10 Best Colorado Towns To Retire To (Grand Junction, Fort Morgan: best towns, buying, costs)

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by hikernut

And yet [Fort Morgan’s] population is still only about 12,000 :

https://www.hgtv.com/shows/home-town...n-announcement

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

https://www.hgtv.com/shows/home-town...n-announcement

I really wish they would've done Brush instead. It needs a makeover more than Fort Morgan does.

[COcheesehead]

Originally Posted by Colorado Rambler

That's just a list of cities on the Front Range with Fruita thrown in for grins. I don't think any one of these towns makes for a better retirement spot than the others, although Fruita is kind of remote for medical care. I write "kind of remote" because Fruita is really just a suburb of Glenwood which has some good hospitals only a hop and a skip away on I-70.

These days I don't see Colorado as a place to retire to because the cost of housing here has become completely impossible. Even tiny, remote (really "remote" with the nearest Interstate hundreds of miles away) Cortez has seen the cost of housing go up to such heights as to be unsustainable.

Then there is the fact that the West - Colorado included - is running out of water. We have just had a lovely, snowy winter, but a single swallow does not mean its spring. That drought is going to continue because the laws of physics demand that it will. We can't raise the overall temperature of the planet by something like 1.5 C since the Industrial Revolution (and STILL climbing) and not expect this to impact the only home we have ever had - and in a mostly negative fashion at that.

Can we spell "urban interface" anyone? How about "wildland fires"? Nah, I wouldn't deliberately retire to anywhere around here. My retirement years just snuck up on me while I wasn't looking.

LOL Fruita is two hours west of Glenwood. It’s actually 15 minutes west of Grand Junction which has three hospitals one of which is very highly regarded.

[CalWorth]

I saw one of those lists about 15+ years ago. It listed Florissant. I knew people who lived there so I was familiar with it. Although beautiful, the snow & lack of services would rule it out for retirement IMO. I don't know how these lists are compiled, but they seem pretty random.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by hikernut

And yet its population is still only about 12,000

It's also in the middle of nowhere. I guess if you like to hunt geese. The Springs is perfect.

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by COcheesehead

LOL Fruita is two hours west of Glenwood. It’s actually 15 minutes west of Grand Junction which has three hospitals one of which is very highly regarded.

My bad.

[Tabbychic]

Canon City

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by Tabbychic

Canon City

Cañon

[NW Crow]

"Town" means different sizes to different people. In different countries and states. Some states define town population minimums and maybe maximums by law of custom, others don't. Some Population definitions range from 1,000 to 200,000 at extremes but many narrow it to 2500 to 50,000 including the US Census Bureau (entirely or at least in spots).

(Apparently some are trying to get uniform world definitions but have not had success outside certain groups or publications.)

Some use town and small town interchangeably, some mean very different things. Cities are broadly defined as large / important towns. Some of the places called towns on this list are clearly cities, some are debatable, some are towns in my view. If one uses 2500 to 50,000, you remake the list. Or remake it as you want.


Minimum of 2,000 to incorporate place in CO by law now with a minimum density of 50 / sq. mi. Not sure if some smaller are grandfathered in.

[NW Crow]

There are worse offences than a too casual use of the word "town", but it does muddle the presentation there and requests for advice here. Oh well...