Moving to Colorado

LilRedRN1973 · Dec 17, 2003

You'll be lucky to find a house for that amount. SF is ridiculous when it comes to living conditions. My friend just bought a house there in Marin (outside the Bay area just across the Golden Gate Bridge) and paid just under a million for a 3bd/2ba/2gar that is about 1800 sq ft. It's a cute house, but not for a million bucks!!! I LOVE the Bay area and make frequent trips to visit (I'm near Lake Tahoe, which is only about 6 hours from SF) but I would never live there due to the high cost of living. Go check out this website and compare the city you are in now with SF....

http://www.monstermoving.com/Find_a_Place/Compare2Cities/results.asp

LilRedRN1973 · Dec 17, 2003

Also check out http://www.realtor.com to see pics and information on properties available. I'm sorry I can't tell you what the nice areas are in SF (except for Nob Hill...gotta have deep pockets to live there) but maybe someone here on the board lives there and knows the city well.

iliel · Dec 17, 2003

my friend bought a house on petero hill, 1300 sqft and 900,000. It's a fixer-upper. They've had to replace so much, and not because they didn't like the way it looks, but because of things breaking. Needless to say, they're getting a little ticked.

I also have a friend who is a nurse, and her pay dosn't make up for the cost of living when it comes to buying a house. Figure this, I saw this on MSN a while back. Only 12% of the San Fran pop can afford a home, compared with 75% in Vegas and our average home price is 250,000 and rising. (which is VERY cheap BTW)

kastas, BSN, RN · Dec 17, 2003

Hey girls, didn't she say Colorado? Am I the confused one?

iliel · Dec 17, 2003

Originally posted by kastas
Hey girls, didn't she say Colorado? Am I the confused one?

yeah, but i think she ment ca, maybe hit the wrong thread..oh well

LilRedRN1973 · Dec 17, 2003

I was thinking the same thing and had to read over her post a few times to make it said Frisco area. =)

Mazie · Dec 18, 2003

Sorry guys! I did mean Colorado. Frisco Colorado,near Breckenridge and Dillon. Thanks!

LilRedRN1973 · Dec 18, 2003

ROFL...boy, do I feel like a big dummy!!! LOL

kastas, BSN, RN · Dec 18, 2003

:roll :roll :roll

LOL, I really thought you knew what you were talking about. I saw it posted under the CO heading and CO was in the Subject.

Anyway, I too have been contemplating a move to CO. We have looked into Denver and the suburbs, also Vail and Aspen. All have very expensive housing. I think the 250K range is accurate for a starter home there. WOW, very expensive. We looked into apartments to try and save for a bit before buying. A 3br 1-2ba looks to be $1200+/mo. It's a hard decision, but the dream of a life time for we ski-bunnies.

Terri

LilRedRN1973 · Dec 18, 2003

Move to Tahoe....plenty of ski resorts here....Heavenly, Alpine, Kirkwood (which is number #3 or #4 for the amount of snow in the US), Squaw, and about 8 other resorts. But I understand the call of the Rockies......I used to live in Steamboat Springs and I remember how beautiful it was there. We have actually considered moving there, but we can't afford the Denver area (which is where I would like to live). My best friend lives in Boulder and keeps trying to get us to move there.....HA...we couldn't afford Boulder unless we won the stinking lottery! I went looking on realtor.com to see what was available in the Denver area and could not find anything under $225k that wasn't a townhouse or condo. I'm not sure how my friend has been able to afford it. She makes about $32 an hour as a flight attendant, but that's not enough to be able to afford that.

So we have looked at other places in the state...Montrose for one. Cost of living is pretty cheap, as is real estate. Plus, it's really pretty there. But we have to take a trip there as a family to see if hubbie will like it.

RoseYonnex · Dec 26, 2003

Hi Mazie!

I live in Breckenridge, CO. I am currently taking pre-requisites to get into nursing school. Right now I am a court reporter and own a business.

But I can tell you that the cost of living that you quoted is about right. It is very expensive to live here because it is basically ski towns in Summit and Eagle Counties. (if it wasn't for the ski industry, there would be no towns!) There are a lot of second homeowners around. You can, however, sometimes save some money by living off of the beaten path if you are willing to drive. Where are you planning to move to exactly?

Just to give you an overview of the area: Summit County includes the cities of Breckenridge, Frisco, Silverthorne, Dillon, Keystone. And Eagle County includes the towns of Vail, Beaver Creek, Avon, Edwards, Eagle, Gypsum. Those are the major cities in the counties. The "Vail" area is approximately 45 minutes over Vail Pass from Frisco on I-70.

The main hospital in this area is the Vail Valley Medical Center and is located in Vail. However, they are planning to build a hospital in Frisco in the near future. I'm hoping that by the time I get out of school that may be finished. There is a small medical center in Frisco, and there is one in Breckenridge. But most of those patients are eventually taken to the main hospital in Vail. Everybody who has a baby in Summit County does it at the Vail hospital.

I don't really think that the hospital pays more for the cost of living (at least that I've heard). Most "locals" as we call them, just live in smaller homes compared to the rest of the country. People just adapt. The quality of life is much better if you like the out doors. The great majority of the people move here because they love to ski, they love snow, and the summers are awesome!! People here buy a modest place, then they gradually move up house-wise once they have built up equity in the home. But, there is no place to buy for $65,000!!! (I wish!) I would say the average home price is $300,000 for a small home. Then maybe $200,000 for a townhome. The Vail area is generally more expensive than Summit County.

One thing to note for the state of Colorado in general is that there is no difference in salary between an RN that has a bachelors and an associates-degree RN. (So if you get your bachelors, you may as well get your master's to get a pay increase.) I don't know if it is different in Texas, but that is one thing to consider if you have to start over and start at the bottom again.

Anyway...I hope I've been helpful! If you have any more questions, please email me!

Rosie