Columbus, OH to Denver, CO

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columbus

Recycles dryer sheets
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columbus
Hi there,
I was just wondering if anyone has made a similar big move. I'm 35, married with two small children(3 and 1), lived in ohio my whole life and while we have many friends near us and family a few hours away we love denver and are considering a move if one of us gets a good job opportunity. We have 4 properties in columbus, good jobs and live in a great neighborhood/best school district so we don't want to make a foolish decision but on the other hand feel like the weather/outdoor life we want for us and our kids would be better in denver...especially long term. Are we crazy?

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I made a similar move when I was 26. I moved from western PA to Denver. I haven't regretted it a single day and that was 14+ years ago. My whole family still lives in PA and Ohio so we go back to visit 2-4 times a year.

The weather in Denver is so much nicer. It is sunny about 300 days a year, there are so many things to do, the mountains are close by, it's never humid either.

The downside is that Denver is growing super fast right now so the housing market is a little crazy if you want to live right in Denver. There is a lot of new construction though, both near downtown (condos) and in many of the suburbs (homes and condos). Traffic can be a real pain, depending on where you live/work.

From what I can tell, the job market is good. DH and I have both been self employed for the past 10 years so I am out of touch with what careers have good opportunities here.

There are definitely good schools here plus a good number of charter schools that are public. I am so happy that my daughter will grow up here.
 
I feel like half of my friends from college ended up moving from columbus to Denver. They were told "don't tell your friends back home how awesome it is, we don't need any more Midwesterners!"

They all love it there and wouldn't move back for anything. Me? I'm staying in the buckeye state.
 
We have a few very good college friends that made the move years ago and absolutely love it...that is driving sone of this. None of them have kuds though so plenty of free time. We did notice some housing prices are very high...and we would want to be in a best school district, good commute, etc to make such a big move.

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It is terrible here: not enough water, increasingly crazy housing prices, crappy schools in the city of Denver, rattlesnakes, blizzards, etc. Stay in Ohio.
 
REWahoo said:
The only place I like less than Denver is Texas.
Click to expand...

Actually, I think OP would be far happier "where the stars at night are big and bright" rather than Denver.
 
I grew up in booming SoCal, I've lived in Denver (in the mid-80's) and now live in Ohio. Some things about Denver were really nice--highly variable weather (It'll get cold, but it won't stay dreary for a week at a time), the open spaces once out of the city, beautiful nearby mountains (and skiing). But I wouldn't move back there. I sure wouldn't go back to SoCal. The cost of living is so much more moderate where we are that it helps on the 'ol budget quite a bit, and opens up other options. The ack of congestion is fantastic, people just seem to get a lot less friendly when packed in cheek-by-jowl. Plus, we're not big on boomtowns--we saw Denver/Aurora blow up due to overbuilding, and we lived through a similar spike in Las Vegas. Lots of "new", lots of transient people and families. We prefer a town were people have roots, extended family, and a longstanding stake in the health of the community--I think it makes the job of being a parent considerably easier.
But, I can understand the attraction.
When I chat with travelers who grew up in the Midwest, many long for a more exciting home somewhere else. They've probably never had the fun of crawling along in six lanes of stop-and-go traffic with all their neighbors for two hours. Every day. People who moved to the Midwest from a more trendy spot often appreciate what they have quite a bit more.
 
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columbus said:
Hi there,
I was just wondering if anyone has made a similar big move. I'm 35, married with two small children(3 and 1), lived in ohio my whole life and while we have many friends near us and family a few hours away we love denver and are considering a move if one of us gets a good job opportunity. We have 4 properties in columbus, good jobs and live in a great neighborhood/best school district so we don't want to make a foolish decision but on the other hand feel like the weather/outdoor life we want for us and our kids would be better in denver...especially long term. Are we crazy?

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app
Click to expand...

I would also checkout Utah and Washington for job opportunities.

I just spent a month at Keystone snowboarding. I go to Park city Utah every year also.

Denver is a cool city but man is it getting crowded. Its a top destination for college grads.

If you ski or snowboard it definitely would be worth the move and your kids will be very lucky to grow up near world class ski resorts. :LOL:
 
If it gets any more crowded, nobody is going to want to live there!
 
moved five times in eight years...Portland to Miami, Miami to Phoenix, Phoenix to Houston, Houston to DC, DC to Denver. Been in Denver since 1989. Great place to live and very easy to make friends.

Plus, I am moving to Az full time so you can have my slot in Denver.
 
I lived in Colorado (not Denver) 40 years ago, about the time they first came out with the "Native" bumper stickers. Even way back then, people were complaining about all the newcomers from other states clogging up the roads and raising home prices.
 
I have moved all over the country for work reasons in my career. CA to OH to KY to TX to CA to NM. One thing that I have concluded, every location has good and bad points. It depends on how you prioritize those points as to whether you like or dislike a location.

My sister lives in Denver area, it is a very big city and reminds me too much of being in CA with traffic, housing costs rising, and recent political climate. In other words CO is becoming californicated, a lot of that because too many CA transplants. Denver is great for activities, and I would rather be there than Columbus, given those as two options. That is mostly because I would rather be in sunny and lower humidity.

I think Denver can be good for a young person with the vibrant local economy. Assuming you can get a good job, I would not call you crazy.
 
Serious question about "not enough water." Is this potentially a crisis in waiting?

I have a rain barrel I use to water my plants. Heard that was illegal there. Gotta let the water go to feed California or something.

CO is one area I'd consider moving to, if I got sick of the humidity here in the Southeast. But that humidity means infrequent at worst droughts.
 
Ok, here's a compromise; stay in Columbus, retire early, then go visit Denver and stay with all your friends.

That's my plan...
 
We have 4 properties in columbus
Click to expand...

This made me queasy. Would you want to sell these? Being an absentee landlord is NOT for the faint of heart.
 
Denver is a nice city, but it is a big city with all of the big city trappings. Coming from Columbus, will you be able to handle the change? Or are you considering something outside of the city? I would spend a lot of time in the Denver area before I made a decision to move there.

I wanted to move to the Denver area several times in the last 40 years. Each time the desire came up, I went there and returned unsure. I just got back from a trip through the Boulder/Longmont area. Great towns, but the winters there are still a little rough for me.
 
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My wife says we would wsnt ti be in cherry creek schools/area south of downtown. It looks extremely expensive but at least property taxes seem to be quite a bit lower than columbus. We would plan to keep and rent all property still in columbus atleast until we are settled fir good which is a concern but atleast I have worked in an industry that did this for clients. Wife has interview for an hr position at a college in denver next week so we will see how that goes. All of your replies are very helpful...such a hard decision especially with kids and properties in ohio. I also don't wsnt to spend another 10 years wishing we had moved and not knowing. We have planned to stay put and then try to retire early...travel...spend time out there...but I also think if we move out now we can enjoy it while we are somewhat young and healthy. People in Colorado stay healthier than ohio too leading me ti think retirement could be better if i stayed healthier. Also it woukd be nice to have our kids maybe stay there...im sure we won't want to leave them and grandkids to live in another state.

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We lived in the Denver area for many years. We had a great experience in the Littleton schools through grade school but were not too thrilled with sending our kids to middle school and high school. I had an opportunity to move to SE Virginia with a pay increase that allowed us to put our kids in a highly rated private school. The thing that really stood out to me was in our home in Denver the kids were out running around the neighborhood with other kids all the time. The adults would congregate on a porch and drink beer and enjoy the evenings. In Virginia, I just did not see the kids out playing. They all stayed inside because of the heat and humidity. The same for the adults. This all happened close to 15 years ago.
 
columbus said:
My wife says we would wsnt ti be in cherry creek schools/area south of downtown. It looks extremely expensive but at least property taxes seem to be quite a bit lower than columbus. We would plan to keep and rent all property still in columbus atleast until we are settled fir good which is a concern but atleast I have worked in an industry that did this for clients. Wife has interview for an hr position at a college in denver next week so we will see how that goes. All of your replies are very helpful...such a hard decision especially with kids and properties in ohio. I also don't wsnt to spend another 10 years wishing we had moved and not knowing. We have planned to stay put and then try to retire early...travel...spend time out there...but I also think if we move out now we can enjoy it while we are somewhat young and healthy. People in Colorado stay healthier than ohio too leading me ti think retirement could be better if i stayed healthier. Also it woukd be nice to have our kids maybe stay there...im sure we won't want to leave them and grandkids to live in another state.


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Click to expand...

Go for it. You are young and your kids will have no transition issues at their young age.

Colorado is awesome!

If my mega corp. allowed job transfers. Colorado would be at the top of my list.:)
 
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