try www.pilotfamilies.com

Boulder is a cool town.... to visit! Housing there is MUCH higher than the rest of Colorado. Traffic always seems pretty nasty up there as well. If you lean towards the "right" Boulder might come as quite a shock as well, it's nickname is "The People's Socialist Republic of Boulder." That being said it has a lot of great hiking and biking and is after-all a college town. And I bet those CU tickets will be easy to come by this year, can't wait for CSU to exact some punishment this weekend!

You may also consider the poor-mans Boulder, also known as Golden. While Boulder makes much better beer (Singletrack vs. Coors Light), Golden is still reasonable for housing, is in the foothills, and is the closest suburb to the major ski resorts. It also has a nice little downtown area that feels like it is in the mountains with several bars and restaurants.

Home Prices
 

WOW! I am getting a little discouraged looking for houses on Realtor.com in Golden, Littleton, Centennial, Aurora, Highlands Ranch. The new homes are even worse! On regional pilot pay, I don't know where we can find a nice 3+ BR (min 1900 sq ft) home for $175-225K tops. I did find a handful of listings in the above communities, but they are nothing too terribly exciting. I checked out the newer communities in Erie, Broomfield but they start in the $300Ks without any options.

PS: If anyone is looking for a nice 4+ BR 2600 sq ft house in The Woodlands, TX (about 30 mns from IAH) with a nice private backyard for $199K with no house behind you, let me know!! We want to move ASAP so our daughter can get the most out of the school year in DEN!

Thanks again for all your help. Pilots are an amazing group. Truly. You don't get half the credit you deserve for all you do and for being such a nice bunch of people. Blue skies to all of you.

Golden
 

I did find a great looking mountain style house in Golden on 2 acres, but the schools appear to be in Nederland. Is that way out in the boonies?

I grew up in Golden at it is a great little town just west of DEN?APA. It is nice and close to the mountains and all kinds on mountain biking, rock-climbing, and every other mountain sport. I think that the housing is still reasonable. The schools are getting better and so are most of the neighborhoods. I cant wait to get back. Good luck

Nederland is SW of Boulder. I doubt that house is actually in Golden, but somewhere in the stix, as Golden and Nederland are different counties.

I've seen new 3 BR homes advertised up in Erie in the mid 200s. Reunion's ugly cookie-cutter homes start in the low 200s. It would be hard to find what you described for new houses in your price range. You may be able to find existing homes in that price range, but they will be older homes probably needing some work. For perspective, I live in a newish 2 BR 1300 sqft townhome in Westminster that is worth around 180k. They are building brand new townhomes that start at $230k for 1550 sqft across the street from me.

We don't have the outlandish property taxes that Texas does, and my taxes are about $1400 annually.

I live in Wheatridge (western suburb of Denver) and let me tell you, housing is not cheap. There is a reason why my wife and I still rent our apartment from her father. I have seen many of those websites that tell you what XXX amount of house in one market will go for in another. A $225K house in the Denver area is equivalent to a $118K house in Houston and $108K in Memphis. In all honesty, there are not too many places that are more expensive as far as housing goes right now. If you don't mind living NE of Denver, closer to DIA (DEN to the rest of the world), there are some new developments that are more reasonably priced - look for Commerce City properties. Any other questions, just ask!

Denver is still cheaper than just about anywhere on the east/west coasts. Some mountain cities like Phoenix and Salt Lake are catching up and are comparable to DEN now for housing. I've thought about moving back to Oklahoma, which is of course dirt cheap, but it just seems worth it to pay more to live in a nice place like Denver.