling towns of Cripple Creek, Blackhawk and Central City in particular. For those of us that lived here and loved those little towns before they had the casinos, its very sad. I won't even go to any of them. Like Sandy said, the traffic getting up and out of I70 to the mountains on weekends can be miserable! Coming out of Vail one Sunday afternoon in June, it took us over an hour to go about five miles. With so much to enjoy and appreicate in the mountains, getting there and getting home for all the people doing just that can be a real hassle and sort of ruin the mood!

Other than the mountains, there's not a lot do close by. Denver and to the west is the mountains and the metro area obviously. Out east, well its farm land. Places like Santa Fe, Yellowstone are all a days drive away. So other than the mountains, you will have to drive long distances or fly to see and do other things.

Colorado has very extreme weather. You can get a blizzard in September that will tear up all your still leafy trees. My mom used to laugh about how she'd still have bathing suits hanging in the laundry room but it was snowing outside! In the spring we get hail storms, heck I even had a tornado about a mile from my house in June that gave me baseball sized hail. It can be 75 in February and 45 in June. The saying around here is if you don't like the weather, wait a day! We can have extreme winters with a ton of snow or winters with very little snow. Those winters bring on long draughts. You came during a cool, pleasant summer that had lots of rain. So its green right now and very pretty. A few years ago the whole state was horribly dry, with lots of wild fires. My subdivision has had several fires through the years. Just like CA (well not nearly as bad but same sort of thing) we have built out in areas that are surrounded by open space. A lightening strike or carelessly tossed cigarette can be deadly around here.

If you love water, don't move here! Other than some lakes (small lakes) and resevoirs, there's not much water scene.

Denver has some nasty traffic. If you plan to live in the suburbs and work downtown or in the Tech Center, be prepared to spend a lot of time in your car. I think its gotten better with some of our highway improvements but I still would think very carefully about where you live in relation to where you work.

Its getting crowded because its a wonderful place to live and people like you come here (and my dad back in 1970) and want to move here! When this economy picks up, metro Denver will do what it did in years past, grow very quickly. Even in this economy its still growing. So be aware that the area you live in, play in, work in, may change very quickly. We have a history of that.

Its expensive here, probably more expensive than KY.

Its a long ways from WDW! I see people on the transportation board getting $49 each way flights to Orlando, don't expect that here.

I love Colorado and can see why you'd want to move here. But I suggest you do a lot of research and visit again, in different seasons. I once moved away from Colorado to move to a place I had visited once. Big mistake, I only lasted a year! Loving a place you visit is great, but living there might not be so much so!

 

[babytrees]

I am also a native....did spend time in MT...but have been back for awhile and don't see myself leaving soon.

We don't get up into the mountains often (we live in Littleton...proper, not unincorporated) because I am not a fan of everybody else being there too.

Shhh....don't tell anybody, but we have more sunny days than just about anywhere else. I love that we have four distinct seasons, but we have also had days that include more than one season.

The job market here is dog eat dog.....I have been out of work for 9 months. It is definitely a higher cost of living than some states (including KY, I believe).

There is always something to do every weekend, we get great travelling Broadway shows.

 

[luvmylittleboy2003]

Thanks everyone!! Love the feedback

 

[foolishmortal]

ok denverite here born and raised anmd I am never leaving Colorado!!

i want to address some of the cons that have been said.

The brown cloud that is said to happen sometimes...Its not bad! it doesnt make you sick, it doesn't stop sun from shining etc...so unless it happens on a day that you planned on taking a picture of downtown denver you wont even notice it.

Traffic is busy not BAD. if you have been to californnia, vegas, etc...thats BAD traffic. Denver is nowhere near those cities. I have to drive to and from downtown on i-25 everyday for work and I am at a complete stop maybe once every couple weeks. other then that you are at worst at a slow crawl but hardly every stopped.

pine beetle, yes, they have killed some trees but unless you plan on living in the mountains i fail to see how its a con??? you were in littleton and im sure you seen no big areas of dead trees, same with denver, etc...

other than mountains there is not much to do????? unless you want to see the ocean I disagree with this statement. Denver and the metro area is very diverse and you can "see" thousdands of things without ever leaving the city. and when yo uare done with that go to colorado springs go to pueblo, go to ft collins etc. between art, breweries, sports, music, shows, colorado has a very active music and arts scene! maybe not vegas/new york wise but compared to most other citries yes.

springs arent that pretty? whats not to love about 70 degrees guarenteed sun and a little rain and tunder at night? when it does rain or hail bad it's usually over within 15 minutes and you learn to live with knowing it will rain in afternoon for a little bit but nothing enough to stop your activities for more than a few minutes at a time.



my pros: awesome weather!!! sure we can get the extremes but those are rare. blizzards happen not as much as you would be lead to believe. Tornados happen but again not in the "city" as much as you would be lead to believe. you will always wake up to sun ion the morning, no guessing if you will see it today, this week etc... YOU WILL ALWAYS SEE THE SUN!! Winters, we get snow, yes in average of inches it could be alot, but it's spread out and sunny in the middle so monday you can get 6 inches, but monday night streets are clear and tuesday is 50 degress. wednesday another 6 inches thursday 45 degrees. You can go without a jacket in novemeber decemeber and january for most the days, but extreme times expect to see single digits for 10+ days in a row as a HIGH.

Sports, we have it all!
music, between big places like red rocks, aspen, snowmass, pepsi center etc, to small venues, you can always expect to find a good concert just about any day of the year.
art, a nice ar museum and great art scenes
enterainment, amusment parks, water parks, city parks etc... we have it all

 

[Amy&Dan]

Foolishmortal:

I said there was not a close by. To clarfify that, many people who live back east in particular are used to having many large cities very nearby. In Denver, its very different. The closest great big city is a fair distance away. This isn't like when you live in DC and you have Philadelphia, NYC, Baltimore etc nearby. Anywhere out west, the distances are vast so you have to deal with that.

For sure there is lots to do in Denver, I should know, as I said, I've lived here since 1970, moved away once and probably won't do that again!

I mentioned weather extremes because for sure we have them. Again, if one is used to places where you don't see a lot of variables, this would be a big shock to them.

OP asked for pros and cons, several of us listed those.

 

[Sandy V.]

pine beetle, yes, they have killed some trees but unless you plan on living in the mountains i fail to see how its a con??? you were in littleton and im sure you seen no big areas of dead trees, same with denver, etc...

Some trees?!?!? In Colorado and Wyoming alone, the beetle has claimed over 2 million acres of trees. It's more than "some".

Unless you live under a rock, the pine beetle is a HUGE issue in Colorado and the American West.

The fact that you can't see pine beetle damage and dead trees in Littleton doesn't alter the fact that the STATE is experiencing a plant/terrain change that will affect the landscape for the future in a huge way. Long after all of us are dead and gone, the Colorado mountain landscape in the affected areas will look vastly different than it does today.

And, news flash, the pine beetle IS moving into the Front Range. So maybe you WILL see it in Littleton (I take NO joy in saying that at all, makes me feel very sad).

And, you can't ignore that with all of those dead trees, combined with severe drought conditions AND JUST ONE LIGHTNING STRIKE, you've got forest fires in some areas of pretty highly concentrated populations that could devastate us in a multitude of ways.

OP, I love Colorado and it has many great qualities. I don't plan on moving from here. Just wanted to give you a view of some of our concerns living here. The pine beetle wouldn't be a reason I would choose to NOT live here, but thought you should hear the good as well as the bad. It makes no sense to minimize it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_pine_beetle


http://www.denverpost.com/ci_7972146

 

[goofy!]

The pine beetle devastation is awful. We spent the 4th in Vail and it was sad driving up 70 and seeing all the huge brown patches of dead trees.

But, financially, Colorado has fared much better than the rest of the country. Effects of the recession have been felt, but to a lesser degree.

It has been officially announced that Colorado is the 2nd state of the nation to have all 18 indicators show that we are emerging from the recession. Business is moving into the state. In Louisville, Conoco Phillips is building a huge training facility.

CNN just announced one of our towns as the #1 place in the nation to live and its neighbor the 13th best place. Since I live in the area, I have to agree!
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2009/snapshots/PL0846355.html
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2009/snapshots/PL0875640.html

Growing up, I lived all over the country. I moved out here for school and will never leave. DH's corporate offices are in NJ with opportunities to move there. We would never consider it. I already "did my time" in NJ

My favorite part is the quality of the lifestyle here. Outdoors and health are almost a cult. Part of our kids elementary school is training for a marathon, which almost the entire school participates in. Health is just a mindset around here, something I am glad my children grew up with.

Due to the quality of life, the excellent schools, the healthy lifestyle up here in Boulder County, it has been a fantastic place to raise our children. I couldn't have chosen a better place.

Some Cons:
Colorado is at the bottom of the barrel for state funding of schools, ranked one of the last in the nation. It is amazing that despite this we have some of the best schools. Cherry Creek and Boulder Valley Schools are some of the best in the country. But you have to look very carefully not only at the school district, but each individual school within the district as they can vary widely.

The traffic is getting obnoxious. However, since I live in the North part of the Denver Metro Area, we don't experience it as badly as those coming up from the South part.

Weather. This can be a pro or con depending on how you view it. I love the fact that we rarely have to put on more than a sweatshirt the entire winter. I love the fact that yesterday it was hot (but not humid), but during DS's football practice in the evening, I had to put on my sweatshirt. It cools off tremendously in the evenings, making for great sleeping weather. When it snows, the high altitude sun usually has it melted by the next day. You will rarely see old, brown snowbanks around here, except for manmade ones in parking lots. However, the cons are that due to our 300 days of sunshine, we are often in drought conditions. Water is precious here and water rationing is not unheard of in the dry years. When we get a blizzard, especially an upslope, it is a doozy. It is not unusual, especially in the Southern part of Denver to have 2 feet of snow or more. This makes commuting a pain. I personally think the Colorado weather is a huge plus, but for others, it is a con.

 

[Amy&Dan]

Some Cons:
Colorado is at the bottom of the barrel for state funding of schools, ranked one of the last in the nation. It is amazing that despite this we have some of the best schools. Cherry Creek and Boulder Valley Schools are some of the best in the country. But you have to look very carefully not only at the school district, but each individual school within the district as they can vary widely.

The traffic is getting obnoxious. However, since I live in the North part of the Denver Metro Area, we don't experience it as badly as those coming up from the South part.

I so agree about the schools. I live in the Cherry Creek district, and I have had to open enroll my kids due to the fact my neighborhood middle school frankly sucks. I tell people who live in other places and they've never heard of open enrollment being the norm. Around here, you have kids who due to the uneven manner in which schools are maintained and operated, have to open enroll to get a decent education for their children. So anyone thinking of moving here, research your home schools very carefully and get a real estate agent who is well versed on your district.

I agree the traffic is obnoxious! As I stated above, the improvements they have made and the light rail helped, but as you say, coming from the south in particular, when you have people commuting into the Tech Center and Downtown Denver, it can be a pain.

I still stand by my opinion that Denver/Colorado is a great place to live and raise a family. But like anyplace else it has its bad points too. Which are outweighed by its good points thank goodness!

 

[jsmith]

I live in Colorado Springs not Denver but i lived in Denver for 17 years-i have a some what different perspective on school districts-my children went to school in Adams district 50-not widely regarded as one of the "top" districts in Colorado-but they have had tremedous success in college-i live in Cheyenne Mountain district 12-one of the most highly regarded-and im not impressed-with the exception of students who are extra ordinarly atheleticly gifted parental involment is worth far more than the repuation of the school district.
Climbing off that soap box-what other have said pretty much holds true-the cost of living here is MUCH higher than in kentucky-and finding a job is no walk in the park-so have 6 to 9 months of living expenses-or a job-in hand before you pack up and move. and be ready for weather extremes-lol.

 

[PrincessMickey]

We're moving to Littleton in 2 weeks!!! I grew up there and am so excited to be finally moving back. I love being so close to the mountains. I love that there are so many bike paths that are flat. Growing up my dad and I would ride our bikes from Littleton to Downtown Denver every Saturday. We would go out to breakfast then ride home. I can't wait to be able to do that with my kids. DH has never been to an NFL or NHL game so I can't wait to be able to take him. There is the zoo and all the museums also.

 

[Macca1111]

There's also a Colorado thread around here somewhere...I'll see if I can dig it up. Here it is! http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1750688&highlight=Colorado