Potential Move to Denver, Co

I recommend Jefferson county - public schools are good and go can option into any school if your neighborhood school isn't right for you. I specifically recommend Lakewood. In most areas, it's very low crime & stable home prices - even now.

I suggest you look at the Meadowlark and/or Alameda Heights (east & west)area of Lakewood. West Alameda heights is the lowest cost but these 3 neighborhoods are really one neighborhood. Zip is 80226.

There are reasonable costs for housing & you can walk to tons of stuff (BelMar Park, the public library, the new BelMar "downtown"). It is also near the primary bus hub (which is by the Lakewood Police station). You can take the #1 bus to downtown Denver (which is also about a 10 minute drive).

The neighborhood public school is South Lakewood Elementary (you can also option into Dennison one neighborhood over or the Jefferson County Open School, which is not too far).

I live in Littleton and have also lived in Highlands Ranch (both South and SW of denver). I moved here from Chicago 11 years ago and love it. The schools are best in Cherry creek (very expensive) and both Jefferson and Douglas counties are good. Happy to help - send me a private message.

I lived north or Denver for 12 years and LOVED it. I miss it there so much. The people are so friendly and the weather is truly perfect for me. It depends on what you like. I dont know what the schools are like, we moved before my kids were in school. Good Luck to you!

It may be too far out, but I heard Evergreen had great schools. Also Littleton.

There are a lot of great places in the Denver area. We recently moved here from Boston and live in Aurora which is it's own city but only 30 minutes form downtown Denver. I love it because it is very racially diverse and it was recently voted for one of the top 100 cities for young people. Cherry Creek School District is in part of Aurora and is thee top school district in the state. The housing is affordable (just bought a four bedroom, 2.5 bath house for $146,000). I also like that it is easy to get to stores, traffic isn't too bad. It also has Cherry Creek reservoir which has a lake, camping, biking trails, etc. Good luck on your choice.

Lucky you - Denver is awesome, I lived there for 13 years. There have been several questions in the last couple of years about moving to/visiting Denver. If you do a search on "Denver" in the search bar up to the right, you'll be able to read all those past threads - there's some good info in there!

Hi L., there are so many wonderful parts of town in Denver that personally I would choose a location that is close to your other family members - within say 15-20min of where they are. Denver is pretty spread out so it's easy to find yourself 45 minutes away from family.

To give you an example, I live in Parker and so does my dad and my sister but I'm north Parker and they are both south. We're in the same community but still 10-12 miles apart and a 15 minute drive. When my dad lived in Thornton up north, it could easily take 45 minutes to get there in light highway traffic. My other sister lives in Cherry Hills just north of the Denver Tech Center - she is about 15 minutes away from me as well.

Hope that helps you!

Best school districts are Cherry Creek and Douglas county school.

Check into the Littleton area

Love my neighborhood - Park Hill. I'm probably not cool enough for Highlands Ranch, and would hate the commute.

There are a lot of great areas but for me the bigger issue is commuting to work. Perhaps you can stay with a family member for a while until you have a job nailed down and then can plan where to live, commuting, etc.

Who will be watching your wonderful son after school? You'd want to be close enough to him if you had to pick him up sick from school.

These are some other things I would consider prior to settling on a neighborhood.

I was a single mom with a 7 year old, commuting almost 3 hours a day to/from Denver. It's rough.

Good luck!

I'd stick to the southern suburbs they are newer and nicer and low crime. If you dont mind commuting douglas county is nice. Depends on where you will work and also what your financial situation is.

Hahahaha! The answers literally have you all over the Denver metro area so I'm not sure how much help it really is! If I were a single mom I would most likely move to the Stapleton area. Close to downtown Denver, excellent schools, TONS of young families so lots of kids, apartments, condo and homes available for rent or purchase, lots of open space and outdoor activities. I wish that my husband and I had bought there when we were in the market. And no offense meant to anyone, just my opinion. I would not want to live in Aurora at all - too generic, too far away, and just plain blah. Lakewood can be nice but can also be really scummy. Same with the north Denver suburbs. Again, just my opinion. Good luck with your search!

I moved here from GA with my 2 children and LOVE it. We live in Golden, but I've found Lakewood is more affordable and the schools are great. We are at Free Horizon Montessori School and they have a number of other charter montessori schools if you are interested in the that type of education. Good luck! We LOVE CO!!!! So much to do and see!
j

Every State... has their own website.
So Google search for Colorado's State government website.
ALSO, each State, has what is called a "tourism" website... you can get info there too.

Colorado is nice... since you have family there, decide if you want to be near them... or not, even if in the same State.