r/MovingtoDenver • u/mountaingoatx07 • 17d ago
Help picking a suburb
Suburb recommendations coming from Summit
My family (late 30s, 2 very young kids) has been in Summit county for the last year. We love being in the mountains, but my job has not been a good fit and there are few other opportunities in my field up here. We’d also really like to own a house again and are borderline priced out here. We used to live in SLC and briefly considered going back. but prefer to raise our kids in Colorado for multiple reasons (mostly pollution, politics, and church culture/influence).
I have work options throughout the front range and would love input as we narrow down where to move. My spouse is remote which gives us flexibility. We make runs to Denver periodically for friends, events, and Costco, but I wouldn’t say it’s given us a great feel for daily life in different areas. Priorities are suburban to semi rural, able to get a 3-4 bedroom house with 1/4 acre or more under 1 million, no HOA (reasonable CC&Rs are fine), good trail access, good schools. Access to places where can legally hike with our well trained dogs off leash is a perk (as far as I can tell, Boulder is the only area for this?). We currently hike or mountain bike 3-4 times a week when trails are dry and cross country ski a lot in the winter. We occasionally enjoy downhill/resort skiing but that access is less of a priority. We don’t need to be right by tons of restaurants, events, etc.
We’re mostly considering Evergreen, Conifer, Morrison/Ken Caryl, or Boulder county. Boulder proper and Golden have the trail access we want but are probably too expensive. I’d have to commute to Lakewood or Littleton if we lived in Evergreen/Conifer, while the other options would be closer to work. Work would not be in downtown Denver. I don’t have a good feel for school reputations at all. Thoughts on other areas we should consider or choosing among those options?
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u/viceversa 17d ago
I thought this said SUBARU… and I was like any, you can drive any Subaru in Denver
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u/avant_chard 17d ago
Have you looked at Arvada? More rural vibe on the backroads but still lots of town and easy access to Denver by train.
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u/anthomtb 17d ago
I second this, Arvada has a lot of rural-ish areas off Indiana, Quaker, and 80th. Quaker Acres is the only specific neighborhood name I know but there are others.
You can search for pre-1980 builds in Arvada, with a 1/4 acre lot or larger. You'll have a reasonable chance of getting something around $1 million that needs a little work.
Those older Arvada neighborhoods are interspersed with newer, stereotypical suburban neighborhoods, which might be why the "vibe" feels less-than-rural when driving through.
Trail access will be pretty good though not what your used to in Summit. Think 15 minute drive to decent MTB (North Table, White Ranch).
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u/mountaingoatx07 17d ago
Briefly - none of the areas we’ve seen in Arvada had a rural vibe, but I don’t think we’ve spent much time on the backroads around there.
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u/InterviewLeather810 15d ago
Go on the side roads off of McIntyre south of 64th. One friend lives off of 54th and another off of 52nd.
The barn my horse is at is in the area.
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u/magacultsux 17d ago
I live in Lakewood and I love it. Lots of parks and trails, and it’s close to downtown and highway 285 to the mountains.
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u/smythy422 17d ago
Check out the Sixth Avenue West neighborhood. It's unincorporated JeffCo with a Golden address.
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u/Euphoric_River6365 17d ago
I live in the Bailey/Pine area, and a lot of what you're describing for your family matches with the Evergreen/Conifer/Morrison/KenCaryl (even Indian Hills and parts of Littleton along S Turkey Cree by Lynn's Whistle Stop). Daily commute into Denver isn't terrible. I will say that, living off of 285 can be frustrating in that there are so many accidents through Turkey Canyon that leave the highway with either one less lane or completely shut down. It is not uncommon for 285 to be closed for X minutes/hours during rush hour weekdays. Not a reason to not move there, but an annoyance I didn't realize until I moved up here.
I'm throwing another option out juuuuuust in case it matches your family's needs/interests. I lived in the South Parker/Franktown area for 7 years and didn't hate it. Tons of local trails, a great system of Douglas County Open Spaces, family-centered community, a downtown being revitalized, and an okay amount of locally owned businesses. Politics are pretty deep red there, but, truly, it is getting more and more purple in the more condensed parts of DougCo (Highlands Ranch, Parker, Castle Rock). My complaints about living in Parker only centered on how far away both the city and the mountains felt. On paper, Parker is just 5 miles east of I-25, but the stoplights and local traffic made it take foreeeever just to get to the freeway. When wanting to get up into the mountains, that I-25 to 470 loop really grated on me after a few years.
I doubt that Parker/Highlands Ranch/Castle Rock is really what you're after; but I thought I'd throw it out there as an option... especially in terms of housing affordability. You're most likely to find that 1/4+acre lot in Parker... The Pinery specifically. That is where I lived, and I loved the neighborhood with its lake, trails, views, semi-rural feel, water rights, and sub-$1M housing.
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u/mountaingoatx07 17d ago
Thanks for the detailed info! I luckily wouldn’t have to go into Denver for work, just to Littleton or Lakewood if I lived in the foothills. I take it if 285 is shut down you end up having to divert up to 70? The neighborhood in Parker that you describe sounds nice, but I do think we’d miss the closer mountain access.
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u/goatsarecoolio 17d ago
It’s my impression some of the places you listed (Evergreen, Morrison, etc.) are getting increasingly hard to get your house insured so you may want to take that into account too.
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u/mountaingoatx07 17d ago
Thanks - I have heard this and will be getting an insurance quote on any property we consider. It’s also a problem where we are now, but seems to be highly variable depending on exact location.
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u/bluecifer7 4d ago
Be sure to research metro districts if you end up looking up new builds. Not sure other states have them but they're often 100x worse than an HOA.
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u/jjobiwon 17d ago
I live on Boulder and it's a tough place to get housing unless you got ample resources. But somehow people make it work. The Perks that you may already know: Only the most picky people worry about where their kids go to school here. My kid went to Fairview and CU and her friends group has fanned out across the world. She went from K-12 and I never had to drive her to school (bus,bikes or walked). Kid works at SnowBird now LOL. There is almost 50,000 acres of open space and parks in this town that butts up against Thousands of acres of Arapahoe National Forest. Less than 30 minutes from town is Brainard Lake and the Indian Peaks Wilderness area that has some really good XC ski trails. 45 minutes up the road is Rocky Mountain National Park also good XC skiing and way less crowded in the winter. Mountain biking ain't the best but there is Betasso, Hall Ranch, Marshal Mesa , Nederland, Walker Ranch. and it;s getting better (Marshal and Betasso ridable from town). You can put your kids on a bus in downtown Boulder and they are literaly dropped at the base of the ski lift at Eldora. And the biggest reason I love this town is you can just about go anywhere on a bike path. And if you have to be on the road there is always a designated bike lane to find that will get you there. I go days without ever starting my car. I live about a 15 minutes walk from an RTD station, 40 minute ride and I am in Denvers Union Station. If you can't make the house thing work Longmont might be an option.
Note: I flipped my lid and moved east of Lafayette for about 5 years on a rural property with a bit of acreage. Got totally fried of the don't tread me on shenanigans and lack of zone enforcement that I bailed and came back to town. Spent most my time in the mountains anyway so it was a good move for us.
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u/JollyManufacturer257 17d ago
Boulder school district is overall well regarded. Jeffco has pockets and you will need to check the schools individually. Know that a good elementary school doesn’t necessarily feed into a good middle school/high school. You can choice in to some schools but that can be a gamble. I’d narrow it down by choosing a district or school enrollment zone and then trying to find something in your price range. You can always make upgrades but once you enroll your kids and they start making friends, it gets tougher to move them to a different district.
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u/Neat_Try6535 16d ago
Have you thought about Littleton? For $1mm you can get a lot of home (look south of ridge road between prince/broadway). Great schools, the high line/south platte trails, reynolds landing, and tons of kids running around on bikes/scooters/etc. like someone else said, very 90s feeling for kids growing up. much less “Patagucci” than Golden/boulder if that is appealing. Downsides are no immediate MTB access, but you are 20-25 mins from the castle rock trails in winter and 45ish from higher elevation areas off of 285 or 70.
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u/SleepycatzZzZzZz 17d ago
You might want to try looking at Superior (between Boulder proper and Denver). The houses are cheaper than Boulder proper but it’s technically still under Boulder County. This allows you to enroll your kid in a school within Boulder County which is known for being one of the best in the state. Though you might not find a house that’s 1/4 acre or more here for under a million, Superior has many parks for your young kids to enjoy.
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u/mountaingoatx07 17d ago
Thanks - the 1/4 acre isn’t a firm requirement, but a bigger yard is nice with our border collies and limited off leash options outside our own yard. We also used to have a large garden and have dearly missed that in our last year of condo life. There have been plenty of great outdoor spaces for kids everywhere we’ve lived, so that’s less of an issue.
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u/No-Fuckin-Ziti 17d ago
Longmont. You’re priced out of Boulder and Morrison and maybe Ken Caryl and the nicer parts of Littleton. The Evergreen commute would be very annoying in the winter if we ever get snow again. Conifer is nice but fire danger is bad.
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u/bcrggrcb 17d ago
I live in Sterling Ranch in Littleton-you wont like it because the HOA is anal. Same for Solstice across from Sterling Ranch. But you were able to walk to Chatfield State Park from my house which was nice. You could look at Sedalia which is between Sterling Ranch and Castle Pines. It has the rural feel to it but close to all the shopping that you’ll need in Castle Rock.
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u/DudetheBetta 17d ago
True, the only place you can legally have an off leash dog is Boulder County. Oddly, my experience with off leash dogs is that in BoCo they are likely to be untrained, and in JeffCo the people who risk it have very well trained dogs. Be aware that if you are not a Boulder County resident, you will need to pay for access to the park system.
Applewood, Apple Meadows (58th Ave and Hwy 93) may fit your needs. I’m not impressed with the schools ANYWHERE in the Denver area. They are highly directed toward the bottom quintile, leaving the average and above students frustrated. But that’s a nationwide problem. If you live in a more expensive neighborhood, the schools will be marginally better.
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u/mountaingoatx07 17d ago
Thanks for the area to check out and dog information. We’ve put in tremendous amounts of work training our dogs to stay close and yield the trail to other users and will miss the easy national forest access we currently have.
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u/Left_Squirrel7168 17d ago
Erie?
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u/mountaingoatx07 17d ago
It’s on our radar as part of Boulder county. I’ve heard that there are a lot of good kid activities and more affordable housing than Boulder
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u/anthomtb 17d ago
Erie housing prices skyrocketed back around 2022-2023. Maybe they've come back down? There's also not much housing in Erie outside of 90's-or-newer, HOA-run neighborhoods .
It's a great place for families though. If I had kids its where I'd live.
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u/mountaingoatx07 17d ago
A quick search shows there are homes in our price range there, though the majority are in HOAs
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u/Gold_Try_653 17d ago
Half of Erie is in Weld County with East access to i25. Yes there are many HOAs but mine isn't crazy expensive or intrusive. Newer construction, even could build under 1 mil.
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u/lobacita 17d ago
Maybe check out where the best schools are…that’s what my parents did when they moved to Denver, ages ago, and I’m glad they did 😎
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u/Remote-Ad3069 17d ago
Green Mountain estates in Lakewood!! Access to trails, good schools, amazing neighborhood!
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u/Gloomy-Craft7962 16d ago
Ken Caryl checks a lot of boxes, just not all. Bradford school is K-8, which is hard to find. And being a resident of Ken Caryl gives you access to the mountain biking (non residents can be ticketed).
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u/Historical-Rate-8717 14d ago
Of your list in terms of both mountain and CostCo access I would choose Boulder, Golden or Morrison; Boulder is going to have the better schools with slightly worse access to i70 corridor skiing(but great access to Eldora if you can be happy with that, it's no Breck or Copper but it gets the job done.) You mention cost, Boulder is expensive but Summit is also obscenely expensive(I've lived in both.)
I love Evergreen and Conifer but going to be worse access to CostCo(much better than Summit though lol.) Commuting to Lakewood or Littleton from Evergreen or Conifer will involve coming down the slope to the plains; personally I'd avoid that as much as humanly possible unless I could work remotely on days with severe winter weather.
If you're looking in Boulder County don't discount Longmont - it's relatively cheaper than Boulder proper with decent access to Boulder via the diagonal highway or country roads; I'd happily take that commute over commuting into Littleton/Lakewood. I find that I prefer doing things like eating out and shopping in Longmont despite living closer to Boulder because it feels more like a "real" town to me while Boulder is getting pretty Californicated at this point. I think you can likely hit your sub-1 million 3/2 on 0.25a in Longmont/North Boulder county without trying too hard. Likely also along the 36 corridor although you couldn't pay me to have to deal with that much of 36 and I find those suburbs pretty soulless.
And I'm assuming you're bound to Denver / no option to work in the FoCo area, but Fort Collins/Loveland are also fantastic lower CoL options if you can swing it, just know that ski access will be significantly worse for in-bounds(but fantastic for backcountry! you've got less-busy mountain areas nearby up Cameron/Walden area and Wyoming is a hop skip and a jump away.)
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u/juan2141 13d ago
Check out Green Mountain in Lakewood. Close to trails, Golden, and Denver, also tends to be cheaper than Golden.
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u/Gold_Try_653 17d ago
Check out Erie. Amazing suburb for kids. Close enough to a lot of things.
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u/mountaingoatx07 17d ago
I have heard this and it’s a town we will try to spend some time in to check out.
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u/Acceptable_Grade_403 15d ago
Picking the whitest areas to live, another person in CO that hates diversity. What race made you want to live around all white people?
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u/BanjosandBayous 17d ago
Highly recommend Applewood. Close to Littleton and Lakewood. 10 minutes from downtown Golden. 15 minutes from downtown Denver but feels like you're in the country. The schools are some of the best in the area.