10 Best Colorado Towns To Retire To (Denver, Colorado Springs: home, university, cost of)

[RosieSD]

These "best of" lists should always be taken with a grain of salt. Still, this list of retirement locations in Colorado seems to hit many of the high spots with a few surprises. (Did have to laugh at them calling Greeley "Greenley" in the profile though....)

Thoughts?

https://www.worldatlas.com/cities/9-...-colorado.html

[brightdoglover]

In terms of size, the selections seem pretty random. No mention of nearness to hospitals or public transport or such. Seems like they just listed a bunch of cities/towns that would be good for visiting/vacation.

[JD_MD]

I am not a retiree but really like Fort Collins and the surrounding towns. Despite the University, which has a beautiful and very walkable campus, it didn't feel demographically like a college town to me. Plenty of active people of all ages with lots to do, whatever your interests. It's closer to Denver than the "few hours" that the article says, also within driving distance to Boulder if those cities are of interest. I made a lot of friends during my time there, loved the weather, people all seemed generally happy, tons to do, all amenities you could possibly need. I did not experience the healthcare system there so can't comment on that.

[davebarnes]

Every place on the list is a “city”.

[DOUBLE H]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

Every place on the list is a “city”.

Yes.

Colorado Springs will probably hit the 500,000 mark in a couple years. Yet this source refers to it as a "small town".

uff-da.

[suzco]

So strange, Golden's on the list - praised, a big plus because it's just a short drive away from Denver. There's nary a mention of the rtd light rail that serves the city.

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by suzco

So strange, Golden's on the list - praised, a big plus because it's just a short drive away from Denver. There's nary a mention of the rtd light rail that serves the city.

The W line stops on the far southeast side of town. It's a good 2-mile walk to the center part of town from there.

[otowi]

Originally Posted by DOUBLE H

Yes.

Colorado Springs will probably hit the 500,000 mark in a couple years. Yet this source refers to it as a "small town".

uff-da.

Yeah and the metropolitan area is nearly 3/4 million. Not so small.

As for Fort Collins and Boulder, as a retiree I think I might get tired of the snow - in many years both get considerably more than Denver or COS.

[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.

[hikernut]

Fort Morgan has long been one of the most popular places to retire in Colorado

And yet its population is still only about 12,000