Looking to move to Boulder or surrounding areas, need advice (Denver: apartments, rental market)

[Meg383]

Hey everyone~

I am a single, 25 year old stylist looking to move to the Boulder area. I am looking to work in downtown Boulder, but am not sure about where I should look for apartments.

I am from Madison, WI, and very much enjoy the feel of the city and the downtown, liberal campus. However, since graduation from UW Madison, I have moved to the west side of town (about a 15 min drive to downtown) to have a more upscale apartment to live in. I am looking for the same in Boulder, or surrounding areas. I could do with at most a 30 min drive to downtown Boulder, as I have a car, but I assume I will like the bars/shops/feel of downtown Boulder and will have to cab home from the bars and would not want to live too far away. Basically, I would like to live in a place with a young feeling to it, but without having college kids puking on my lawn at 2am. I would be most interested in renting a 2 bedroom for $1100 or less; I would love to do my own searching so long as I am pointed in the right direction.

I also am avid biker, and would appreciate being within a 15 min drive to the best paths and trails.

Thanks for your help!

Meg

[dangerisababy]

Hey Meg

30 minutes to downtown can put you in Denver & a lot the surrounding suburbs.
If you are going to be working downtown, I would recommend trying to find a room to rent in Whittier which is right next to downtown. The problem with the rental market in boulder is there aren't a lot of 2 bedroom condos for $1,100. South Boulder is good to mountain bike riding & north boulder is the best if you want to ride up some of the great mountain shoots.
I would check out housing helpers as they have a vast majority of the "professional" rental units available & of course Craigslist.

Hope that helps, if you have any questions just ask.

Thomas

[docwatson]

Basically, I would like to live in a place with a young feeling to it, but without having college kids puking on my lawn at 2am. I would be most interested in renting a 2 bedroom for $1100 or less; I would love to do my own searching so long as I am pointed in the right direction.

Boulder is 30% students, and the city has kept such a tight rein on residential development while allowing jobs to proliferate, so it is hard to find decent, well-located 2 BR's for that price. You end up either far from DT in an older suburban style complex, or with students, or both. We were lucky to grab a nice 1962 vintage 2 BR in north-central Boulder (20 min walk from downtown) for around $1,100, but much of what we liked was $1,200-$1,400. For me, though, it is not worth living out of town as the rents are still $900-1,000 for a nice place and I'd have to commute.

If you are single, I'd consider a 1 BR - you can get a nicer place and better location for your money, and fewer students as they tend not to rent 1 BR's. An area I really like (though quality is hit-and-miss) is north Boulder either around 9th and Mapleton/Portland; or further north along Broadway. Whittier Square along Pearl also has many "compact" 500 sq ft one bedrooms that rent around $950 - $1,000.

Keep in mind while Boulder does have a fair number of twenty-somethings out of school, it may not be like what you are used to in Madison - it is far less "urban" and diverse in outlook and while it seems liberal for its wierdness and aging hippie mentality, underneath it can be a quite conservative community more dedicated to maintaining itself as an upper middle class bastion than to being on the progressive end of issues. Many of my friends end up moving to either Denver or Fort Collins. As a cyclist you should love Boulder, though, and the weather is good. (Were I in Madison, I'd take up sailing again ...)

[Katarina Witt]

Two years ago, my daughter was paying $900/mo for a 2 BR in Canyon Creek Apts. She had a 9 month lease. It would have been less for a 1 yr. lease. Of course, rents have probably risen since then. It wasn't the greatest apt. ever, but it wasn't *too* bad, either. Baseline a little ways east of Broadway.

[Fatima_Organic]

I am planning to move to Boulder between April and July with my 10 year old daughter. I need to find job/accommodation/public school. All I know about Boulder is through the internet and I have never been there. But it seems to be a nice place to live after surviving a divorce and a financial loss. I have lived in San Francisco Bay Area, while I loved to live there, I no longer want to return. I have been living in Brazil for the last three years, but it is time to go back to life. I can take pretty much any kind of job just to support two of us until I get a real job. I just want to know what are my chances. Where should I stay right after I land? Where to look for a job? Where to enroll my daughter?