Buying a new home...

[LordOpie]

Any thoughts on the best value? (price of home versus good neighborhood*)

* good elementary school, low crime, maybe a few nice restaurants and shops in walking distance, park

[SkaredShtles]

Any thoughts on the best value? (price of home versus good neighborhood*)

* good elementary school, low crime, maybe a few nice restaurants and shops in walking distance, park
Depends on what you view as value, really... do you want to live downtown?

[LordOpie]

Depends on what you view as value, really... do you want to live downtown?

Specific location isn't a primary concern.

What I'm asking is... is there a neighborhood that's undervalued and still a good neighborhood for kids.

In other words, if you* were moving, where would you move to? (I don't know the market)

* Mike or anyone who has or is going to soon have kids.

[chinkerjuarez]

I would look at parker and castle rock. Kinda out of the way from the city, but the houses are really nice, mostly new, prices are great, and the areas are developing nicely to get more retail and shops out there.

[Lux Interior]

Check out Longmont, every new park has a mini skate park with it and I just found one yesterday at a middle school with a tiny little dirt jump park or maybe its supposed to be a pump track but it's officially designated as a bicycle dirt park. Plus we have our real park and Hall ranch.

[SkaredShtles]

You'll note that all recommendations are thus far for suburban Hell.

Oh... hold on - those are generally the places with the qualities you're looking for... :D

[LordOpie]

Well, ideally, we'd have suburban hell -and- be in walking distance from several restaurants worthy of dropping $200 a meal with a few bars that stocked quality drinks, and a movie theater, other stuff.

Sounds like where we live now, but a home with one more bathroom and one more bedroom is about $300,000 more and we can't afford that.

[SkaredShtles]

Well, ideally, we'd have suburban hell -and- be in walking distance from several restaurants worthy of dropping $200 a meal with a few bars that stocked quality drinks, and a movie theater, other stuff.

Sounds like where we live now, but a home with one more bathroom and one more bedroom is about $300,000 more and we can't afford that.
I presume you live downtown, then?

I'm pretty sure you're not going to find that magical combination.... let me know if you do. :D

[LordOpie]

I presume you live downtown, then?

I'm pretty sure you're not going to find that magical combination.... let me know if you do. :D

Cherry Creek.

[Mtnrider]

I'll take suburban hell any day.... Tell me Skaredshtles, how many quality trails can you ride to from your house? I have miles of great singletrack I can access from my reasonably priced house in the south side of Littleton.

Oh and I also have great and safe road riding from my house as well!

Blows away the Cherry Creek bike path!

[la_cleta]

http://www.leelikesbikes.com/pump-track-for-sale.html
http://www.leelikesbikes.com/wp-content/6022Scotswood.html

[SkaredShtles]

Cherry Creek.
Ahhh....... my wife and I used to rent in N Cherry Creek. 5th and Cook. Great location. They put up a duplex next to our little hovel that went for over a million dollars PER UNIT. :shocked:

[SkaredShtles]

I'll take suburban hell any day.... Tell me Skaredshtles, how many quality trails can you ride to from your house?
Let's see..... Deer Creek, South Valley, K/C... Waterton - although that would be a bit of an approach ride.
I have miles of great singletrack I can access from my reasonably priced house in the south side of Littleton.
What makes you think I don't live in suburban Hell? I do. :p

Blows away the Cherry Creek bike path!
Compromise. It's all about compromise.

[caputo1989]

Steakhouse 10

[SkaredShtles]

http://www.leelikesbikes.com/pump-track-for-sale.html
http://www.leelikesbikes.com/wp-content/6022Scotswood.html
A 2300 sq foot house for:

PRICE: $568,500

:rofl: :rofl:

He might as well stay downtown.

[LordOpie]

Well, we're thinking about Stapleton, Lowry, or Highlands.

If we can't find what we want, we'll probably pop-the-top.

[SkaredShtles]

Well, we're thinking about Stapleton, Lowry, or Highlands.

If we can't find what we want, we'll probably pop-the-top.
Highlands is pretty cool - although I'm not sure "value" really applies there anymore. Maybe head further west and check out some of the old neighborhoods in Lakewood along the 13th Ave lightrail line? That's gonna be the ticket once they get all that construction done. :thumb:

[Mtnrider]

Let's see..... Deer Creek, South Valley, K/C... Waterton - although that would be a bit of an approach ride.

What makes you think I don't live in suburban Hell? I do. :p


Compromise. It's all about compromise.

:poster_oops:

Fair enough then!

[ASX_Andy]

Highlands is pretty cool - although I'm not sure "value" really applies there anymore. Maybe head further west and check out some of the old neighborhoods in Lakewood along the 13th Ave lightrail line? That's gonna be the ticket once they get all that construction done. :thumb:


I live in Lakewood, and would consider it a very nice area to live (more western towards green mountain). Plus theres good biking everywhere from here.

[SkaredShtles]

I live in Lakewood, and would consider it a very nice area to live (more western towards green mountain). Plus theres good biking everywhere from here.
Yeah - the area just west of the city along the 13th street is quite a bit different demographically than west by Green Mountain. I used to live out at Alameda & Mississippi & by 4th & Zang for awhile and you couldn't beat that location for convenience to downtown *and* the mountains, not to mention the trails right out the back door. :thumb:

I'm not sure how it stacks up WRT "value" though.... houses were pretty pricey comparatively when we were looking a number of years back.

[$tinkle]

i don't know how you people do it up there; if i had to make that move an hour north, i'd go here: http://www.southgaylordstreet.com/

friend of mine lives there & i likes it. can't speak to the schools.

[ASX_Andy]

Yeah - the area just west of the city along the 13th street is quite a bit different demographically than west by Green Mountain. I used to live out at Alameda & Mississippi & by 4th & Zang for awhile and you couldn't beat that location for convenience to downtown *and* the mountains, not to mention the trails right out the back door. :thumb:

I'm not sure how it stacks up WRT "value" though.... houses were pretty pricey comparatively when we were looking a number of years back.

yeah I love literally on green mountain near union and alameda. great location :)

[SkaredShtles]

i don't know how you people do it up there; if i had to make that move an hour north, i'd go here: http://www.southgaylordstreet.com/

friend of mine lives there & i likes it. can't speak to the schools.

House in that neighborhood = $$$$$$$$$

And the word is that DPS neighborhood elementary schools can be decent, but middle and high are pretty much rated R.

[Jay_Reemin]

House in that neighborhood = $$$$$$$$$

And the word is that DPS neighborhood elementary schools can be decent, but middle and high are pretty much rated R.

Well for what it's worth I moved here about a month ago and have put on about 4k miles on the truck trying to pinpoint a location. Of course I work as property manager so familiarization is key and I'm just now getting it down to where I know the area. So here's my two cents from what I gathered.

Evergreen, Golden, West Lakewood near Green Mtn., Morrison, Anything West of C-470 or near the front range like Boulder, West Arvada, West Westminster, Superior, Lousville, etc. Basically all the spots near any of the trails are pricey.

Not sure about Denver Metro except Stapelton. Stapelton has prospective growth with new shopping and resteraunts going in. According to the investors I work for it's a hot spot to buy and a good investement for the future. Personally, I think it sucks, but I'm an Evergreen/Golden bound guy.

To the south:
Highlands ranch is overrated, over priced, and getting old. It's a great area, lots of higher income people, good school systems, etc., but not worth the coin as it is valued today. Would of been great years ago.

Castle Rock I've heard (haven't explored too much as it's further south than I care to go personally and my investors are looking east and north) is a great place.

Where you can find deal's with $30k + in them. If you hook up with a realestate agent, they can put you in a house that's just about brand new or a couple of years old out in Green Valley Ranch off of 56th street and Tower road (roughly) for about $250-$300k. There are a ton of bankruptcy deals going down in this area and I've seen houses that have 4-5 bedrooms, 3500k + sqft., 3 car garages, etc., going for about $260k on up. They appraise, and are selling new for $325k or so, so if you are looking for a "DEAL", then this is the area. That being said, it's on the east side and way away from any mountain riding. I'm very tempted to buy one myself as they have some golf out there too, but just not sure about living that far east.

Same goes for Northern Commerce City. North east commerce city has tons of new homes sitting vacant. You can pretty much pick and choose your deal and land yourself a house that's appraised more for than what you will pay.

Brighton, Longmont, outer lying suburbs, same type deals.

Now, I just stumbled across a nice community 20 min east of boulder called anthem. This is the only new home building subdivision I've found that are going up significantly in price each year. It's a division built by Pulte who makes a really really nice home in this area. It's not a custom home, but for the larger track type homes or planned communities, this is probably one of the best area's I've found so far. They are planned to build 3k homes, trail systems, golf courses, recreational gyms, pools, etc. I suspect that this area will continually go up in value as it's central to denver (20 min), boulder (20min), and DIA (20min). They make nice homes, best I've seen in the area so far that aren't custom. If they weren't charging $380k, I'd be buying one for myself but I'm not there yet, still single, etc.

If you want me to drop you an email with some of those bankruptcy deals let me know, I've already print screened them and emailed them to myself so it wouldn't be too much of a hastle.

All this being said, if you are looking to rent, we have two very nice homes, one in Louisville, one in Highlands ranch. We also have 3-4 left in Green Valley and one in Lone Tree here in a month or so when the paperwork goes through.

I work for a group of investors helping them find renters and rehabbing their houses for rent. This is the info I've gathered just in the past month working and driving around non-stop talking to everyone I run into.

Cheers :cheers:

[Beast]

"Green acres is the place to be . . ."

[SkaredShtles]

Anything east of Santa Fe sucks as a location IMNSHO. :D

[rky mtn srfr]

Gunbarrel is nice, good schools, surrounded by open space, moderately priced, close to Eaton Park/Gunbarrel Jumps/dirtpark (is looking good!), and usually smells good thanks to Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory. I bought my condo for 165K...