Real Estate & Relocation ^ Colorado

Commuting as a way of life

The Denver metro area consists of not just the City and County of Denver, but seven other nearby counties. Arapahoe, Douglas, Jefferson, Broomfield, Adams, Weld, Boulder are the closest surrounding counties and are all within a comfortable commute of Downtown Denver.

Denver has more than one business center, so working Downtown is not always a guarantee.  Other business areas are Cherry Creek, Denver Tech Center, Inverness, Interlocken, Denver Federal Center and Buckley Air Force Base.

If a relocation to Denver is on your horizon considering the location you work and where you want to live is very important.  As the metro area continues to grow so does traffic and travel times to and from work. Most people find living and working in the same general quandrant of the metro area the best bet for a more comfortable commute.

The Denver metro area has a few choices in public transportation.  RTD has buses and light rail.  Buses serve the entire metro area, but currently only the south is served by Light Rail.

Currently FasTracks is working at a swift pace to put another 119 miles of Light Rail into place all over the Metro Area.  Projected completion dates are well into the future at 10 more years.  Buying a home near the projected lines will not provide immediate effect, but long term benefits will be had, if the home purchase is a long term one.

Savvy home searchers have discovered using Google or MapQuest to plot the distance from a specific neighborhood to the work address is a good way to guessimate the commute.  Such techical tools provide quick and easy answers to distance, but not always the actual commute time. 

Relos coming from high traffic areas such as Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. Boston or others are seldom phased by Denver traffic.  Others coming from smaller cities find traffic and general city life are overwhelming. Relativity wins, most folks adapt to doing what is necessary and find after all the compensating factors, commuting in Denver is really not so bad.

Which comes first, the job or the house?

To those dreaming of making a lifestyle change that includes a new hometown, the initial endeavor can be overwhelming.  If moving has never been a part of your life, or at least not in awhile, deciding which decision to make first is confusing. 

There isn't a day that goes by where my phone doesn't ring with some sort of slightly confused person wants me to help them.  Sometimes the questions are inquiring of neighborhoods with good schools, shopping, acreage or you name it. 

More often than not the caller is getting ahead of themselves.  How so? Well buying a home usually for most requires a loan.  A loan requires a source of income.  To most American home buyers, a source of income means a JOB.

JOBs are good things.  They come with a paycheck attached.  The paycheck enables the acquisition of many fine things, food, clothing and shelter! 

The shelter part is where I can help, well that is if you plan to purchase a shelter.  Most people like to purchase a shelter conveniently located to the JOB.  Do you see a natural pattern here?

The Denver metro area is not as large as many cities in the U.S. It is large enough that if you value your time, you will need to consider your commute. 

Working in Golden and living in Castle Rock, could easily be a 50-75 minute drive, multiple that times 2 and you have lost 100-150 minutes out of your day.  (times 5 days a week times 52 weeks a year times how long you plan to keep doing this insane thing!)

Now if you have to commute to a variety of places where you live won't matter so much.  Or better yet you are one of Denver's many telecommuting non-commuter's your address will be where ever you wish.  Commuting from the bedroom to the den is never long, unless you buy a mansion.

Enough said as the point was more than illustrated...

Moving to the Denver metro area is an exciting proposition.  When you start to formulate the plan, or when you want to test out if it would work or not or if you are coming and you know you are coming, call me.  Let's talk.

I can help you iron out a strategy. Denver is a big place, but you could also live in Littleton, Englewood, Highlands Ranch, Castle Rock,  Parker, Broomfield or any number of the very fine communities that comprise the Denver metro market.  We can talk about your lifestyle and the variety of housing options there are available.

So think job first, house next.  Call me first last or in between. 

First sign of spring

After however many days of snow on the ground, this welcome sign that spring is here made me smile today.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed the lovely lone daffodil, or course I had to turn the car around to get a picture. 

I wanted to share my joy by displaying it here.  One lovely, lonesome flower.