Looking to Relocate! Locals help!!

[bashep]

I would say for upscale, you are looking at Pine Creek, Northgate and Flying Horse. There are some neat homes in Gleneagle too, but they have older homes, but often times bigger lots. Alot boils down to price, there are some good deals out there too though.

[COflower]

REIRehabber - Statistically speaking, Colorado Springs gets less snow annually than the Denver area. I am not sure about Ft. Fun (Collins) but it is usually 10 degrees cooler in C Springs during the summer months than Denver Metro. Thank goodness.

Briargate has a wonderful mix of socioeconomic 'hoods from Section 8 housing on up (Pinecreek is the upper end) and somehow it meshes well. No million dollar homes that I know of but the area is close to the USAFA, quick shot up to Denver Metro, 45 minutes to the mountains (shorter if you know the right route to take).

Monument has some nice places to live too. Depending on your home pricing.

Also, Mountain Shadows and Peregrine, mostly built in the 80s and 90s but the area hugs the foothills (west of I-25 - west of Rockrimmon). Mountain Shadows is mostly tract housing (some might call it semi-custom homes but tract builders did a lot of building up there) but some of the homes are pretty big. I am not up on Peregrine though but nice stuff up there - maybe I should take a drive around there!

Anyhow, all those areas are pretty easy to get to the USAFA (and as noted, Gleneagle and places just east of there too).

[thatbrian]

I found three major (and unexpected) problems with living in CS that were difficult to adjust to:

1) After living in Connecticut all my life, I found it very difficult to get used to the lack of trees in CS. People who not not been to CS think that all CO is filled with trees - NOT! Nothing but a fence separates you from your neighbors, and there is almost no green space. I felt that I had no privacy. When I looked out of my window, all I saw an ocean of houses/roof tops.

2) For the size of the city, there is a real shortage of (good) restaurants. Sure, there is every chain you can imaging, but forget about good Italian food. Oh, the locals *think* that there are a couple of good Italian restaurants, but not compared to the NE where they are everywhere. I once asked where I could take my wife for dinner on our fifth anniversary and was told, "Olive Garden"!! Can you imagine?!

3) Lots of pawn shops, payday loan places. Never saw one of those before in CT, but there are loads of them in CS - one on every corner! The old downtown area is rundown and a bit scary. There are nice neighborhoods/developments, don't get me wrong, but you are never too far from this type of eyesore.

On the positive side, we made more friends in CS in 6 months than we have in CT in 6 years! The people are friendly and down to earth which was a nice change from the cold, rude crowd back east. Also, we were able to buy a brand new house in CS, which is something that we could never afford to do in CT.

[otowi]

Re: your #1) - Being a native to Colorado, when I have visited places with so many trees, I positively felt claustrophobic! I felt like you couldn't see anything! One of the things I love about where I live is that it is pretty easy to get a lay of the land just by looking around. I remember I had a summer job at a college campus in Tennessee and I hated that due to the trees I could not see the whole campus to see how it all fit together - I found it hard to put the map together in my mind. Colorado navigation is MUCH simpler!

[froggin4colorado]

Originally Posted by otowi

Re: your #1) - Being a native to Colorado, when I have visited places with so many trees, I positively felt claustrophobic! I felt like you couldn't see anything! One of the things I love about where I live is that it is pretty easy to get a lay of the land just by looking around. I remember I had a summer job at a college campus in Tennessee and I hated that due to the trees I could not see the whole campus to see how it all fit together - I found it hard to put the map together in my mind. Colorado navigation is MUCH simpler!

I so understand this now that I am in Virginia. You can't see anywhere but up. I am getting used to it, but I haven't got a clue which way is west. I know when I briefly went back to COS to tie up some things, I felt like I was spilling out because there weren't any trees to keep me in. Sounds wierd I know, but I now laugh at COS trees- so short and few in COS.

I am also discovering so many local resturants here in Williamsburg and understand the comment about so many chains in COS but very few mom and pops and good places to eat. Nonetheless, I still have my favs in COS.

Its all about adjustment and looking at things differently. COS is a wonderful city to live in with the mtns and has awesome weather. For me and my family, we are adjusting to east coast living, so far so good. BTW- house went under contract yesterday. Was on the market for 2 months and we settled on a number only 2k less than what we were asking.

[COflower]

Originally Posted by froggin4colorado

Its all about adjustment and looking at things differently.

That statement right there gets my thumbs up. That should be cross stitched and put into everyone's home in a new city no matter where they are moving from or to.

[PamelaOrr]

Along the line of just a bit more upscale, check University Park, Peregrine, Woodmen Valley, Mountain Shadows, Woodmen Oaks, & Blodgett Ranch. With the exception of University Park, the others are northwest of I-25 just south of the Academy. [ mod cut ]