Fort Collins vs Castle Rock (Denver, Boulder: low crime, credit, job market)

[straw71]

My husband and I are thinking about relocating to Colorado we were thinking about either Ft Collins or the Castle Rock area. We have been to Ft. Collins on 2 seperate occassions but have only driven thru Castle Rock. My husband is a teacher with 6 years experience, I was a dispatcher for the Sheriff's office for 13yrs and I am now an accreditation inspector. We have one son who is 13. Does anyone have an opinion on which city might be a better fit for finding jobs, good schools : high schools. We are looking for an area that is family friendly, pet friendly, crime that is not really high, outdoor activities. I have read some negative posts on both areas, but would like some opinions either way.

[tfox]

The two cities are pretty different.

The main one is that very few FC residents commute outside of Northern Colorado, and most work right in Fort Collins. It's not really considered a part of Metro Denver. Cities like Windsor, Loveland, and parts of Greeley feed commuters into Fort Collins. It is true that a few people commute from Fort Collins south, but it's relatively uncommon.

Castle Rock, on the other hand, is not really an independent community. Although it's physically far from Denver on a map, it's a bedroom community built to service commuters commuting to jobs in the DTC (Denver South) area and beyond.

Both school districts are known to be very good, so you should be fine either way. Crime would be fairly low in either community.

Fort Collins sometimes is known for having limited options in its job market, so that might be a problem. Castle Rock, being a bedroom community, has no job market at all, but as mentioned before people commute to south Denver.

[Tom Emmerling]

Fort Collins seems like a good fit for you. I am not familiar with Castle Rock though so I can not compare the two. My wife was a dispatcher for the Sheriffs office here for four years. They pay good and would welcome someone with experience. There are also four other dispatch centers here to pick from. As far as teachers I hear that if you have experience you have a much better chance of getting a job around here. I am not that familiar with the job availability for an accreditation inspector. There are good schools and low crime. As far as hiking and outdoor activities go all of that is available in both cities.

[straw71]

thank you for your information, we seemed to be leaning towards fort collins

[b.adams]

I lived in Fort Collins for 5 years during college. Its a great town. It's a college town. But it's pretty laid back and mellow. It's not ultra-liberal like Boulder (where I grew up). It's has it's own economy and was #1 rated by money magazine a few years back. It's not booming, but it's a nice escape of the crowds of the Denver metro.

I currently live in Castle Rock and like it a lot. It's an even smaller town feel, but the only local jobs are largely country or city government jobs. As others said, most people commute to Denver for work. Its also 30 minutes to the springs, so some work there also. Only 10 years ago, CR was 10k persons ... so was quite small. Fort Collins, on the other hand was probably 150k persons ... an has is own mall, etc.

Castle Rock gives you small town living while keeping your big town job. Fort Collins is medium town living and a medium size town job ... for most.

Driving from Ft. Collins to Denver is worse than it seems because the town is about 10-15 minutes West of I-25 ... so its quite a lot worse commute than coming in from CR each day ... since CR is right off I-25 for the most part.

[Count David]

Fort Collins is a self sustaining town. Castle Rock is a commuter suburb/exurb.
Fort Collins is a prettier town, Castle Rock is in a prettier setting.

Pick your poison, small town or "small town".

[ocean2026]

Why does it always have to be one or the other?? You move to FT Collins and have hubby go to Castle Rock!
ok, lol Ft Collins also has a bit of university atmosphere ( Colorado State)

[straw71]

well i did make it to castle rock , in january of this year, had to turn around and come back to florida at the end of may school districts started cutting positions and my husband couldn't find a job.