questions on Colorado living

[4runnerboi]

I know my questions might sound silly but I really would like any feed back on living on Colorado. I have lived in the Dallas TX area all my life and want a change. I have been thinking of the Co area because I love to fly fish and anything outdoors.

1. What months does it snow in the Denver area on average? I have never really dealt with snow a lot. Dallas gets it a few times a year and it is mostly Ice and sleet so driving sucks.
2. Do they shut down schools and businesses when it does snow? ( If it snows in the Dallas area , it seems like everything closes)
3. Does the state keep the roads pretty clean of snow and ice? I see on the east coast currently , they are getting pounded and close everything.
4. What is it like to live in the city area? Do I need to avoid living in downtown?
5. I noticed the cost of living is slightly higher in CO. Website showed me if you make 50k in Dallas you need to make 54k too be equal. Sound right?
6. Is the job market hard to land a job? I am in the tech industry.
7. Do you ever say, " I am so tired of the snow that I want to get out of CO".
8. Any little thing you all can share would be great.

I have only been to Lake City , CO and I really like the state. Never been to Denver but I assume thats where a lot of the jobs are.

Thanks . JP.

 

[LandCruiser]

1. What months does it snow in the Denver area on average? I have never really dealt with snow a lot. Dallas gets it a few times a year and it is mostly Ice and sleet so driving sucks.

This year has been bad, but you can expect to see snow from October to Memorial day. Whether it melts the next day, or sticks around for a week with -10 degree temperatures depends on the year, this year has been bad.

2. Do they shut down schools and businesses when it does snow? ( If it snows in the Dallas area , it seems like everything closes)

If the snow catches the plow crews by surprise, sometimes. Most schools are delayed by 1-2 hours. If you look at school buses, they have chains dangling from their rear diffs.

3. Does the state keep the roads pretty clean of snow and ice? I see on the east coast currently , they are getting pounded and close everything.

Main roads, yes, side roads and subdivisions, no.

4. What is it like to live in the city area? Do I need to avoid living in downtown?

Most people live in the suburbs (Aurora, etc) due to high taxes, high crime, ridiculous gun laws.

5. I noticed the cost of living is slightly higher in CO. Website showed me if you make 50k in Dallas you need to make 54k too be equal. Sound right?


Colorado has a 4.6% income tax, property taxes in most areas are actually very low.

6. Is the job market hard to land a job? I am in the tech industry.

Yes.

7. Do you ever say, " I am so tired of the snow that I want to get out of CO".

This year has been very bad.

 

[bofa]

We moved here from Florida last Summer, so I'll give you my initial impressions. I also lived in downtown Denver for a couple of years previously.

1. What months does it snow in the Denver area on average? I have never really dealt with snow a lot. Dallas gets it a few times a year and it is mostly Ice and sleet so driving sucks.
2. Do they shut down schools and businesses when it does snow? ( If it snows in the Dallas area , it seems like everything closes)
3. Does the state keep the roads pretty clean of snow and ice? I see on the east coast currently , they are getting pounded and close everything.
4. What is it like to live in the city area? Do I need to avoid living in downtown?
5. I noticed the cost of living is slightly higher in CO. Website showed me if you make 50k in Dallas you need to make 54k too be equal. Sound right?
6. Is the job market hard to land a job? I am in the tech industry.
7. Do you ever say, " I am so tired of the snow that I want to get out of CO".
8. Any little thing you all can share would be great.

I have only been to Lake City , CO and I really like the state. Never been to Denver but I assume thats where a lot of the jobs are.

1. First snow is as early as October and last is as late as May. Snow is the exception though really, especially in Denver. One thing you don't hear is that it will be 50-60 degrees, sunny, and beautiful most of the time in between the snow. And because of the dryness and proximity to the sun, 50-60 is comparable to 70s in FL.

2. Not really, especially in Douglas county. They've yet to have a snow day and we've gotten as much as 8" overnight and in the negative teens at times (those have been the "worst" so far).

3. Road clearing is mostly owned by the city. The main roads and highways are pretty well maintained but the neighborhood and back roads usually aren't. Be prepared to drive in the muck.

4. Living in Downtown depends on you. I rented a place in Brooks Towers and it was great being able to walk to work, find all kinds of restaurants nearby, have groceries and dry-cleaning delivered, and never really needing to drive. When they made us start working out of the Broomfield location it kind of sucked because traffic was pretty awful, and that was 6 years or so ago. Also, I couldn't imagine living downtown with a family or dogs. It only worked because I was there mostly during the week and went home on weekends. Living in Denver is pretty expensive too.

5. The cost of living comparisons are a bit subjective. Property prices may be higher here but I'm willing to bet property taxes are lower. The biggest difference for you will be getting used to paying state income taxes (4.63%).

6. The job market is tough in most places right now. I would try to land a job before you get here.

7. My family thinks we're nuts but we love the snow. I'm not sick of it. Really once it comes down, the roads clear up nicely and it just makes for nice scenery.

8. We are very happy with our decision. Note that Denver is not gun friendly but some of the surrounding areas are. Being from Texas, I am assuming that might be of some importance. There are plenty of great places to live outside of Denver that will still let you access the city as needed. I would really look into landing a job first so you can make a better decision on where to live. A lot of the tech jobs have been shifting out of downtown and toward the 'burbs, which could mean more affordable housing.

I would highly suggest visiting before you make your final decision. If you are leaning toward living downtown, stay at a hotel there but be sure to venture out of the city.

 

[4runnerboi]

repsonses of CO living.

Wow I did not expect such great replies. I just threw Denver out there because I assumed thats where a lot of jobs are but heck I would live anywhere reasonable in CO as long as I had a good job. I will take that suggestion of going to a hotel and exploring the cities. I also have to think about the temps of negative degrees. I think the lowest we had in the DFW area is around 9-12. I can't imagine negative -1 or more. Yes I would hope to have a job before doing any type of move. Well appreciate it all and the feed back is very very much appreciated. I have some vision of short trips on weekends to snowboard or fly fish with out taking a day off. In TX you have to take a flight or plan a long drive to do any of that.
JP.

 

[bofa]

Really, once you hit single digits, I find it hard to tell the difference between that and -18. F-ing cold is f-ing cold.


If you plan to make frequent trips to the mountains, you will want to look west of the city or maybe find a virtual job and live in the high country. The trip from Denver to the slopes lately has taken around 6-7 hours on the weekends. It's a mad rush.


What kind of IT work do you do?

 

[4runnerboi]

Co

[MENTION=80047]bofa[/MENTION] My goal is maybe 2 years from now. I know a lot can change but just pondering the idea. I just thought I would start to look in to it now. I assume your move from FL to CO is not an easy task or spur of the moment idea. I am in IT sales and have done procurement in IT. I am pretty flexible on things though. thanks for all the input.

Back to guns. I am not an owner of a gun even though I am fine with them. What exactly is this new Denver law on guns? Can you just not carry or they are outlawed like in the Uk?

 

[bofa]

[MENTION=80047]bofa[/MENTION] My goal is maybe 2 years from now. I know a lot can change but just pondering the idea. I just thought I would start to look in to it now. I assume your move from FL to CO is not an easy task or spur of the moment idea. I am in IT sales and have done procurement in IT. I am pretty flexible on things though. thanks for all the input.

Back to guns. I am not an owner of a gun even though I am fine with them. What exactly is this new Denver law on guns? Can you just not carry or they are outlawed like in the Uk?

Definitely not spur of the moment. I wanted to move here since my days working downtown but had some challenges that made it impossible for a few years. Once my wife and I were in a position to make it happen, we still took about a year and a half to plan, visit, get her a new job, and to coordinate everything.

My biggest gripe about Denver gun restrictions is the 10 round mag cap limit. That eliminates some of the most popular and reliable personal defense firearms in the market. My second is they prohibit "assault rifles". They also do not allow Saturday night specials or open carry. I wouldn't expect any NFA approvals either.

 

[grey_ghost]

Well it's not just the gun control issue if you're going to bring that up. Without passing judgment I'll just say the most obvious adjustment in this kind of move is shifting to a very strong red state to a blue state; Texas is of course much more politically conservative than Colorado.
If you're not too much into political issues this might not bother you. Colorado is not as liberal blue as say California or New York and in fact it was a bit "purple" as recent as 2006, but it has sort of swung back to blue during Obama's administration.
Obama carried Colorado in both of his elections and the state supports things like marijuana legalization, more gun ownership restrictions, lower tuition for illegal alien students, same-sex marriage, and recent state-wide consideration of repealing the death penalty.
Of course a lot of these things stir up emotional debate so we don't need to re-hash that here, i'm just pointing out Texas & Colorado are very different in this respect.

 

[bofa]

Well it's not just the gun control issue if you're going to bring that up. Without passing judgment I'll just say the most obvious adjustment in this kind of move is shifting to a very strong red state to a blue state; Texas is of course much more politically conservative than Colorado.
If you're not too much into political issues this might not bother you. Colorado is not as liberal blue as say California or New York and in fact it was a bit "purple" as recent as 2006, but it has sort of swung back to blue during Obama's administration.
Obama carried Colorado in both of his elections and the state supports things like marijuana legalization, more gun ownership restrictions, lower tuition for illegal alien students, same-sex marriage, and recent state-wide consideration of repealing the death penalty.
Of course a lot of these things stir up emotional debate so we don't need to re-hash that here, i'm just pointing out Texas & Colorado are very different in this respect.

True in some aspects but I don't think it's fair to say that the state as a whole supports all of these positions. Recent recall elections and resignations show that it's not that cut and dry here. Hickenlooper himself didn't campaign on these issues and still only got in with a 51% vote, but once in office his true ambitions have surfaced. I think the state is still purple, but you only get to rectify that every 4 years in most cases. I'm interested to see what happens later this year. Politics has a rubber band effect... you pull too far one way and it will eventually bounce back.

But, yeah it doesn't even come close to TX or FL on some issues. I'd welcome any new conservative residents though.

 

[LandCruiser]

Once you get below 0, with wind chill, the time it takes to get frostbite/windburn on exposed skin is minutes.

That's the big difference.

Regarding guns, in Denver you cannot own semi-automatic rifles, there's a 10 round cap (state has 15--which still sucks). But wait, there's more, the capacity restrictions mean that magazines modified to take 10 (from 12 or 15) are also prohibited.

bofa mentioned you can't open carry. OC laws in the state vary widely from county to county, but I guarantee that unless you're in a very red redneck town, even if it's legal people WILL call the cops on you and depending on whether the responding officer understands the laws and is in a good mood you may wind up with a fine or jail time.

The state is very liberal (coming from Florida and growing up in Alabama). There are lots of conservatives, but at times it seems that the libs are the ones running things and passing idiotic laws. We'll see what the current election will do to the make-up of the state. The last two liberal "wish list" items that really pissed people off were the tax hike for schools (which failed) and the background check and mag bans (which were rammed thru the state legislature without citizens getting a right to vote, we had to recall the *******s responsible, instead).

I hate liberals and hippies. So I've had to lock myself in the basement when the wife's friends come over as not to chase them away with my spite.

 

[RonMAIDEN]

The mountains get4 the snow but across the front range the snow factor doesnt have much of an impact especially this year as we haven't had any accumulation over 6-7 inches in Denver in a single storm and the blizzards are far and inbetween.

 

[MtnT4R]

Well you guys pretty much said it all. After the amount of research Bofa did before his move, he could probably employed as a state representative.

I wouldnt worry much about the cold temps and snow: you have a 4Runner, and there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing choices :thumb:

The only people I ever see complain about the cold arent dressed properly. Gear up and you are good to go. Best of luck in your decision

 

[LandCruiser]

The mountains get4 the snow but across the front range the snow factor doesnt have much of an impact especially this year as we haven't had any accumulation over 6-7 inches in Denver in a single storm and the blizzards are far and inbetween.

I'm a bit of a ways between Colo Spgs and Woodland Park. We see a bit more of snow, my back porch had over a foot the last week of January.

The mule deer come down from the mountains and try to break into my garage. Not sure what they want in there? The beer?

 

[bofa]

Well you guys pretty much said it all. After the amount of research Bofa did before his move, he could probably employed as a state representative.

I wouldnt worry much about the cold temps and snow: you have a 4Runner, and there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing choices :thumb:

The only people I ever see complain about the cold arent dressed properly. Gear up and you are good to go. Best of luck in your decision

That reminds me... here's my original thread from 2012 that had a lot of Q&A and good info. http://www.toyota-4runner.org/off-topic/125766-colorado-wisdom.html

Just ignore 04rnr.

 

[MyHigh]

I don't live in Denver, but visited once for a snowmobile trip. The only advise I can give is to purchase your house in the winter. I only say this because depending on the frontage of your house could decide whether or not you need a snow shovel! The family I visited lived on the side of the street that had to shovel while across the street everything was clear of snow.

Chime in locals, was my friend just pulling my leg or is their a difference depending on west facing or ??? That results in sun exposure and melting of any snow accumulation?

For me it was something else, seeing one side of the street having all the homes needing to shovel snow while 60 feet away there being no snow at all.

 

[bofa]

I don't live in Denver, but visited once for a snowmobile trip. The only advise I can give is to purchase your house in the winter. I only say this because depending on the frontage of your house could decide whether or not you need a snow shovel! The family I visited lived on the side of the street that had to shovel while across the street everything was clear of snow.

Chime in locals, was my friend just pulling my leg or is their a difference depending on west facing or ??? That results in sun exposure and melting of any snow accumulation?

For me it was something else, seeing one side of the street having all the homes needing to shovel snow while 60 feet away there being no snow at all.

:lol: It's absolutely true. Face North and you will always be shoveling. East or West isn't as bad but you have less time for the Sun to help out. Facing South seems to be the ticket to avoiding the shovel.

Our new place faces North unfortunately.