Twenty year Boulder resident, here. We love the Denver area (though we do like to get a trip to see ocean every year or two). I think it’s possible to find housing here in your price range, but you might have a commute from central Denver. If you moved here, where would your office actually be?
Upthread posters have pointed out some of the excellent things here. I would add that, besides craft breweries, of which we have a plethora of outstanding ones, craft distilleries are also a thing now (Stranahan’s makes a damn fine whiskey, for example). Just sayin’.
I could have worded that better. Our medical coverage now is excellent, and not too expensive. My job also pays well. With another job, we would be looking at lower pay AND inferior insurance with higher costs. We are also not in love with the Cincinnati area, although it’s OK. We think the time is right for a move anyway.
If you hit the Broadway train station… you can pretty much hit west and south… they are opening train lines to Boulder and the airport… I’m pretty dependent on the lite rail for my commute.
Based on what information you’ve given I’d consider Ft. Worth. I, personally, hate Texas with the fire of a thousand suns but my family all live there and love it. If you can handle the politics, the heat, and the bugs (oh god, the bugs!) it might end up being the perfect place for you. If you can swing it I’d recommend you take a quick trip down there in the next week or two so you can really get a feel for the summer weather.
I live in Atlanta, but I’m in town. It’s a great city, in my opinion.
However, a lot of the suburbs are just like the suburbs of the other places you mention. That’s just the nature of the beast. Some of the towns around Atlanta have a lot of character though, if you stick to the older parts.
As far as I can tell, the suburbs of Ft. Worth are pretty much the same as the ones around Atlanta, but with zero trees and much hotter summers. Atlanta is very, very close to the mountains, and about 3.5 hours to the coast. The geography is nothing like Texas.
I’ll add that, while Atlanta doesn’t have a subway or light rail system that extends out to the burbs, There is a commuter bus system that is a great option. I live in a suburb of Atlanta whee your 150-200K would buy you a nice ranch with a yard. I drive 1 mile to a park-and-ride lot, get on a motorcoach, ride 25 miles to downtown Atlanta (sleeping almost the entire way), and then walk two blocks to my office. No commuting stress. Best of all, many downtown businesses will actually pay for the monthly transit pass. Mine does!! More people on transit means they aren’t having to expand parking lots or garages.
Furious George has the light rail mostly correct. Unfortunately, the chance of light rail to Boulder any time in the next decade is approximately zero. On the other hand, Broadway and 16th is at the far end of the 16th Street Mall from Market Street Station. There are frequent, free buses running up and down the Mall all day, and Market Street is the major hub for regional buses. US-36 between Denver and Boulder is currently under construction to expand HOV/bus lanes that will make the commute by bus along that corridor (which includes Westminster, Broomfield, Superior, and Louisville) extremely convenient (even more than it already is). If your employer provides Regional Eco-passes, you can get nearly anywhere in the transit district for free (there’s a $2.50 surcharge for airport buses). Check out the RTD website to explore the routes. Note that nearly all buses allow you to take bikes and most Park-and-Rides have bike parking. A lot of people commute short distances by bike to the bus or light-rail routes (with 300+ days of sun, this is possible year round) and then take mass transit, with or without their bikes.
Mass transit here is not as good as New York or Boston (not nearly high enough population density), but it’s not bad.
Dallas resident here. I don’t hate TX, but most of the rest of our post was what I wandered in to say m’self. Mind you, we do, occasionally, get snowy/icy winters, but they’re usually quite mild. The summer heat, on the other hand, might be too much for your wife, and DFW public transit is #$%&* at best, if that’s an issue.
Otherwise, Ft. Worth is ***crawling ***with fun and/or cultural things to do. And it’s full of suburbs of ranch/no-stairs homes with attached garages & 1st-floor laundry and all that jazz from your OP.
Well, that’s good news. My only experience in Denver was a long time ago on a layover (more than 30 years, I’m sure), and I was shocked by the poor air quality at the time. Then I learned that they had a really bad inversion problem because of being in a bowl (much like Fairbanks, AK), and exhaust fumes were a problem as a result.
Santa Ana wouldn’t be my ideal choice of where to live, but it would put you in easy reach of L.A. and San Diego without even having to drive, depending on how close you would be to the Amtrak station. Speaking of which, where in Santa Ana would the position be located? You might be able to work it so you live in some other town on the line, like Oceanside, and commute to Santa Ana by train. Besides Amtrak there’s a commuter line too; all told each weekday there must be 15 or 20 passenger trains in each direction between Oceanside and Santa Ana.
For me being able to take the train instead of driving would be the deciding factor in whether I’m willing to do a 25 or 40 mile commute, and it would give me more options if I were in your position.
San Diego and L.A., not to mention numerous spots in between, offer numerous diversions for your leisure time. You tend to need a car more in L.A. because the place is so spread out, but even here the transit is a lot better than it once was, and the smog isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be.
On the other hand, given the recent history of the market, how important is it to own your own house? If you have net proceeds coming from the sale of your existing house, why not just invest it some other way, and find a place to rent?
I don’t know what you mean by “lots of pets”, but many apartment complexes do allow pets. And if there are elevators, nobody has to climb steps.
After much discussion, we have picked Denver out of the cities on the list.
We still would like Columbus, but apparently the powers that be are hell-bent on eventually moving everyone in my department into one of those cities, and they don’t want to move people twice, so I don’t think we’ll get there.
On the plus side, Denver property taxes are low enough that we can move our price range up to $250-270k, which is darn near required to make this happen anyway.
I think you will like Denver. Of the cities on your list, I’ve lived in Santa Ana and Ft. Worth. And now I live in Denver.
While I would move back to SoCal in a minute if I could afford it, that’s mostly because I am a beach person. Denver is a long, long way from the nearest beach.
Lots of houses that should meet your need. My friend whose daughter just became a real estate broker associate recommends renting for about the next six months because right now its a seller’s market, but she thinks there will be some really excellent deals when the market inevitably cools off.
Do yourself a favor and knock Fort Worth right off that list. I’ve never been to Atlanta or Santa Ana, but Philly and Denver I would not mind. Especially Denver.
EDIT: Ah, I just saw you have selected Denver. Good choice.
I visited Philadelphia a few times and I’ve liked the city when I’ve been there.
But I don’t know if I’d relocate there. I was reading about the Detroit collapse and the writer was comparing economic problems other major cities are facing - and Philadelphia was in the second worst position overall after Detroit. So it wouldn’t be surprising to see Philadelphia go through some serious crises in the next decade.
I cannot speak to the benefits of your other choices since I have only seen them from an airport terminal, but I will relay a warning about Texas from some of my colleagues that have been transferred to Texas ( more specifically, Houston ) from one of the offices in California. The usual selling point for moving to Texas has been the low cost of living, so these people would buy a big house in the suburbs for a much less money than the smaller house they had back in California. All is well until they find out that this big house has a much higher property tax bill than what they paid back in California, and this tax bill goes up every year as the taxing authority reappraised the value of the property. I don’t know if this would be true in Fort Worth but I assume that this is statewide.
If I had to pick a city from your list it would be Denver, due to its proximity to the mountains. The one universal positive point I have heard about living in Texas is that you seldom have to worry about friends visiting there in the summertime.
Depending on where in metro Atlatna you office would be located, it might be a viable choice. The heat and humidity make for ‘sticky/sweaty’ Summers, but the rest of the year is quite nice. We only have really cold weather for a few short months and even then it’s around 50 degrees on most days with a few sub-freezing spurts here and there.
You can certainly find houses with no steps, especially if you go with a slab rather than a basement foundation. The terrain is hilly and beatiful on the northern side of the city all the way to the TN line and that is a big draw for a lot of folks who move here!
A ranch on a .25-.5 acre lot with fenced back yard can easily be had for $160-$170k in a very nice, safe area. A lot of builders are still being conservative about building a lot of spec homes and are waiting for the lots to be sold then the buyer choose many of the details and features as well as the floorplans and even make some modifications if necessary.
In general, the Northwest quadrant of the metro area is the best in terms of affordable housing, lower crime rates, reasonable commute to downtown (although there are no ‘easy’ commutes in Atlanta). The Northeast quad is much the same, but more heavily populated and traffic can be a nightmare to/from downtown. Housing is a bit pricier as well.
South of town sucks, to be blunt…All the areas I’m referring to are OTP (Outside The Perimeter, officially known as I-285). If you aren’t familiar, I-285 is 64-mile long loop that encircles downtown Atlanta. It’s primary function is to bypass downtown (especially trucks, which aren’t allowed downtown) and to access I-75, I-20 and I-85 from any direction. If you live on the Northside, it’s only good for one thing- getting to the airport quickly.
Do you know where the office is located in Atlanta (assuming it’s an existing office)? I could offer more insight with that info.
The biggest determining factor ought to be your wife’s MS. Not just health insurance, but healthcare facilities, weather, etc. Atlanta has some nicer suburbs where there are larger house lots. You are more likely to have choices for one-story houses there, unlike Philly and Denver. Never liked Texas on those occasions when I had to go there. Probably Austin is the only place there I’d consider. CA is expensive and you wouldn’t get much house for your money.
Too bad Tampa isn’t an option, just about everything here is one-story.
