CO residents come in!

Amy Drinkwater

Since the first time I visited Denver 3yrs ago (before I met H) I have wanted to move to CO. ?Since then I've been back 5x! ?H has never been to Denver but has been to Ouray twice and he loves it too. ?We have casually discussed moving from Houston to CO and are both amenable to the idea, especially since my mom said she and Dad would be willing to sell up and move out there as well.

How does the COL compare to TX, in general, or what would be a good way to find out? ?I know CO has state income tax, which TX doesn't, and from what I've seen when I've visited gas and groceries have been pretty comparable. ?Real estate in Denver is a bit higher than it is in Houston; more on-par with pricing in Dallas from what I can tell. ?I was thinking we'd want to go somewhere more remote though, like Durango possibly, but I'm sure jobs aren't as plentiful as there would be in a larger city. ?What is the job market like in/around Denver? ?My company has an office there that they may allow me to transfer to, but if they don't I have to be able to find something else (my degree/background is Accounting but I'm currently working in Operations). ?H is an insurance adjuster and could probably find another job easily, but hasn't started looking yet. ?I have a couple of friends who live in the Denver area whom I've asked the same questions but they are apartment dwellers and have more artistic jobs so they don't have much input on those points.

Soter1

I moved to CO from VT a few years ago but since have moved back home.  For us it was MUCH cheaper in CO, I had the same exact job making baout 10k more a year, with a huge apt. with pool and gym for $800, that won't get you 500sq ft. here in VT, but we don't have those "type" of residential complexes here.  We lived in Westminster which was basically in the middle of Denver and Boulder, we went out with no jobs so that was why we did that.  I ended up working in the Cherry St. discrict in Denver and my commute sucked, but I was spoiled with that.  DH usually worked up North more.

We were big skiiers though and if I were to do it again I would live in closer to the mtn. It was still 2 hours to the closest resort.  But Westminster is beautiful and I really liked the town.

levans

I can't really answer all of your questions.  I moved from Orlando to Denver in Feb 2007.  Florida doesn't have state income tax either so that was an adjustment.  Honestly, everything seems to be about the same concerning COL.  In fact, gas is a little cheaper than in Florida right now.  But the lowest octane here is 85 whereas in Florida it's 87.

We live in Parker, which is about 30 minutes Southeast of Denver.  We LOVE the area. 

I love Colorado.  Everyone is so nice and the weather isn't as bad as you would think.  I just wish Colorado was closer to Florida (my friends and family still live there).

 

mdlw07

I live in Westminster and LOVE it! It's a very quick commute to Downtown Denver and Boulder and it's close to the Mountains (I can see them from my house)! It's about 70 miles to the closest ski resort. I've lived here for 8 years and have loved every minute of it. The weather is fantastic - over 300 days of sunshine a year! Today the high is 53 and sunny! I work for an airline in operations. Our Accounting department is always hiring it seems (lol). Now is the time to buy a house here. Good luck with your search!

ladeebri

I live in Denver proper and love it.  I love seeing the mountains everywhere I go. 

My B&SIL just moved from the Ft. Worth area.  They just bought a house in SE Aurora which is about a 40 min commute from downtown Denver..  Their house is brand new, 4,000 sq feet and they paid about $300,000 but they got a steal because its a slow time of yr for real estate in a crappy economy.  Anyway they are very happy to be back (we are all originally from WY).  IMHO I like CO better just because it seems more laid back here.  The parts of TX Ive been to just seem very image concerned and 'uppity' I guess.  No offense. 

I think the job market is decent, but I really have no idea how it would compare to Houston especially for your lines of work.  Im an 'artistic' apartment dweller as well.

 

 

Carrot303

We just moved from Dallas to Denver and we miss Dallas.  Real estate is more expensive here and the people are really different (at least in the part of town we live in).  For us, Denver seems so small compared to D/FW and we miss the big city.  Denverites are totally confused by that but the people I've talked to that have moved here from Chicago completely understand.  You get used to huge cities after a while and we liked it there.  Also (for me) I miss how ritzy Dallas felt.  Denver seems very, very granola to us but again - we kind of live in the hippy area of town so that may have something to do with it.  We DO like it here ... we're just getting used to it.  We'll see how our taxes turn out this year - we are currently renting because we couldn't find anything we liked enough to buy.  HTH!