Might be moving to Boulder

I lived in Boulder for several years. The public high schools are excellent - Fairview has an International Baccalaureate program and Boulder High has extensive AP classes. Their biggest negative is they are rather large schools. Make sure you're looking at housing prices. If you're not coming from an area of high housing prices, it can be a shock.

I'm about 90+ minutes south of Boulder. My SIL lives there though. While I wouldn't be the best person to give you specifics, I can tell you that it is gorgeous and sunny and a really nice place. You will also be close to some great towns nearby that have lots of outdoor activities. If you have pets that go outside, you'll need to be a bit more wary of their safety. We have lots of big nature animals that are not intimidated by people.

I live about 45 minutes away from Boulder in a suburb of Denver. There is a lot to do in Boulder, it's more relaxed than a lot of places and generally great weather. I agree with the PP who mentioned looking at the cost of living if you're from a state that has a lower one. Housing prices around here have gotten crazy the past couple of years.

We are just north of Boulder in southwest Longmont. We came here ten years ago from California and have see lots of development in that time. Boulder is a very specific kind of place that you may or may not love. Tell me more about your personal vibe and housing requirements/budget and I will make recommendations.

Personally, I like to visit there but would not choose,to live in town based on what you can get for your money, the traffic congestion and a funky rich hippie social strata...to be on the in crowd you have to fit a very specific set of standards. I imagine that trickles hadown to the school system too.

What I would recommend you look at based on community and schools would be Niwot and Southwest Longmont. Altona Middle School,is very highly rated as is Niwot High school...Silver Creek in Longmont also has a great reputation although it doesn't look as good on those school rating sites.

If you want a more relaxed environment, I'd keep away from Boulder. Housing in the sw Longmont area is also expensive with single family homes not less than the very high fours if you are lucky to up over a mil. What industry would bring you here? The other challenge are there are only a few major employers if you don't want to commute to Denver so if you were to loose a corporate job, it's not an easy replacement.

I'd love to discuss anymore specifics or questions. We picked our area based on lifestyle and quality of schools and on the fact we could get more for our money up this way. Oh, and don't be tempted for Erie as fracking is becoming a big issue out that way.

We plan to move to CO in the next year (it's been our plan for the past 2-3 years) and have been considering areas. Boulder is obviously high on our list, but the home prices are frightening. I live in S.TX so you can get a lot of bang for your buck down here. My house in Boulder would easily be 750K+ is my guess....I don't pay anywhere close to that down here.

So for internetmama, my3freaks Darcy Collins, and 950nancy can you give some suggestions on areas that we could look at. We are a family of 4, very into outdoor activities, would lean more hippish (i.e. we are vegan) but doesn't define where we live, and really DON'T want to live in Denver proper. I have lived for the past 10 years in Houston and had to commute 45-90 minutes each way (depending on time of day) to work and I DO NOT want to commute anymore. For my job, I have no idea what I'll be doing. I'm looking for a more work from home job, so if that happens I'm good with anywhere. I don't want to live in the typical suburb either, as I live here currently and I'm tired of the cookie cutter houses and typical suburbia mentality. We have been suggested by a young couple friends areas like Westminster (Denver area) or Bromfield (gets BVSD schools). We've also thought about Colorado Springs and had friends that lived there before.

Colorado Springs is very different than Boulder.  If you're looking for more of the hippie vibe, I would stay north.  I agree with internetmama that the towns around Boulder might work, but that is very dependent on how isolated you want to be particularly in the winter.  I seem to recall you having younger children, personally I would not like the isolation of Nederland - unless your kids want to be skiiers, you'll be schlepping them up and down the hill for everything.  Lyons is a great little town and extremely close to Longmont, and all the shopping/kid activities.  I have no idea about their schools.  I'm not as familiar with the farming towns.

Westminster and Broomfield are suburbs - if you're trying to get away from that, I wouldn't go there.  Louisville might work for you - it's still a bit suburbia, but does have a little downtown area and is close to Boulder and part of BVSD.  You might check out Golden too - although I know nothing about the schools there.

Coming for Houston is going to be painful housing wise.  We had family that lived in Houston until recently, and the housing prices are just dramatically different.  Expect a whole lot older and smaller.

    


 

I wouldn't say we need a hippie vibe, I just don't want to live where we can't access produce easily given our dietary choices. Hippie liberal towns tend to have more choices....

Yes, I have small children so schools are important to us. 

My friend seems to imply that Westminster wasn't a typical suburb area (he's from Houston also). Might have to go check out the area before we make plans to move up there. 

Yes, I'm becoming quite aware how different the housing market it up there. I'm okay with older homes, is we can modernize it or it's already been updated is a plus!! We realize that moving there is going to be a step-down in our living situation as we can get much more down here, but to us living somewhere that we will enjoy and be able to do the activities we want is more important that having a huge house with all the newest appliances. 

There's lots of older home options in Longmont.  That one is probably discounted because of its proximity to the railroad tracks.  A few blocks north and you'll need to put in some sweat equity to update at that price point.  But Longmont is definitely vastly more affordable than Boulder and there's a Sprout, Whole Foods, Target and even a farmer's market.  St Vrain Valley School District is varied.  There are some very good schools and some that struggle more.  You'll need to plan on researching carefully or planning on open enrolling.   

A lot is also going to depend on where you're coming from, Westminster probably doesn't feel suburbia like if you're coming from one of the huge Houston suburbs.  It's much, much smaller - but just felt like you were in the middle of nowhere (please keep in mind, my data is a bit outdated, but we still travel to Boulder fairly regularly, but haven't house hunted in a long time.)  

 

I think Westminster might be worth looking into. Golden has some areas, especially around the older downtown area you might like, but it's expensive. Those are both JeffCo (Jefferson County School District) which I have a few friends with kids in that are happy with it, you just need to research it. There are good and bad schools depending on where in the district you are. Open enrollment at other schools is pretty common around here if you don't like the neighborhood school assigned to you.

I live in Highlands Ranch, which is about 12 miles south of Denver. It is absolutely a master planned community hell!!! I hate our HOA. There are Sprouts or Sunflower Markets, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, farmers markets and Targets all over the place. I can get to a Whole Foods, Sprouts or Target in about 5 minutes, 10 if traffic is bad. It's in Douglas County School District. My youngest graduated last year, and I was becoming less happy with things as she got near the end.

Hi. I live in Arvada, which is another Denver suburb. It's in the north west quadrant, south of Westminster. I love living in this corner. We feel like we have good access to any of the highways, and can get anywhere we need to be, pretty easily. We would have preferred to be closer to Boulder, but housing was cheaper where we ended up. I like visiting Boulder, but I think the traffic would get to me. I'm sure there are lots of alternative roads that can get you places quicker, but we always end up stuck in traffic somewhere. Arvada and Westminster cover a large area, so if you want a rural feel, you can find it, if you want more of a city vibe you can find that too, if you want cookie cutter sub-divisions, yes those are here too. Also, I've been impressed by both areas parks / trail systems. We partially chose Arvada, because two light rail lines had been approved. One has opened, and the other was supposed to be open 1 yr ago, and is mired in a traffic crossing issue, that hopefully should get resolved in the next six months. It is in the more city areas, but I mention it because alternative transport is important to some people. There are lines down south, but the vibe there IMO, feels more traditional, conservative, more traditional suberbia. Some of the other communities to look at, along the 36 corridor are Erie, Lafayette, Louisville, Superior. I can't give an opinion on schools, because we don't have kids.

You could check out Erie... it’s kinda close to Boulder and a cute town... there are the cookie cutter houses but there are other spots close by... Layfette is another place. I live about 30 minutes from boulder... live to visit but very crowded and expensive... but it is pretty and beautiful views... good luck!

  


 
as long as you aren't looking for farmers markets in the winter, much of colorado eillbgive you the produce you are looking for. Hell a lot of it is grown here.

Honestly much of non-denver colorado is great there a good and awesome schools. Neighborhoods of every kind. Top priorities would be needed to narrow down if job placement isn't an issue.

Fort Collins and boulder are similar, although I am biased toward fort collins.
Longmont, berthod, niwot, Fredrick and lafayette are all places people love to live.

If you are looking for cheaper, head to the other side of i-25 (away from the mountains) and the prices start going down if you are north of denver.