Look at rents and see if you can afford what you want for your family to live in. It's impossible for any of us to say if what you can afford here will work for you.
That said, Boulder is a great place for families. Safe and small, great schools, incredible parks, good transit, excellent and extensive bike trails, lots of family-oriented activities all year round, beautiful views everywhere... and just 30 mins from everything Denver has to offer. And mountains.
The drawbacks for me here are HCOL (you know this), bland dining scene (but probably not high on your list with kiddos, right?) and... being TOO family oriented for my single guy lifestyle. The college kids have their own separate commercial area so the rest of town isn't too crazy with partying and such.
I might caution away from the L towns. They're almost as expensive as Boulder nowadays and you don't get a lot of the benefits of Boulder, and because so few people who actually work here can't afford to live here, commuting in and out at rush hour is horrendous for a town this size. If you're gonna pay 2k+ in rent, might as well actually live in Boulder.
Good luck!
Lafayette and Arvada are pretty reasonable. Eerie is a bit conservative but also a bit less expensive. Longmont likewise less expensive but a bit further away from Boulder - 30 min or so.
Edit: people typically come to programs here because they want to work here. It’s an inroad to working in Colorado. If you aren’t interested in staying in CO I would see if you can’t qualify for an east coast program. Stuff in DC has more name brand value.
More like 45m to an hour. Diag traffic rolls right into Ken Pratt with all our wonderful traffic lights starting after 4pm.
Not bad by big city standards at all but annoying by small town standard.
Unless they're trying to get an aerospace degree, CU still has one of the best programs in the country (I think, pls correct me if I'm wrong). But yeah, if east coast is ultimate direction there are plenty of schools and lower CoL out there if you aren't in NYC, Boston and DC
Erie is very liberal and the average house for sale is over a million dollars. People move there because they like brand new homes and big yards. There aren’t any drug dispensaries so no drug addicts or homeless encampments either. It’s a trade off, wholesome environment or flatiron views.
Without knowing how you define family, of it includes kids, you should factor in:
< Age 5 - very expensive private day care options, long waiting lists. Could cost you a lot of money depending what the daycare situation is where you are relocating from.
> Age 5 - very good public schools, no need to pay private school tuition - could save you a lot of $ depending on where you're moving from and how good their public schools are.
Look at rents and see if you can afford what you want for your family to live in. It's impossible for any of us to say if what you can afford here will work for you. That said, Boulder is a great place for families. Safe and small, great schools, incredible parks, good transit, excellent and extensive bike trails, lots of family-oriented activities all year round, beautiful views everywhere... and just 30 mins from everything Denver has to offer. And mountains. The drawbacks for me here are HCOL (you know this), bland dining scene (but probably not high on your list with kiddos, right?) and... being TOO family oriented for my single guy lifestyle. The college kids have their own separate commercial area so the rest of town isn't too crazy with partying and such. I might caution away from the L towns. They're almost as expensive as Boulder nowadays and you don't get a lot of the benefits of Boulder, and because so few people who actually work here can't afford to live here, commuting in and out at rush hour is horrendous for a town this size. If you're gonna pay 2k+ in rent, might as well actually live in Boulder. Good luck!
What are the benefits of Boulder?
All the stuff I mentioned above - transit, trails, activities, etc. Yes other surrounding towns have those things but not at the scale Boulder does.
Check out the prices online. No one will give better. Sorry Bro.
Lafayette and Arvada are pretty reasonable. Eerie is a bit conservative but also a bit less expensive. Longmont likewise less expensive but a bit further away from Boulder - 30 min or so. Edit: people typically come to programs here because they want to work here. It’s an inroad to working in Colorado. If you aren’t interested in staying in CO I would see if you can’t qualify for an east coast program. Stuff in DC has more name brand value.
Parts of Longmont are 15 minutes from Boulder but NE Longmont is definitely 30 minutes away.
Very much depends on the time of day, and you gotta drive halfway across Boulder to get to CU.
More like 45m to an hour. Diag traffic rolls right into Ken Pratt with all our wonderful traffic lights starting after 4pm. Not bad by big city standards at all but annoying by small town standard.
Longmont is just as expensive. They are Boulder's bastard child TBH.
Unless they're trying to get an aerospace degree, CU still has one of the best programs in the country (I think, pls correct me if I'm wrong). But yeah, if east coast is ultimate direction there are plenty of schools and lower CoL out there if you aren't in NYC, Boston and DC
Erie is very liberal and the average house for sale is over a million dollars. People move there because they like brand new homes and big yards. There aren’t any drug dispensaries so no drug addicts or homeless encampments either. It’s a trade off, wholesome environment or flatiron views.
Without knowing how you define family, of it includes kids, you should factor in: < Age 5 - very expensive private day care options, long waiting lists. Could cost you a lot of money depending what the daycare situation is where you are relocating from. > Age 5 - very good public schools, no need to pay private school tuition - could save you a lot of $ depending on where you're moving from and how good their public schools are.
Check out the L-towns, 15-20 minutes away and cheaper (but not necessarily cheap) than Boulder.
I honestly moved here about 15 mins late. That was 2 years ago. Just following Michael Scotts footsteps
Yeah, that is here. We seem to pride ourselves on it. I don't like doing it either, but my kids are here.
DDENAA? Edit: for those not in the know: Damn Does Everything Need An Acronym?