Centennial or Aurora?

[the3Ds]

Originally Posted by TKL

My family and I are in the process of moving to Denver. Our home in Phoenix/Scottsdale is for sale. We have done quite a bit of searching for homes on the web.

I find it interesting that you would mention that you live in Phoenix/Scottsdale. That means you must live in Phoenix. No one who lives in Scottsdale would say they lived in Phoenix, but plenty of people who live near Scottsdale Road like to say they are in Scottsdale without actually having the Scottsdale address. I used to live in North Scottsdale and found it funny that so many of the shopping centers, car dealerships and restaurants would declare themselves in Scottsdale, but they weren't.

This is the exact same thing as living in Aurora/Centennial. We are separated by one road (sometimes just because we live on one side or another). There's no difference in crime/schools/shopping/entertainment when you get out there in Phoenix or get out here in Aurora. Just like Scottsdale is not all shiny and new (the area near Fashion Square) is not as nice as the area near DC Ranch and Greyhawk.

And here's yet another thread asking about the rumors of Aurora. Aurora is massive. Please give me the name of a city that has as many square miles of land that has only "great areas" or only "bad areas." DO SOME RESEARCH PEOPLE...there are tons of threads here about this very topic. If you are only going to listen to people who have been on Colfax Ave and therefore think they know all about Aurora, then you probably should not live here.

If you have any common sense and you have children, you should know that you look for the best school district you can find in whatever city you are moving to. My husband was in the Air Force and we moved every 2-3 years. Step 1 in finding a house was the school districts. It's rare to be in a good school district that has a high crime rate. Affluence, low crime rates, good school districts and expensive homes usually go hand-in-hand. In the case of Cherry Creek SD, a lot of it is in the middle class price range.

[ebeth79]

Just an added FYI to follow up what 3Ds said about the savings on fire insurance, I just bought a house in Saddle Rock Ridge as well... 80015 zip Aurora city name. When we called to get our insurance the agent asked if we had an alarm or not (we do, but my husband couldn't remember) he wrote the policy as if it didn't and said, "well, crime is so low out there. If you've got one let me know, it'll save you $8/year" ummm... $8/year for an alarm - I think that speaks volumes for the crime level (almost nonexistant, according to both our realtor and our insurance agent) in this area.

As far as the schools - CCSD was the only reason we looked at this area. They offer an IB program in most of their high schools, something that we will now get for free in a public school but had to pay large sums of money for in a private school in Little Rock. Before we were transferred to CO, we Dallas was a very strong possiblity for us - IB programs were only offered in the private schools there as well. In case you don't know if a child graduates from a school with an IB degree (or even just IB certification in certain subjects) it gives them a great leg up on college admissions, as well as other benefits.

Granted I'm new to the area, but feel very confident about the decision we made.

[chilicheesefries]

Originally Posted by the3Ds

We here in Saddle Rock Ridge (SE Aurora) also have the Cunningham Fire District. When we were getting our homeowner's insurance, our agent told us that we were getting a discount because of our fire district. I have no idea what that means, but it saved us some money, so it must be pretty good.

If you live in Cunningham Fire District, you don't live in city of Aurora. For insurance purposes Aurora Fire has ISO Class 2 - tied for highest in the state and Cunningham is ISO Class 4. Aurora fire would've given bigger discount.

[the3Ds]

Originally Posted by chilicheesefries

If you live in Cunningham Fire District, you don't live in city of Aurora. For insurance purposes Aurora Fire has ISO Class 2 - tied for highest in the state and Cunningham is ISO Class 4. Aurora fire would've given bigger discount.

I'm not sure why this area is "unincorporated". I'm sure there is a reason but I haven't noticed a big change in services. We have a great trash/recycling program that we don't pay for. We can use the recreation centers at a resident rate. The Smoky Hill library is wonderful and available to us. The only thing I've noticed is that our neighborhood doesn't get snow plows. I think our HOA does the areas around the schools, but from what I have heard from my neighbors (who lived here a few years ago during that serious blizzard) people with big trucks were literally chaining up those who couldn't get out and pulling them out of the neighborhood to the more traveled roads that were driveable.

Seems the city of Aurora would want to incorporate our area as soon as possible for the revenue. There are thousands of homes in the Saddle Rock Ridge neighborhood that is considered unincorporated.

[chilicheesefries]

Originally Posted by the3Ds

I'm not sure why this area is "unincorporated". I'm sure there is a reason but I haven't noticed a big change in services. We have a great trash/recycling program that we don't pay for. We can use the recreation centers at a resident rate. The Smoky Hill library is wonderful and available to us. The only thing I've noticed is that our neighborhood doesn't get snow plows. I think our HOA does the areas around the schools, but from what I have heard from my neighbors (who lived here a few years ago during that serious blizzard) people with big trucks were literally chaining up those who couldn't get out and pulling them out of the neighborhood to the more traveled roads that were driveable.

Seems the city of Aurora would want to incorporate our area as soon as possible for the revenue. There are thousands of homes in the Saddle Rock Ridge neighborhood that is considered unincorporated.

For outyling areas it seems more and more that cities want to charge developers 'impact fees' for services such as police, fire, water, etc. Porperty taxes more and more don't cover the cost. With areas that are developed already they can't charge those to get in. Most areas I've noticed in the metro area won't get their streets plowed on residential streets, only arterials then minor arterials and then finally residential streets. That is true at least from my experience living in Centennial and Littleton.

Is the trash service covered in the HOA fee? City of Aurora Rec Centers?

You will notice that Smoky Hill is a great, great library. It is part of the Arapahoe Library District, which is one of the most well funded districts in the state. I love their DVD collection! Aurora has a nice library at Tallyn's Reach that just opened. But when you look at the stats, Arapahoe funds at over 5 times the rate per capita and have 3 times the budget even though it is smaller population-wise, so they have better facilities and collections. However, in Colorado people in one library district can check out from any other library in the state (with some exceptions).
Also - Arapahoe's library don't have those very annoying closed days like Aurora and Denver. All of the main ones are open 7 days a week (I say main because the smaller ones like Deer Trail & Byers have limited hours)

[sruasonid]

It also makes a huge difference if you are a pet owner. Aurora has a breed ban, and if you have a pit bull type dog, it's banned. The law is strictly enforced, and the neighbors are quick to call Animal Control if they see a dog they even think might be one. Centennial has no such ban. But be careful, as someone has mentioned, if the dog gets out and runs across the street into Aurora, it's a dead dog.