Lookout Mountain anyone?

[Mary Go Round]

Sincere thanks for your opinion. We lived in Denver for years, my husband's born and raised in Colorado, and we plan on retiring to this house.

You mention being I won't be as "lucky" as I believe. It's not luck, it's math. Statistics. Odds. I'm playing the odds, that's all. You're actually saying the odds are not as much in my favor as I think. My point is it's pretty good odds that my particular house will not burn. Someone's will, but the odd for any one particular house is low. In fact, houses that recently burned and are rebuilt have the same odds of burning as they did before (while they have fewer large trees now, if they are within the miles the fires can jump, they're at the same risk).

Firefighters don't "just let forests burn" if there are no houses. They still try to control and extinguish them. And trust me, if an out of control forest fire nears the suburbs of a large city, say Golden or Wheatridge, you'll see people trying to protect their homes just like those in the foothills/mountains. Should they move to the eastern edges of Denver?

I chuckle about the bad winters. We've moved all over the country and Denver and the lower foothills don't have anything on the Midwest for winter. Many, many people have lived in the foothills of Denver for decades. They're not scared off by winter and they aren't moving down into the brown cloud.

And I've seen the recent comps for the foothills. Houses are selling pretty quickly right now up there - several recently in just a few days.

[Mary Go Round]

And just for the future and to open this back up (and sincere thanks to all for their forest fire thoughts), is there anything ELSE good or bad about living Lookout Mountain? Or just basic information? I'm guessing some people who move up there discover they want to be closer to the city (my sister moved into the foothills for the beauty ... twice ... and always moved back into town for convenience reasons, but they had small kids).

[LookoutGirl]

Yes, there are differences between Lookout Mountain and Genesee. Most of the homes in Genesee are part of more suburban-style neighborhoods and many are much newer than the homes in Lookout. That comes with higher HOA fees and rules. Lookout Mountain has several different neighborhoods, but with the exception of Paradise Hills (right by I-70), which is similar to the Genesee/suburban look, most of the rest of the Lookout Mountain homes are older and unique in their style. Most of the homes in Lookout enjoy larger lots than Genesee. Most of the Lookout Mountain homes have around an acre or more of land. That is 43000+ square feet of land for most homes in Lookout (INCLUDING those on the lower end of prices), vs. for instance the homes in Genesee Village that average 5,000 square feet of land (basically true for most of the Genesee homes on the lower end of prices - the upper end of prices in Genesee do enjoy more land similar to that of all homes in Lookout). The HOA fees in most Lookout neighborhoods are very minimal (as are the rules). Both Lookout and Genesee are part of the same Highland Rescue ambulance district. Genesee has its own fire district. Lookout is part of the Foothills fire district. Both Lookout Mountain and Genesee feed into the same Elementary School - Ralston - which is one of the best in the state. For Middle and High School, most people choice into an array of Jeffco schools. (Bell MS and Golden HS are the "assigned" schools for both neighborhoods, but many students go to other nearby schools instead, such as Evergreen.) Both Genesee and Lookout Mountain have home values all over the map - from about $500K to $1.3M. The thread seemed to be hijacked by those concerned mostly with fire danger issues. I think the bigger issue is water. The people are nice in both areas (people that live in the foothills tend to be nice and neighborly), though Lookout has a more laid back personality vs. more of a 'keeping up with the Joneses' personality in parts of Genesee. Genesee probably has more young families than Lookout, though that has changed dramatically in the decade I've lived here in Lookout, with almost every newcomer to the neighborhood having children. All in all, in Lookout, you will likely get an older home (unless you build your own) with more land, and in Genesee you will get a newer home with less land.