Moving to Colorado

avp7401 · Oct 18, 2013

You may also want to try looking outside of Denver. Aurora isnt that far away and home prices are much cheaper there (We just sold a townhome for $152k, which was on the high end of the price range for our area). Westminster, Thornton, Arvada and areas of North Denver are also going to be cheaper than Denver proper. There are actually more hospitals outside of the Metro area anyway. Just a thought :)

evieinco · Oct 22, 2013

You can try going north. I live in Fort Collins but work at the hospital in Cheyenne, Wy. There are quite a few of us (at least on my unit) that commute from FoCo to WY. WY pays better and if you look at housing in Wellington (just north of FoCo) you can get a house for a good price. Wellington is only 30 minutes from Cheyenne. The only draw back the stretch of interstate you have to drive in the winter. Sometimes it closes due to weather. In the 9 months I've been employed at Cheyenne, I've been "stuck" there 4 times. They do put you up, and I keep an overnight bag in my car at all times now, but it still sucks.

I just got back from Denver. I went there to see about relocating from Illinois. My opinion is solely based on spending one day with a real estate agent and talking with a nurse I went to school with 3 years ago. I felt that the cost of housing was out of my price range and that although the area was beautiful I would be house-poor. I looked at buying in the Denver area and small condos and houses were going for $200,000. From what I understand nurses are paid around $26 per hour then add on differentials. I'm too old to go back to having roommates, so I just couldn't see making the move. I'm going to look at other areas of the country where my dollar will go farther. Just my take on the situation.