Colorado Front Range vs. Western Slope for Retirement (Lakewood, Arvada: house, neighborhoods)

[otowi]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

Try again. One in Loveland.
I just used Realtor.com with $300K-$400K as the range.
Prove me wrong.

You're probably not doing the exact same search. In any case, totally not worth fighting over.

[CthePlanner]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

Try again. One in Loveland.
I just used Realtor.com with $300K-$400K as the range.
Prove me wrong.

Can't prove you wrong because I can't grab the link off of realtor. But I see 6 houses, most on contingent. But it shows there are houses out there in our range.

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by CthePlanner

Can't prove you wrong because I can't grab the link off of realtor. But I see 6 houses, most on contingent. But it shows there are houses out there in our range.

Contingent don’t count. They are gone.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

Contingent don’t count. They are gone.

Contingents are fine for feeling out the traditional market for housing sales prices.
I consider any home already publicly listed For Sale is gone (and likely way overpriced)

of 40+ property transactions, I have utilized a realtor / conventional sale 3 miserable times.

Many ways to find and buy a home w/o following the crowd.

OP price range is a bit light for front range (populated regions). Small towns on the eastern plains of CO can be 1/10th the OP's desired budget, yet < 1 hr to major areas. Golf courses and accessible medical will be compromised. (Thus several other viable suggestions (away from Front Range CO have been offered)

Western CO is not significantly cheaper for housing in desirable areas.

If CO is the OP choice (including snow), they will need to dig up some bargain housing. Not impossible (unless you are using a RE agent).
Or... wait to buy (Often a great idea)
or wait for a correction / higher inventory.

I have always used a very simple formula for RE ownership.

If I can rent for 1% of the purchase price.... I am better off renting or investing my RE $ in a more profitable area. As an aging retiree, I will very probably be a renter (or a housing co-op owner).

Moderate weather and reasonable housing costs are key.

All insights are appreciated.

Can you imagine what a beautiful abode you could rent for the OP market rate = $4000+ / month. Put that $400k to WORK for you in the correct market and OP would be swimming in available funds to rent WHEREVER they desire... Tahiti, Thessaloniki (Very nice weather and GREAT medical and quite low cost of living. (Lots of golf!)

[wilberry]

Trinidad ! no, kidding don't go to Trinidad but it is affordable just don't go there ..

[Helter Skelter]

As a Grand Junction native, I just don’t see how this town would be a good fit for someone from Chicago, but what do I know? There’s plenty of people here from Los Angeles and Denver here that seem to like it.

One thing to note as said before is the isolation. Grand Junction itself isn’t terrible, but there are times you’ll need to do state business or do things / purchase items that aren’t available locally.
This involves a long drive. From Chicago, it’s like going to Cleveland or St. Louis on a day trip to get something done. Add in high mountain passes, And avalanches in winter. Rock slides in summer.
If your planning a move here, come visit first, then drive 3 hours in any direction and see if you like it.
Personally I do, but really it’s not for everyone.

Snow isn’t an issue. It does snow, but most winters minimal shoveling needs to be done. Snow is less than Chicago.

As for airports, Walker field is a regional airport, and won’t get you straight to anywhere you want to go, but can definitely get you to a place that can.

Weather.. winters here are colder, summers are hotter. They say “but it’s a dry heat”, well so is fire.

Water. This is one that is never considered. We don’t have water here. There’s a giant river (or two) running through town, but it doesn’t belong to us. It’s not thought about by most of the country, but You’ll pay to water that garden. That’s just a fine for stealing that water that belongs to California.

House prices. Well, your budget could get you a respectable house here, but to be honest, if I had that budget, and was fine with the isolation, and didn’t need to worry about a commute to work, I would seriously consider smaller western slope towns than grand junction. Or maybe even some of the smaller towns on the plains. Or even another state. Considering all that you’d give up for Grand Junction, I could think of a few others I would prefer myself.

[Melanzana92]

Maybe my perspective is skewed because of where I live, but if OP doesn't want to shovel snow, the correct response seems to be to tell them to look at Pueblo, Rifle, Grand Junction, Delta, Montrose instead of saying "oh that doesn't exist in CO." They really don't get much snow at all.

[Helter Skelter]

As far as shoveling snow goes, montrose is just a bad as where op is coming from.

[otowi]

Yeah, I don't think of Montrose as a particularly low-snow area. It is quite different than Grand Junction, imho.

[DOUBLE H]

Originally Posted by otowi

Yeah, I don't think of Montrose as a particularly low-snow area. It is quite different than Grand Junction, imho.

Agreed. Grand Junction's elevation is 4560 ft., Fruita is 4498 ft. and the welcome sign coming into Montrose on hwy. 50 says 5820 ft. It gets its fair share of snow from December to late March.