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Areas to live in Northern Colorado
Organichu
poopspeesRegistered User, Moderator mod
poopspeesRegistered User, Moderator mod
Hi,
I currently live in Loveland and as a youngish queer person it's a little too conservative and old fashioned for me. I like Fort Collins but as I work remote I think I'd prefer to move closer to the airport rather than farther away. Considerations:
1) while it'd be nice to have a vibrant queer community, I realize I'd likely have to move all the way into Boulder or Denver for that. It's sufficient to me that I feel safe and comfortable, which I think I can probably achieve in any of the suburbs/smaller cities around Denver. And beyond feeling safe holding hands with a variety of gender presentations- it'd be nice to live somewhere with good mask adherence, somewhere I'm unlikely to overhear racial slurs etc
2) I wish to keep my car and I'd like that to not be a pain. I see that you can get reasonable apartments in Cap Hill, for instance- but from what I understand it's a nightmare to drive there. I have been spoiled by abundant parking, both at home and wherever I frequently go to eat or hang out. So I suppose that in much of Denver I'd need to pay some premium for a reserved spot which I'd rather not do.
3) To me, Louisville/Westminster/Arvada/Thornton/Broomfield/etc are all the same place. I know that's not accurate. These places are independent cities around Denver, right? Not neighborhoods? I figured I'd drive down to those areas and try and get a feel for their character. But that's a lot of ground to cover. Is anyone super enthusiastic about any of these places? @firewaterword
4) My budget is around 1500 per month. For that I'm hoping to get either a really large 1br or a medium 2br. It'd be really nice to have w/d in unit, a walk in closet, hardwood etc. But the most important to me is square footage, since I work from home. I also have instruments (including a big ass keyboard)
Right now I feel like I have so many options. I'd really love for someone to go 'definitely focus on this handful of places' or 'take that one off your list, it shouldn't even be considered'
I currently live in Loveland and as a youngish queer person it's a little too conservative and old fashioned for me. I like Fort Collins but as I work remote I think I'd prefer to move closer to the airport rather than farther away. Considerations:
1) while it'd be nice to have a vibrant queer community, I realize I'd likely have to move all the way into Boulder or Denver for that. It's sufficient to me that I feel safe and comfortable, which I think I can probably achieve in any of the suburbs/smaller cities around Denver. And beyond feeling safe holding hands with a variety of gender presentations- it'd be nice to live somewhere with good mask adherence, somewhere I'm unlikely to overhear racial slurs etc
2) I wish to keep my car and I'd like that to not be a pain. I see that you can get reasonable apartments in Cap Hill, for instance- but from what I understand it's a nightmare to drive there. I have been spoiled by abundant parking, both at home and wherever I frequently go to eat or hang out. So I suppose that in much of Denver I'd need to pay some premium for a reserved spot which I'd rather not do.
3) To me, Louisville/Westminster/Arvada/Thornton/Broomfield/etc are all the same place. I know that's not accurate. These places are independent cities around Denver, right? Not neighborhoods? I figured I'd drive down to those areas and try and get a feel for their character. But that's a lot of ground to cover. Is anyone super enthusiastic about any of these places? @firewaterword
4) My budget is around 1500 per month. For that I'm hoping to get either a really large 1br or a medium 2br. It'd be really nice to have w/d in unit, a walk in closet, hardwood etc. But the most important to me is square footage, since I work from home. I also have instruments (including a big ass keyboard)
Right now I feel like I have so many options. I'd really love for someone to go 'definitely focus on this handful of places' or 'take that one off your list, it shouldn't even be considered'
Organichu on
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Louisville is closer to Boulder, Broomfield is further north. Arvada is close to Denver, close to all highways, awesome old town that was converted into an outdoor pedestrian area and recently changed that way permanently.
Real estate is pretty crazy right now as all of Colorado is but we have plenty of condos around here. I can look a bit deeper there if you'd like.
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Can't speak too much on the rental side of things, but glad you're looking for greener pastures. Like Deadfall says, old town Arvada is quite cool. I looked in the area when I was house hunting last year but didn't find anything I quite loved.
Louisville and Lafayette are going to be expensive, but both of those towns have amazing main streets, and if you can find a rental near either of them that fits your budget, I'd definitely suggest them. Louisville will probably be a fair bit more expensive for what it's worth.
I'm like right on the line between Thornton and Brighton (near Top Golf if you know the area, right near where 470 and I-25 meet) - it's super suburby and probably not what you're looking for. Brighton kind of has a main street - only driven through there a few times and it hasn't really seemed that appealing to me. If Thornton has a main street / city center, I've yet to find it, but what is considered to be Thornton is pretty fucking enormous on the map, so who knows.
You may want to consider Erie too - it may not seem like there's much there, but their main street has some very cool places to go out if that matters to you. Somewhere near Briggs St could be pretty cool. It's a little bit further north than some of the places you've mentioned, but it might be worth looking into since you're not worried about commuting etc.
Can't speak much to Denver except to say my girlfriend lives near Washington Park and she pays about $1.8k for a pretty excellent 2br townhouse within walking distance of a bunch of great places on South Broadway.
Not sure if you're interested in being that far south, but Littleton has a great downtown area as well. My ex and I rented a great 2br townhouse near 470 and Broadway in the Littleton/Centennial area when we moved here in '19 for about $2.2k. I loved the area and only moved north to be closer to family.
Hit me up if you have any other questions, or if you make it down here and want to hang out and see the area etc.
E: I should add that I spent a brief time apartment hunting with my ex in those areas (Westminster/Arvada/Broomfield) in the summer of last year - most of what we found for 2brs were going for around $1.8k-$2.3k. I also looked at a studio in Louisville that was something like $1.5k. I assume most of those prices have gone up since.
Now the elephant. If cost is the primary motivator, but you want to be part of the Denver queer scene. Then it’s Aurora.
If I were to move back to Colorado right now. I’d buy a house in the rural area outside of Parker.
Yeah we've found it's quite busy every time we go there and it has some decent enough restaurants. And even then Arvada is pretty close to Denver so you can always find something there for the night.