Anyone live in Parker?

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Hello all. I'm a fairly new grad (December 15) working in the metro New Orleans area. My wife and I are considering moving from here to the Denver area (for numerous reasons), and one of the suburbs we like a lot is Parker. Been looking at home prices, and it seems like the cheapest decent home that would work for us is at least 320k. My wife works now (low-paying local government position), but she has expressed interest in not working for at least a year until our daughter enters pre-school.

So my question, any nurses live in or around this area? Is it possible to sustain on a nurses salary and live in this part of town? What if it's only my income (or mostly my income)?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

For reference, I'm an ED nurse, and my current pay (including diff) is like $28 an hour.

Thanks!

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

Cost of living in Denver is really high. I would try to secure a job before making the move. It is definitely a seller's housing market - houses in the $300K and under range go FAST, so you need to have your ducks in a row before making an offer.

Parker is a decent area, but I prefer to be closer to Denver, and prefer more established, older neighborhoods, so I personally would never want to live there, but that's just me.

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Awesome, thanks for the info. What neighborhoods would you suggest? Not dead set on Parker. Just pretty sure I don't want to live in Aurora. Parker just seemed to have a really good public school system (which, where I'm currently living, does NOT), and I have a 5 year old and a 1 year old.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

Jeffco has good schools. Adams 50 (now called Westminster Public Schools) has some good elementary schools, although the middle school is not, IMO.

Cherry Creek is probably known as having the best schools, but it's also really expensive to live there. I am of the opinion that it's less about the district and the school, and more about the individual teacher and the student.

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I live in Centennial in between Parker and Aurora. The housing market is crazy here and a lot of the time houses sell for more than asking. I don't think you should dismiss Aurora so quickly. There are some beautiful areas of Aurora with good school districts. It's not all bad. You just have to do your research. That being said, you should definitely secure a job first. Rent is even crazier than buying right now.

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I've traveled out to Parker a few times. It felt really isolated to me and the traffic is horrendous. Depends on where you want to work but maybe consider checking out some of the communities around I-25 North of Denver like Erie, Firestone, Northglenn...would give you easier access to potential jobs. Also second not moving here until you've secured a job.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

I second Oceanblue's suggestions to check out the north/northwest suburbs. We've lived in Westminster for the past 6+ years and love it here. I'm 20 minutes away from both Boulder and downtown Denver. Westminster/Thornton/Northglenn seem to be the only areas close to Denver now where you can still buy a house under $300k.

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Specializes in Mental Health.

I'm a single mom in Parker and I love it! And I really don't like the Thornton/Westminster/Northglen area. Traffic here is not that bad. It's definitely possible to live off of one income, I just budget very carefully. If you have any questions let me know.

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