Hey guys, Next weekend I'm flying out to the Denver area to take a look at property. I basicly will only have a day to look at homes. So I was wondering what areas around Denver are nice, and what areas should I stay away from, real estate wise?
There are plenty of nice places, as with any city. Cherry Creek is probably my favorite area as far as homes go. I'd rather be in a luxury condo Downtown.
Hows the Littleton, and Aurora area? Basicly I'm trying to figure out the new up and coming neighbor hoods, but want to stay away from the less favorable parts of Denver.
I just helped both of my sons buy their first homes in Denver and I had an interesting experience related to the phenomenal growth in Colorado. The closer you get to downtown in an acceptable area, the higher the price goes in a big hurry! The realtor said it was related to traffic avoidance, just like LA, Boston, etc. I got their houses in the Denver University area. If you're going to work downtown or near Colorado Boulevard, consider neighborhoods near D.U. Good luck and welcome to Colorado!
If you are looking for an up & coming neighborhood, check out Curtis Park. It's just blocks from downtown with out the LoDo prices. But property values are definately on the rise. It's still an emerging area, but I have been here since '82 and love it.
Thanks for the tips guys. Keep em comin. I'm not looking to buy a huge house and don't want to spend more than $350K. It will be a second/income property. My main concern is staying away from the less desirable areas of Denver, but still get the most house for the money. What about flooding. Are there areas know to get flooded?
Yeah I have heard that. I'll check it out. How bad a commuty is that to down town Denver, and how about when it snows?
2nd on the DU area. East of campus property is very expensive. Investment property in your price range can be found west of campus. Keep in mind Aurora is huge. There are some wonderful sections and some not-so-nice parts. The nicer areas tend to be further east. Areas around Federal Blvd can be a bit rough. Castle Rock is about 1000 ft higher than Denver, so they get a good bit more snow and it sticks around longer. My buddy lives in Daniels Gate and commutes to Boulder. His drive is 55 minutes. Technically, he is in Castle Pines.
One thing to keep in mind down there....water! Douglas County is having some serious water issues. They do not own enough water rights to keep up with the growth. The southern metro area (Castle Rock, Highlands Ranch, Parker) has been growing like crazy for 10 years now. Maybe it will continue, maybe not. The northern and north eastern suburbs (Erie, Layfette, Firestrone, Fort Collins, etc.) are growing like crazy. something like 10 of the 20 fastest growing communities in CO are in Weld County. My wife and I bought in a new golf course development in Erie (www.vistaridge.net) about a year ago and judging by the prices being asked for the resales now, the appreciation has been better than we expected. Heck, Colorado is such a great place to live, you can't hardly go wrong! Good luck with the search!
In one of the magazines on a plane flight to New York, the article said Castle Rock will have the most growth in the coming years. My neighbors are doctors and decided to move to Castle Rock and set up their practice.
It has been growing like wild fire for the last 10 - 15 years and the building boom is continuing there. However, unless Douglas County (county in which Castle Rock reisdes) works out its water problems, there are some major issues looming. here's one article (google brings up quite a few) http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_2445399,00.html In contrast, Weld County has secured enough water rights and has enough in its aquifers to meet rapid growth for the next 20 years. It probably sounds like a minor issue to those from many places in the US (the east cost, pacific nw, gulf coast etc.), but water issues could become one of the largest problems here in the west. Other than the water issue, the Castle Rock area is great. I grew up there and still think it is a great place. The amount of change there in the last 25 years is crazy...25 years ago there was one stoplight in town!
I grew up in Fort Collins and even in the 70s there were issues on water. Greeley has the right idea.. make the developers acquire the water rights and then give them to the municipality as part of the utility hookup. I read years ago that an acre of residential development uses 4-6 times the water that the same agricultural usage on the acre used... and get this.. a golf course was like 100x the usage of agriculture.. now I always thought that sounded high until I read the article link and it stated "Castle Pines North expects to move ahead with building 1,300 more homes, said district manager Judy Dahl. Using recycled water on The Ridge golf course next season will save 500,000 gallons a day, she said." So if the cities want to save water.. close all the golf courses and turn them into natural areas! At 500,000 gallons a day.. that is 4 times what the average 4 person home uses in a year. Colorado is in a high plains desert!! The only way agriculture got going in colorado was due to the irrigation systems. We need to start doing natural landscaping and stop having bermuda grass sucking out the water we need!
More fantastic info. Thanks guys. I wasn't aware that water was an issue in Castle Rock, However I will still check it out.
Check out Castle Pines Village. It's a subset of Castle Rock. Exclusive gated community with expensive homes (in the millions). I believe they have their own water supply.
