[quote=permabear] . . . Personally, I’m just as torn as Doooh. You could keep saving aggressively for 5 or so years and renting, and you’d have upwards of $1M. Once you get to that point, the compounding interest makes chucking it all and living in a decent city in Colorado pretty compelling.
Or you could indebt yourself to a $750k mortgage if you just “have to own” in SD at current prices. Mathematically, it’s a no-brainer, but SD does have enough charms left to make it a tough call………[/quote]
permabear, I lived in Denver, CO in the seventies and am a mountain person and skier. I’ve been checking on and off this year on the cost of housing there (for retirement purposes). It’s astronomical. While Boulder (28 mi NW of dtn Denver) generally has pretty good schools, its RE prices are beyond recognition for a 1950’s brick ranch there.
Colo’s RE prices are absolutely breathtaking in mountain towns (esp ski resort towns). The best areas of Denver are also very expensive (i.e. Wash Park, Bonnie Brae, Cherry Creek, Park Hill, LoDo). Lots of gingerbread and character and very, very well-built houses, many with full basements but briansd1 would say they are `antiquated.’ Many are on high-speed rail (dtn in five minutes). Piggs might automatically surmise Denver’s schools are crap (NOT true). Your $750K mortgage would get you “in” there, just like in SD’s finest neighborhoods. It would NOT get you into an SFR that you would consider “suitable” in Aspen, Vail, Steamboat or Telluride (maybe one less than 1000 sf which needed a complete rehab). In lower-income areas outlying Denver, the incidence of distressed property is very, very high. In some areas, the beginnings of “ghost towns” are on the radar. These are usually flat areas out in the plains NOT in close proximity to Dtn Denver or Boulder but 20-70 miles out.
In addition, life can be HARD and STRENUOUS in CO, UT and WY at least 9 mos per year. The air is thin, the wind blows hard and the often impromptu snowstorms can be brutal. You need to carry a rug, shovel, sandbags and tire cables in your vehicle, as well as a door de-icer, large lighter, wide putty knife, heavy-duty scraper and snow brush. If your garage is not heated (or you don’t have one), you will need a block heater on your vehicle to get it started up and idling 40-45 mins ahead of the time you need to leave for work. Then you may slide all the way to work on treacherous and crowded highways, in which lengthy military caravans have the right of way in all weather and many fwy entrance ramps stop abruptly at the top and do not always blend in to the highway (like the wonderful CALTRANS engineering we’re used to). When you get out to your employer’s parking lot at 5:00 p.m., there could be 3′ or more of snow on your vehicle and its doors could be frozen shut. (You weren’t in a hurry to leave, were you?)
The valet parking attendant who takes your vehicle to the Sheraton Thunderhead Steamboat’s garage while the bellhop takes your gear and luggage up a heated elevator to your room is NOT REAL Colorado living! It is a mechanism to keep CA, FL or TX residents’ tourist-fantasies alive and keep them coming back. There, your rental car never needs scraping the whole time it was parked underground while you skied to your room, jacuzzi cabana or Irish pub at 4:30 p.m. every evening, all where your fav cocktails are waiting. And of course, you don’t have to be anywhere by 8:00 a.m. the next morning except maybe to meet your cronies for a hot toddy downstairs so you all can don your neoprene masks and catch the first high-speed lift at 8:30 a.m. to Priest Creek to ride the fresh powder from the night before. No traffic jam necessary.
Getting to WORK on time on a daily basis in CO is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT STORY.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, some San Diego Piggs pondering defecting from SD County seem to have this “illusion” that the grass is greener in other places such as: their bills will be less, they or their spouse will be able to quit work, or work PT, everything will be cheaper and life will be less stressful. They never consider bigger utility bills, expensive auto insurance, higher property taxes, commuting to work in icy weather, snow tires, extra doctor visits, possible need to relearn to drive, cost of heavy winter clothing and gear, possible need for AWD vehicle, having to pay for trash pickup and possibly suffering from seasonal affective disorder (SAD), etc, when the winters drag on into June. Living in CO year-round is not for the faint of heart (figuratively AND literally speaking)!
I think many San Diegans take their hometown for granted and don’t realize how simple OUR lives are to those hardy residents who live in other regions that look “glamorous” and “enticing” to some of us to relocate to (on paper only). When day-to-day reality hits at the new locale, it’s often a different life entirely than what many of us “lightweight” San Diegans had bargained for.
’nuff lecture. permabear, if you’re still considering relocating to CO, better keep saving and take the whole $1M+ with you and have a good job waiting for you there when you arrive. Just my moderately insightful .02.
