re: Moving to the Denver area. Suggestions needed

For that price range you're likely going to need to look fairly far outside Denver.

A friend of mine from Colorado Springs was just telling me how ridiculous the real estate market is in that area. It's not just that the price has skyrocketed, but the places that are for sale tend to go very quickly.

That said, Denver is an amazing city and on my short list of places to one day move to. So enjoy.

This was my first thought as well.

If you do not mind having an hour commute, I'd suggest somewhere like Loveland or Firestone. I am not sure what 200k will buy you in Fort Collins.

Was up there in April. The wife and I drove around 3 different parts of the city to get an true feel for those areas. All I can say is, it would be hard for you to go wrong as it's mostly all nice.

However, $250-300, while not being cheap won't get you far. At least not anything over 1,200 sq ft. or some fixer upper in a hip and rapidly gentrifying area around Tennyson St.(for instance)...

You might find something around $350+ around Golden, Wheat Ridge or (Parts of) Lakewood. All solid areas, even if you are thinking kids down the road.

Zillow app is pretty sweet for this

Littleton or Greenwood Village are nice places.

traffic in Denver is hellish, so be sure there is a decent way to get to work or you can spend 3 hours per day on the road...

it has been a good while since I left Denver, but I lived down in Littleton and liked it a lot...bike paths all over the place and not too far from the mountains...from Littleton, you can take santafe up to work pretty easily...

I used to live in superior, Boulder, and gunbarrel. All options but maybe not good ones depending I where you're going to be working. Boulder is the only one of avoid bc it's way overpriced. I'd look at an apartment right off the light rail closer to downtown.