12% here in Golden. I was expecting a lot more.

Last go around it was 25% which I fought and settled for 15%.

It will be tough to fight this time given recent transactions close by.

10% here but not sure we have much grounds for appeal. Houses have sold for $100k over new appraisal. If it had gone above our recent appraisal for refi I would've probably had a case.

Ours went up 3%.

Not very bright people working the assessor dept apparently. I'd bet I would get 15% more than what they are saying it's worth based on a few sold houses on my street recently.

Oh well, fine by me.

is there not a difference for land vs improved value here like in Texas?

Our increase is still ~15% less than what the house was appraised for in October when we bought it. So maybe I should be thankful it wasn't a 30% increase?

I am waiting on the official acceptance to transfer to Lakewood, Colorado.

I would like to keep my commute below 20 minutes and I am totally fine with renting for my first year there.

I like to hike, shop, and cook. Bars and sports aren't really my style. I'm single without kids or pets.

Point me in a direction I should start looking into please!

chiken said:

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I am waiting on the official acceptance to transfer to Lakewood, Colorado.

I would like to keep my commute below 20 minutes and I am totally fine with renting for my first year there.

I like to hike, shop, and cook. Bars and sports aren't really my style. I'm single without kids or pets.

Point me in a direction I should start looking into please!

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this area is roughly a 20 minute commute from lakewood.

You want to live in the mountains (more rural, and deal with more snow) or in town?

I want to live some place that is safe and affordable and relatively close to lakewood where my office will be located. This will be the first time I am living outside of Texas, so driving in snow will be new.

Are you familiar with one place in particular that you can speak high or low about?

Real estate is crazy here at the moment, and rental prices are part of that as well.

I think I would look in parts of Arvada or Littleton. Golden would work from a location standpoint, but may not be as affordable.

Also, I am going through this whole thread to read past recommendations, buts its 71 pages long!

chiken said:

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I want to live some place that is safe and affordable and relatively close to lakewood where my office will be located. This will be the first time I am living outside of Texas, so driving in snow will be new.

Are you familiar with one place in particular that you can speak high or low about?

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Not really. I live in Parker (out of screen a bit to the southeast).

My aunt lived just south of lakewood for ~20 years, it was a nice established area (near bowles and kipling).

Golden would be fun while renting. Pricey to buy though. You could swing downtown and be 20 minutes, depending on exactly where work is. River north area might be just out of 20 minutes, again depending on exact location.
The trendy areas around downtown are LoDo, highlands, west highlands or Berkeley. Tennyson st. in Berkeley is really walkable. I work near chaffee park, so I frequent these areas for lunch.
Old towne arvada area is fun and trendy as well.

https://www.denvergov.org/Government/Departments/Police-Department/Crime-Information/Crime-Map

What does affordable even mean now? We just went through the home buying process last fall and it was insane.

The first home we offered on had 28 total offers, went for 200K over asking (Wash Park area).
Second home we offered on had 3 total offers, went for 50K over asking (Lakewood).
Third home we offered on had 4 total offers, we were 1 of 4 identical offers and the seller flipped a coin (somehow?). They didn't want any more money. They eventually came back to us and at that point we had moved on (Centennial).
Forth home we ended up getting for under asking. It has a solar lease so I think that scared off some buyers or maybe we finally got lucky (Lone Tree).

We looked at Morrison but in our budget (500-650K) seems like most homes were tri-level and that was a deal-breaker for us.

Yep, we bought new in 2019 and could probably sell it for $140k more now. A house down the street just sold for $1.2. Blew me away. It was on the market for less than a month.

We live in Green Mountain Village, Lakewood. Basically at Kipling and Jewell. Moved in end of 2017.

We love it here. I commute downtown (sometimes) and it's about 25 min.

The problem is housing availability and affordability. There's not a lot of either.

What is yalls rec for best breakfast taco/burrito in the Stapleton area? I'll pre order but wanting to get a bunch for the office next week.

I live off Bowles and Simms (where it says Summit Ridge West Meadows in 62s map) and (when I go into the office) I work just up the road from Colorado Mills mall and it's a really easy drive when I go in at 7. Probably 15 min door to door. If you can get on 470 easy it's pretty quick. Nice area and high rated schools. Dining and shopping is pretty generic but there are some good places around.

agdaddy04 said:

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What is yalls rec for best breakfast taco/burrito in the Stapleton area? I'll pre order but wanting to get a bunch for the office next week.

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Do you live and work in Stapleton? My church provided everyone with Spicy Pete Burritos from here in Arvada on Sunday (celebrating no more masks!) and they were really good with green chili inside. You can do pick-up or delivery, but there are limited to the NW Denver area.

https://www.spicypeteburritos.com/

chiken said:

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I am waiting on the official acceptance to transfer to Lakewood, Colorado.

I would like to keep my commute below 20 minutes and I am totally fine with renting for my first year there.

I like to hike, shop, and cook. Bars and sports aren't really my style. I'm single without kids or pets.

Point me in a direction I should start looking into please!

---

Glad to hear you decided to do this. I offered my advice a while back.

I lived in Arvada for two years, 2018-2020. I can speak pretty highly of the suburb for the most part. Old Town is pretty awesome. Laid back atmosphere but lots of restaurants, bars, breweries, and shopping. I had an apartment at 58th and Kipling. Not a bad area, it seemed to get louder and busier with maybe a few more sketchy people moving into the complex. But still not bad. Most of Lakewood is pretty good too. They have a cool area called Belmar, basically their own downtown area by Alameda and Wadsworth. All kinds of shopping and restaurants there. For both Arvada and Lakewood, be prepared to pay 1000+ for a one bedroom apartment. I'm not sure where you're coming from or what kind of housing costs you're used to. The Denver area is not cheap but definitely worth it IMO.

Just work in the area. We looked there initially but then wound up in Erie to live.

I also found an old post from 2017 where proud was talking about several places to go so have about 6 menus tabbed in my browser right now. I'll figure something out with all of these choices.

looking at those labels now I'm pretty sure we've had theirs before.

Have an offer from my current company to move to Denver. Office is right around 25 and 470 (technically Englewood but looks more like Centennial on a map?)

Married with two kids under 3. Would be looking for a suburb with good schools, low crime, not too far (20-30 min tops) from the office. Would look to buy in the $1M range or so.

Would love some recommendations on areas to live/look at as we weigh our options! Any help is much appreciated

ff2012 said:

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Have an offer from my current company to move to Denver. Office is right around 25 and 470 (technically Englewood but looks more like Centennial on a map?)

Married with two kids under 3. Would be looking for a suburb with good schools, low crime, not too far (20-30 min tops) from the office. Would look to buy in the $1M range or so.

Would love some recommendations on areas to live/look at as we weigh our options! Any help is much appreciated

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Congrats! Do it.

One question: is that a Texas 1 million range or a suburban Denver 1 million range?

A lot of options at 25 and 470.

Some older homes more central off Arapaho and Holly.

Lone tree and Highlands Ranch are great options.

Parker is where you start getting your farther away but more land and bigger homes.

Congrats on the opportunity. Welcome home.

Ha, that's a budgeted for 1-1.2 in suburban Denver. Actually coming from Overland Park, KS

Somebody work for Black and Veatch?

What difference would that make? Or are you saying that with taxes figured in?

I do not. And I think he was making sure I wasn't expecting to get the same for 1M in Denver as you would in TX

Does anyone have good recommendations for the following? Not expecting them to the same person/company.

-Landscape designer. Need a landscape masterplan done for our house.
-Contractor for a summer kitchen.
-Contractor for an addition to our garage that will serve as a shed, it will have a door from the garage but won't tie into the driveway.

For the Contractor piece, we just used Sheffield construction out of Arvada for our basement and thought their process was smooth. Not sure if that fits what you're looking for, but I'd reach out to them at least

My good friend has a business and does remodeling and new builds. Great guy and he does great work.

https://www.buildzoom.com/contractor/retep-construction

https://www.retepconstruction.com/

His name is Joel Scholz. Email me and I'm pass along his contact info if it's not on the website.

Thank you both. I was able to find contact info on the website so you can take down your email if you wish.