Wife and I both were born and raised in Florida, too many city folks coming and staying in the country has sapped our desire to live there anymore. I'm a Steel Construction Supervisor and we already travel so work won't be a problem anywhere we go. Our boys are home schooled so that also will not be a problem. Colorado keeps coming up in our research, how crowded is it? How are land prices? Any input is appreciated....

Well, interesting. I live in Minnesota and seriously looking at colo. went there three weeks ago and looked at homes. Going back in several weeks to look again. We are looking at small acerage 5-20 acres with home. What I can tell you-

State income tax is half of Mn, about 4.5%
Real estate tax “. “. “
Housing costs, hard to say, but less than Mn
Crowded, it depends, we saw Denver burb houses packed together but saw south and sw of there developments
with large lots, 5 plus acres. Overall Denver seemed crowded and growing fast, colo springs, less so.
Climate is drier than Mn and warmer, though not Fla warm
There is no estate tax, Mn has a high estate tax
Traffic in Denver is terrible!

We looked at colo springs and a bit north of there. Other parts of the state may differ, especially climate. We looked a bit west of Denver in the mountains. It was more remote than we wanted, and colder and snowier.

Based in the Colorado people moving to MT you couldnt pay me to live there.

It’s crowded and expensive with a lot of traffic. Fort Collins was our fallback if we could not have made it all the way to Wyoming. On the front range, I would not move south of Colorado Springs, and I doubt that I could handle Boulder (not that I could afford it). Just about anyplace in Colorado beats where I came from, Louisiana.

I know there is more to Colorado than the Fort Carson and Denver area. Having said that, doing so several times a year, the drive from Fort Carson through Denver and up to the Wyoming border convinces me that I would rather stick a fork in my eye than to make that drive any more regularly than my current 2 to 3 times a year. Jeez, to think that people actually choose to live in this type of congestion.

I lived in the Denver area, mostly in the mountain communities to the west, but also for a couple of years in Lakewood. If I ever decided to move back to Colorado (and I have considered it several times), it would not be to the Front Range. I like several areas on the west slope well enough that I try to visit them once or twice a year for extended stays. If you travel by air, though, there are only a couple of west slope communities with good commercial air service.

Wyoming weather takes some getting used to, even for a guy that spent several years living on the Nebraska/South Dakota border. I can't imagine what it would be like coming from one of the southern states, especially from the southeast.

I've already mentally ruled out the Denver area, we're thinking of further south and east. For reference, I was born and raised within 45 minutes of Disney World and watched the small country towns I grew up in get swallowed by city people and their subdivisions. Five acres or so and a little ranch house fit our bill perfectly.

I have lived "high and dry" for some years. One thing you will learn fast, is, if you slide out of your vehicle on a cold, dry day, then reach for your car door to shut it, you might get the shock of your life from static.
Always grab your door and hold on before you slip out, then you are good to go.

Next door guy does steel. He is always being sent somewhere, except for right now because his wife is in hospice. Traffic sucks all along the front range. Don't discount some of the plains, and all that south of Peublo toward the New Mexico line. Denver housing is way high and hard to find. I can't see how it can keep up and expect the bubble to pop.

Colorado is turning California though.

State income tax, state sales tax, legal weed. Greenies,
Crowds of Refugees from Commiefornia, Mexico, etc,

Really??

Utah......

this is the place !!!!!!!!!!!!

Colorado Springs or Ft Collins would be my suggestion.

No doubt based on your awesome pictures...I can have my bags and rifles packed in about a week. A small 2 bedroom ranch house on your property will work out just perfect...See you in a couple weeks 😉

What exactly is considered the front range?

Eastern slope of the Rockies

and they think Wyoming is windy...........

Colorado is just east of the Henry's..........

My experience as a resident only goes back 40 years so take it for what it's worth. I grew up in Colo Spgs, lived in Durango, Littleton, Denver, and finally am back in Colo Spgs. As a very active outdoor person, CO was a phenomenal place to grow up, go to college, work, raise a family, and live. However, the state is changing; quickly. It is excessively overcrowded on the I-25 and I-70 corridors and it's virtually impossible to get away from people, even in the mountains and wilderness areas. The Colorado Parks and Wildlife, local politics, state politics, federal agencies are all overwhelmed and looking for any means to get funding which pinches residents and makes living and enjoying what CO was more complicated. CO has always been a place people came to so it's no surprise that it's feel would change over time. Politically, it is significantly shifted to the left in the last 15 years; irreversible in my opinion. The comments that CO is the next CA are spot on. Huge urban areas carry the majority of the voting population and like all huge urban areas, often conflict with rural values and sense of freedom.
It literally kills me to say/think this but when I am able to retire, I will be looking/considering a state that is less crowded. I wish John Denver would have wrote songs about some other state and left CO alone! The beautiful and free CO of my youth simply doesn't exist anymore.

You asked...

Centennial, I'm worried that what you're saying is true everywhere. Also I believe the sprawl we're exposed to down here is similar but ours is likely worse due to the comfortable climate.... I just want somewhere to raise my son's where they can be boys without some damn old Yankees calling the law on them.

I live in Elbert county and work in Denver. Great areas around Elizabeth and we love it here. Traffic is bad but income for what I do is good. Construction is going nuts. If a guy wants to make good money in construction he can. We have 5 acres and they are still building on 5 acre lots where we are.

people.......sprawl......say what ?

My requirements are that a man can fire a gun, have a bon fire, p*ss outside and have a dog in the yard without somebody calling the friggin law. Being near or in the mountains and having decent local politics ( we're Libertarian mostly) are icing on the cake...

I was born in Denver and lived in Lakewood for 54 years. I would not move back to the liberal infested front range (anywhere from Ft. Collins south to Pueblo) for anything.

To answer your questions: Real Estate and Land prices are high in the populated areas and higher in the desirable mountain areas. Eastern Colorado in the small towns real estate used to be cheaper. Maybe still is. Parts of western Colorado that are not ski areas or tourist meccas are more reasonable. North of Denver along the front range it is difficult to find a couple of acres with a nice house for less than $400,000.00. The front range is crowded from Ft. Collins to South of Denver and in the Colorado Springs area. Traffic is bad in the front range. Not so bad out east or over west.

If you have to live there make it the western slope where there are still a few conservatives left. Grand Junction might be worth a look.

In no particular order I would move to Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, or North Dakota before even considering western Colorado.

Given what you said in your last post you better move to Wyoming.

but I'm retired............

I can sell you a million dollar view for half mil...........

Tikkanut you're killing me....

I used to live in colorado, I wouldn't move back now that I live in the black hills.

Lived in Colorado also, and as mentioned it is two states. they split where the mountains are west of Denver. Had to leave do to the liberal politics even on the Western Slope. While you can do the things you have mentioned they have qualifiers,

Most shooting is restricted to shooting ranges, (but they do have some good ones,,, used to Steel Challenge etc. in Montrose, Rifle and Pistol at Orchard Mesa.)

Outside pissing is restricted to moonless nights.

and the dog must be licensed with shots, and a chain if yard not fenced


Take Wyoming any day. (lived there also)

Tell me more about the liberal politics if you would. We're getting hammered with them here in the form of county and city ordinances making it hard on country people to be country people.

That would involve an in depth of the Udall ,Gannett families, City Market before Kroger, Lays potato chips, Rocky Mountain HMO, and mex labor. of which I am trying to forget

I've never lived in Colorado, but I've roamed it quite a bit. The Rocky Mountain areas are nice, but one of my favorite things to do is go down to the four corners area around Grand Junction and just hang out. The towns of Grand Junction and Fruita have pretty much merged into one metropolitan area,..and it's just a town like many others. But the area around them is some serious wide open space.

Colorado National Monument is there and it's great. It's a big mesa with a road to the top with crazy outstanding views. I went back there a couple of years ago and it was the same as it's ever been. There was hardly anybody up there. It was like I owned the place. We walked some trails and looked around a bit and didn't bump into anybody except for a herd of desert bighorn sheep that came down a hill to check us out.

I've roamed this country up, down, back and forth,..and southwestern Colorado is one of the few places that I think would please me as well as the bluegrass region of Kentucky does.

As for the Denver area,...there's not enough money in the world to make me live there.

Rocky Mountain National Park is right down the road from Denver and it's one of my favorite places on earth to visit. But it's not enough to make me move to the Denver area.

Tikkanut, those are some beautiful pictures, i have hundreds just like them. Here is the "Paul Harvey" version of what you have to do and put up with to get there. I can take hundreds more just like it.
Yes, there are still many good things about CO. But as a long time resident, I can relate ad nauseum the changes I wish had not and are not taking place. I have not grown to appreciate change as something to always celebrate.

Truth is whoever moves here now has no frame of reference about how it was so "now" is their norm. I call this the "new norm" and it applies to everything, especially kids.

Chip

the main problem would be how to find income, but the area up on the arizona utah border called the strip country is pretty special. you can go for miles without seeing any body. I am thinking of kanab utah, and east/west over to mesquite nevada. St george utah.

.

Colorado springs is predicted to out populate Denver in the near future. Everyone that moves here comes form some crowded infestation and then promptly wants to pass laws or regulations to have what they had where they left from. Where I live was 25 miles from Colorado Springs. Now I have 3 Walmarts within 12 miles of me. Just south, 6-7 miles, they are putting in another 5000 houses added to the 3000 they put in within the last three years.They fill those house up as fast as they can build them. They all have some form of Homeowners Assoc to tell you what you can and can't do.

These folks move from some where that they had a 60 x 50 lot or lived in a town home and think they found paradise because they now have a 1/4acre lot.These same folks are the rudest you can imagine.You won't getaway from being hammered with liberal politics if you are looking at Colorado, unless you maybe settle on the western slope.

We are besieged with illegal grow houses for marijuana.Now instead of looking out for drunk drivers and those texting ,we have to worry about pot heads being high driving down the road.

Those liberals up in Boulder and Denver are gradually taking over Colorado Springs.The state government is controlled by Denverites because they have the population to get things/people voted into push those liberal ideologies. The replies in this thread have talked about low taxes.As the population grows,so will those. Every time some one has an idea these liberals figure out another penny sales tax to pay for it and then vote it in.Then what the tax was suppose to be used for is spent on other things

Forget about a quiet weekend or week in the mountains. Any accessible place is filled with people blaring music or loud goings on.Crowded so much you have to take your own parking space.Any big lakes look more like the Jersey shore.

If I were not so old.I would move out of here and if I was young, I sure would not considered moving here

Saddlesore, these are pretty much the same problems we're having in Florida now..... Too many people from elsewhere staying here after vacation. Looks like we better start researching Alaska....

AMEN Saddlesore!
And the County allows those houses to get built and then worries about widening the darn road (Woodman, Marksheffel, Hwy 24, and Powers etc). Thats backwards, developers should widen the roads before one building is built. And don't forget the bumms begging on every corner now because of pot.

Time for me to go reload and relax.

Weed brought bums?? I could only imagine recreational marijuana strengthening the economy all the way around.

In the movie 'Centennial', one of the best lines is, "If you want to see the unspoiled beauty of Colorado, you gotta go to Wyoming"...... True in '76, and even more true now.

My two cents...... the front range from Frederick on south to Pueblo is not to my liking. Too many folks and most of those folks have strange ideas. From Loveland north to the Wyoming border is great if you find a place with some acreage in the foothills. Mostly independent folks in the foothills. Being close to Wyoming is good. I’d rather fish in Wyoming than Colorado.

There are some attractive places east of Colorado Springs.... higher elevation land....from the Black Forest area up,to just east of Parker. Land there is relatively inexpensive when compared to land closer to I 25.

Also, most anything on the western slope is better than the eastern slope. Montrose comes to mind.

Were it not for family considerations, I think I’d be in the Laramie/Saratoga area in Wyoming.

There's a bunch of areas I've driven past that I wanted to go hike and explore, just to get away from everything. Then I'd fly over the same area to see what it all looks like only to find homes and ranches hidden away. COS is a great sellers market for homes, mine went above asking and was done in one day.

Bums, you bet, why work. Sit on a corner, get free money, buy weed, smoke weed "legally", and repeat the next day. Honestly, i would bet there are twice the people begging in CS since pot passed. They are literally everywhere.

Pot tax money is earmarked but I have not noticed one single benefit from the taxes collected. We had to pay extra money above the gas tax and 8.25% city/cty/state tax to fix our roads. That vote was popular with the new people that moved here. Also popular with the same people was the voter approved funding to widen I-25 between CS and Den. CO Dept of Trans wants to take that money and build a toll road with it. Its to the point where it never ends here. And please don't get me started on the Parks and Wildlife.

"Only the Rocks Live Forever"

ZKight89:

I have lived in Colorado Springs since 1976. I wanted to move to Alaska when I retired but my wife wouldn't go because our children and grandchildren live here. The Front Range corridor, at the east base of the mountains, from Pueblo to Fort Collins, is the worst part of the state. 90% of the state is rural land but +/-70% of the population lives in cities on the Front Range. The state is controlled politically by the liberal socialists in Denver and Boulder.

It's easy for me to find solitude and remote beauty because I'm a backpacker. I love the wild beauty of mountain wilderness. Even the wild places on the eastern plains can be surprisingly stunning if you keep your eyes open and your mind searching for unsuspected wonders. But if you can't get away from the roads and ATV trails, you'll have trouble getting away from other people.

I miss the ocean.

If I was moving to Colorado, I would take a serious look at the west slope. If you can't make a living there, I would look elsewhere.

KC

Sounds like everywhere America. Unfortunately. Perhaps I am guilty buying in north Idaho in 2005...

Only idiots reside on the eastern slope!

The NW corner of CO still has a few benefits, or did when I left it 3 years ago. For clarity- I was born in Montrose (family
for 3 generations), raised in Craig. Have lived west of Fruita, as well as in Grand Junction. Have also lived in WY, UT, MO,
and returned to Meeker, CO, for 13 years. Brother, 2 of my sons, my sister, and an uncle all live in Eastern CO. My folks
lived in SW MT for a few years while I was in CO, so I had some basis to compare. Dad's living in Meeker.
I could have lived virtually anywhere, and decided to make the best of the years I may have left, I needed to leave CO.
Most of the things that make CO nice were too much hassle because of the crowds, so I didn't do them, enough.
That was true the first time I left it, and even more so, a decade later. Overpriced, overtaxed, overcrowded, overrun.
But I think the same about most places, and have been known to look darkly at cars that pass my place, on a county road.

damn neighborhood gangs.........

we just plain ol have TOO many fuggin people in this country , and its only going to get worse with the Dems and snowflakes wanting to bring in every poor turd in the third world

all the best places with nice weather are plumb filled up and overflowing


the only way to avoid creeping infestations of libs is find the areas with climate so lousy noone else wants to live there.........

Is that the area between Shreveport and Alexandria?

Front Range is full.....

I hear Oregon is nice....

Yeah but Montana is lonely and horribly cold. No modern amenities, and the game is all gone. Colorado is a much better choice for people to move to....

Colorado is much nicer winter country than Montana.


Hey, if anyone is running away from Minnesota.....I found a snowmobile in Anoka......if you know...anyone is passing through.

You ain't fooling me with your diversion tactics....

No it's not. They don't call Montana the "banana belt" for nothing.

Haha! Normally I am full of schit.....but not this winter!



Bring your Muk Luks if'n yer coming.

I second what just about everyone else has said regarding the Front Range area. It's not a place I'd move to if I didn't live here already. Traffic has become a nightmare, not only in town, but in the mountains. What used to be a 1 hour 20 minute ride to the ski hills/national forest areas, now takes 3 hours minimum. Lift lines are 25 minutes long. We will not ski on the weekends anymore. Period. Literally stop and go traffic on a 65mph highway all the time and almost year round. Hanging Lake, a mountain park, more than 3 hours from Denver, now has to implement a ticket system and regulate visitors because the people traffic was so devastating. Not only to mention they were sending in first aid crews daily to rescue idiots who couldn't make the mile or so walk to the lake.

Legalized pot has destroyed rural CO. Huge greenhouses are now on what used to be vacant agriculture land, and far worse yet are losers who buy 2-5 acre plots of cheap land, bring a 70's era camper and grow illegal pot out of a makeshift greenhouse while at the same time literally schissting up the place. Trash and junk cars litter their lots. Do I dare mention hunting - look for my previous rants about that here. It's getting so crowded during regular seasons, I'd rather hunt the midwest - and I'd see less orange too.

Lot of people think they'll beat the yuppie crowd and go four wheeling and off-grid camping in the summer. However, if you don't leave on Thursday before the weekend, forget finding an off-grid spot in the national forest. And the four-wheeling, might as well paint yellow lines down the rocky trails. It's very crowded. That's not an exaggeration. In my little mountain town, well what used to be a little mountain town, we joke about the deadlocked Friday afternoon traffic, it's called the 285 RV and boat show.

I think other's have covered the influx if libtards... And for affordably housing LMAO. You will not find a decent 3-4 bedroom house here for under half million with usable acreage. You want land you can shoot on - double that.

I'm a structural engineer that does a lot of residential construction stuff. Our plan is to suck it up, cash the checks while we can, then sell our little plot of mountain land when the time comes. We've already started looking at alternatives - and most are out of state.

This sounds like the PA Pocono mountains area not far from me with people from NY and NJ. Mostly decent folk but too many, and then they want it to be like where they're from and came to escape.Hard to figure.

PS I've been threatening to move to alaska for 40 yrs. Considered CO back then, but too hard to make a living for what I do and now I would not move there. Beautiful state still and my BIL lives there now.

Up here on the North end, it's 7 degrees, the roads are iced up and it's a miserable gray day. Nothing resembling the picture most out of state folks have in their heads.
On the other hand it's a small town, quite, with low crime. I love it.

The real estate market here is pretty crazy too.

Not a good time to be buying property in CO.... but a great time to be selling. Our home value has nearly doubled in 5 years... but I don’t think that bubble is gonna last. The pot stuff is driving everything up in CO right now.... from home values to grocery prices to gas prices. If something changes in the pot industry.... the bottom is gonna fall out, big time.

I wouldn’t buy a house in CO right now....

This is exactly what we're looking for. A place where we can tolerate the weather better than the hordes of city people.

Still plenty of places in Colo. that a guy can live and be happy. To do it, you just need money, lots of money. Land/housing prices are going up at break neck speeds. They don't seem to be able to build houses fast enough every where you look. The trick is to find a spot where you can avoid the major highways and where you live not far from where you work. Unemployment is very low, number of houses to be found to buy is also very low. Hunting is still good, although since merging parks with wildlife, seems they can't find enough funds to function so they are constantly looking for ways to rape the hunter out of more money. Tags are getting harder to get across the state. You want to hunt in a draw area, you're too late to start applying because point creep out runs the number of PP's you can build up, and that's only going to get worse with the changes that were made starting for this years drawing.
Politics suck, but could be worse and will probably only get worse over the years.

My wife and I were lucky and landed on 40 acres where we can step out and shoot any time we want, and most of our neighbors do the same. Shot a nice mulie two years ago and a decent buck antelope last year, on my own property. There are still places like ours to be had, just takes money.

I come from rural and couldn't live in suburbia if I had to. Look further east of the Springs, Castle Rock, Denver, Ft. Collins. The further east you look the cheaper it gets.

I love Colorado. Moved here in 1979. I live in Durango. I like the Western Slope. Craig is a little too cold for me. Anywhere from Rifle down is good IMO. GJ, Delta, Montrose, Durango, Cortez, Pagosa Spgs.

Don't believe the politics BS-----It's fine here. I've got CC no problem. Best state there is IMO. Bob

Funny reading the comments here seeing as I recently moved to Colorado Springs. I’ve got news for you guys unless you live in sub 5000 person town in America and nowhere near a decent job market the swelling population and sprawling construction is a fact of life. I don’t know where all the people are coming from but after living in Texas for a while everything negative that’s been said about Denver has been everyday life in every big city in Texas for a while. You want to talk about growth Texas is out of control. I’ve also visited family in 3 different regions in Florida annually and it’s the same story there. The only places to live and get away from the sprawling expansion of humans in this country is in places that have extremely harsh weather that most can’t tolerate as well as accepting that malls, restraunts and fancy shopping centers aren’t available.

To me Co Springs isn’t that bad compared to what I left behind in Texas. Traffic is never so bad that I get ancy like I used to in Texas. Denver can be bad at times but it still isn’t like San Antonio, Houston or DFW. But I usually only run up to Lone Tree to hit Cabelas so I’m never too deep into the center of the city. I do have some apprehension over what I thought hunting and fishing would be like here as opposed to what it actually will be. Every person I talk to has so much negativity about the quality of hunting here with the one common denominator being over crowding. I keep hearing about the sea of orange when deer and elk hunting and also being told that to fish the best streams and rivers only on weekdays because weekends are a nightmare. I’m really trying to maintain an open mind towards it all. It is beautiful here and the weather is awesome. For every one crappy cold snowy day you usually get another 5 slightly warmer and with plenty of sunshine,

Having grown up in the Western state with the biggest population of crazy people and now 21 years in Alaska, I just don't think I could do Colorado with the option of Wyoming, Idaho or Montana yes.

But as AK cub says, any big city in any state is going to have it's share of communist do gooders and morons. It's a sad fact of life, put too many people in one spot and the stupid bubbles to the surface.

Pretty much what I alluded to. You move here from a very crowded place to one not so crowded it seems like paradise, but now since everyone moving here it will be the same as what you left soon if it isn't already.To those of us who were here when it was 50,000 it is like a nightmare

I lived in CO for 5 years and loved it. 2001 - 2006

Yes, traffic was bad and getting worse. I think the I25 corridor from the Springs up to Ft Collins is the second fastest growing area behind the I5 corridor around Seattle. There are also a lot of jobs though.

Denver, Boulder, and the Fort are liberal. No two ways about it. The Springs is getting more so. That said, there are a lot of great areas away from the population centers if a job isn't the first priority.

Loved the area in SW from Pagosa Springs up through Montrose to around Grand Junction and most spots SW of that line.

Also liked a lot of the area North and West of the park and up into Wyoming.

I hear Montana is real nice.

go to Idaho , I have heard really nice things about their hospitality.

Texas is the place to be.

Native CO here. Front range has gone down hill, becoming the LA of the Rockies. We have all the same groups as LA, the problems of LA etc.

The wife and I were heading out of this hell hole and moving north but got hit with health problems that took all we had to just survive. On top of it all we needed to stay due to both families were going downhill also. I do have three places in this state that are still open that I know about. You still have to deal with a governor from Chicago and liberal politics that do not take into account anyone outside of the front range.

If you want a wilderness experience in hunting it is here but you will work for it. Then again, people complain about the orange during the seasons, but if you know how to work the pilgrims meat can be taken.

We did some traveling a few yeas ago through out the west and saw the same thing happening all over each state with the possibility that WY being the least similarly taken over.

I can name you a dozen great places to live in Colorado with little effort. Now if you need a job, that is another story...

kind of the same thing here.....the SLC valley has all the people............

from Spanish Fork to Logan.......but thats where the jobs are.......

I don't need/want a job.....wife has a State job 12 miles from the farm.....

I open the gate every morning for her....have a nice day honey................

I can always find stuff to do in Podunk......

Give 'Flave a shout. His in-laws are in Blaine which is pretty close.