What is Colorado Springs like?

I was told to avoid Cimarron Hills when I first moved to the area over 15 years ago.

Not a nice place.

 

Yes I lived off Powers and Barnes.

Took me about 45 min to get to work most of the traffic being at the gate. I really liked that area and Im going to look at a house there if I end up moving back.

North of constitution is where I would look in that area.

 

I lived with my parents over there for years in high school until I finished college near Barnes and Peterson. I don't recall any crime in the neighborhood. There was a nice skatepark near by and my brothers elementary school wasn't too far. Very car oriented area with not much walkable which wasn't for me so I moved. My parents now live near Dublin and powers and really like it. My aunt lives near sand Creek hs and is in the army. I haven't heard of any crime in that area either. Another aunt lived near Barnes and oro Blanco for a bit until she bought a house. The place she was renting decided to sell and she kinda wished she bought it for the area.


If you don't mind driving (and traffic) to get to the city and the houses fit your criteria, I'd say go for it.

 

That’s a HUGE area with a lot of variability. Like I keep saying, some blocks/neighborhoods will be nice while others are awful and almost scary. Generally speaking, the North part of that circle is nicer while the South part is close to the worst CSprings has to offer. Powers itself is pretty bad during peak travel times too, so keep that in mind.

 

If you want to save money and don't mind a commute: Falcon, Peyton, or Pueblo West (Jumping on I-25 can be faster than the gridlock of Powers). Also as mentioned Fountain, just find a right development. I love living in Woodland Park, but options up here are a little more limited, versus down the Pass.

 

That area of Powers is kind of weird. "My" personal cutoff line is Woodman. I "personally" wouldn't consider living South of Woodman but that's just me. There are some nice areas around that area but there are some not so nice areas there also and they are relatively close together. The further South you go, "generally" it gets more sketchy. But... that area is less expensive. The further North you go the more expensive it gets. But the Springs is unlike any city I've seen. You'll have nice neighborhoods that butt up to neighborhoods that are not so nice. That doesn't take place the further North you go. Pretty much everything up North is very nice. But with that comes more expensive housing. But I'm willing to spend the extra money to live in a nice area that has everything that I want within a few mins from where we live. We literally live directly across the freeway from the Air Force Academy.

The way the city is laid out is pretty strange. For example, there are some really nice houses above Garden of the Gods but you travel a few miles and it is older houses and the neighborhoods aren't nearly as nice. I think part of that is the views and the topography. The neighborhood above Garden of the Gods is expensive but when you get down off the hill overlooking the the rock formations? The neighborhoods are not nearly as nice. One thing is certain. You DO NOT want to live in the Southern part of the city (Broadmoor excluded) . When you come here you'll understand. Even Manitou Springs isn't as nice as it used to be. At least the main thoroughfare that runs through it. It used to be great but now it's just a tourist trap and really not that special IMO.

The way I look at it is not so much the neighborhoods but how nice the amenities are around the neighborhoods are. The nicer the amenities? The nicer the neighborhoods. Up where we are it is nothing but quality stores, restaurants, bars, etc... But, the houses up here can run around $500,000. When we settle down that is where we will end up buying our house.

 

I really like Woodland Park. It takes a little bit of driving to get into Colorado Springs proper but it has pretty much everything you need there. We camp often in the dispersed camping outside of Woodland Park. Really nice town.

There is no way I could make the commute from Pueblo to to the Springs. Pueblo (like a lot of towns in the South) are not worth it IMO. All of the road construction on I-25 makes it unbearable. Plus you have no views of the mountains at all in Pueblo. And "to me", it's just a shitty city. Kind of reminds me of Alamosa or Walsenburg.

 

I live close to the top of your map. Corner of Dublin & Marksheffel.
Expensive, but solid ground (NO sinking, sliding, nor flooding.) Very little crime, almost none. (I know of one incident in the last 6 years.)
I'm directly on the final approach path for Pete Field. Love it! Not loud because they have throttled back for their approach, and I get to see some fine birds up close. (I'm into aviation.)
Expensive, did I say that?
Traffic sucks mornings & evenings, other times the roads are clear. Good shopping. I've no kids at home anymore, but wife is a teacher at a very good school in Dist 49.
Seven year old house has a payment of $2100/mo, taxes are $2000/yr (& rising), USAA for auto insurance and is better than I have in GA. (I commute between ATL & COS with my Taco in ATL.) I expect (hoping!) to sell this house in the next couple of years for more than $900k. I might have mentioned that homes are expensive where I'm at.
One across the street from me is for sale now. Look it up on Realty.com or such. Mustang Rim Dr. 80923

Good luck with your PCS.

SF

 

My sister moved from SaudiAurora to Brighton about 2 years ago. Just saying...

 

Woodland Park is far more feasible than people think, weather permitting. I know someone who lives in Woodland Park and works 4 days a week south of Calhan. His logic was that he is in the mountains every weekend anyways. My problem suggesting Woodland Park is that the OP seems totally fine with suburbia and not being in the mountains so they’ll likely have a more economical time looking elsewhere.

I agree Pueblo isn’t worth looking at, at all. Pueblo West is would be a decent option though.

 

I agree. I really like Woodland park. We camp up around that area pretty often. And I also agree that it would probably be in the OP's best interest if they want to be closer to the city (although Woodland Park isn't all that far away). We have run into some hellacious storms up there this year but hey... It's the mountains and the mountains make their own weather. Colorado Springs wasn't much better from April - July with all the storms we had blow through.

Pueblo has never been a great city "to me". I had to spend two weeks there about 10 years ago and I "personally" couldn't stand it. I know little about Pueblo West so I can't really speak to that area. I think the thing that has surprised me most is just how run down Walsenburg, Alamosa, and a lot of the towns in Southern Colorado have become over the last 25 years or so. We drove through Walsenburg last month and it is a shell of it's former self. Alamosa is no better. I don't remember it being that way. I made a comment to my wife as we were driving through that area that "they could have filmed Breaking Bad here instead of Albuquerque".

I think my main issue with anything South of the Springs is having to fight all the road construction coming up I-25 everyday. That would be miserable. And with some of the drivers up here? That just makes it worse.

Snow patterns are kind of weird around where we are. It's supposed to snow later on this evening but I've really no idea how much we'll get? My daughter works 2 miles North of where she lives and it did snow here a few weeks ago but nothing like it did 2 miles away. And up in Monument? It must have really snowed quite a bit. But going up Monument hill is higher elevation than where we are in the Springs and the front range is not quite as tall as it is overlooking this area. It's really unpredictable how the mountains control the weather and who gets what.

 

Powers during “rush hours” might be worse to be completely honest. I would much rather travel on I25 than Powers on a daily basis, personally.

But I agree, Pueblo should be absolutely eliminated from the running, nor should it ever have been considered.

 

Yeah. Powers is something else. I try to avoid it if I can. I had to take my daughters friend that came to vist back to the airport. From Research to the airport took almost an hour. Then another hour on the way back. Can't imagine what it was like when it was still under construction.

 

I’m not opposed to a little commute and I’m not opposed to being somewhat rural. I don’t want to be completely out in the country, but I’m also not dying to be super close to everything. Primary considerations are a nice home within my budget and low crime. What’s the big draw with Woodland Park?

 

Woodland park is more in the mountains that springs. You'll most likely drive through it if you're going into the mountains for whatever activities you're looking to do from springs. It's smaller than springs but bigger than Manitou. After living in Manitou for a year, I wouldn't want to commute from woodland park into the springs. If you're working on fort Carson, then Penrose may be a better option. Not as mountainous as woodland park but almost as remote

 

Woodland Park is fine if you don’t mind not going to work or going back home if it snows.

 

Not bad when you go back far enough, as there was less population to drive it. Daily commute for me when it was only a two-lane road and deadended into Black Forest Rd. Also, S. Carefree didn't even reach Powers (but there was a steep dirt path if you wanted). Academy Blvd has always been busy though.
We rode dirt bikes where Chapel Hills Mall is now. Taught my girl (now wife) to shoot, not far off the end of the runway, about where the Amazon warehouse is.
Got to the airport terminal at the east end of Fountain. The terminal had 4 jet bridges, that were used by Continental Airlines, TWA, and Frontier. The Rocky Mountain Airways passengers walked out the doors onto the ramp to plane side (DeHavilland Twin Otters and Dash 7s). Pete Field gate (#3?) was right at the curve of Airport Rd (Aeroplaza Dr didn't exisit).

Was fun & nice to live there then. Now the whole damn town is overcrowded. As is everywhere.

 

I have to agree with you. It is overcrowded just like everywhere else. At least it isn't Denver I suppose? It's amazing just how much the city has grown in the last 25 years.

I have to drive North Academy quite often and yeah, it's crowded no matter the time of day. But the part that really bugs me about Academy is not so much the traffic or long lights... It's all the damn potholes. I generally don't have to drive any further South on Academy than Woodman. But man, the Northern end of Academy is rough. Part of it is because of what I'm driving so I feel it much more than a regular vehicle. But, then you have roads like Briargate, Voyager, Research, Interquest, etc... that are nice and super easy to navigate. But that goes with any major city I suppose?

What I find interesting about the Springs is, unlike the city I worked for on the FD, there were defining lines between where you wanted to live and where you just didn't want to go after dark (or hell, even in the daytime). But Colorado Springs is kind of spread out with areas that are great right next to areas that are not so great. For instance, you DID NOT want to be in the central or Southern part of Little Rock. You avoided those places at all costs. But pretty much everywhere else was okay. That said, I worked for Little Rock but I didn't live in Little Rock. Last time I checked it was #4 for the most crime per capita in the nation. And I can certainly attest to that. When I came on the job there was a huge gang problem in Little Rock. HBO actually made a documentary about it and I was in that documentary two different times. We were running anywhere from 6-8 drive by shootings each shift. Within six months of me being on company I was shot in the neck while on a rescue. It isn't like that anymore but there is still a huge amount of crime in Little Rock. So the Springs is a welcome change.

 

I know this is likely not necessarily helpful, or what you want to hear, per se….but there are a few places that qualify as “nice home (adequately priced) and low crime” many of which have entirely different feels. Woodland Park is going to be significantly different than Penrose, Penrose significantly different than Falcon, Falcon significantly different than Black Forest. Black Forest significantly different than Monument, etc., etc..


Without visiting in person or having to sift through different blocks, I would say that generally speaking some areas to look more into would be:

Woodland Park (more expensive, nice neighborhoods, in the mountains, low crime, good schools, longer commute that is chill without snow)

Pueblo West (suburbia land of housing developments, relatively low-to-average crime, cheaper housing, easy commute without accidents or heavy construction, average schools)

Falcon (suburbia land, less crime than in town, close to town, easy commute, average to subpar schools, many lots have an actual yard)

Peyton (more country vibe, tornados are a real thing early summer, cheap housing with possibility for acreage, pretty easy commute, average schools)

Briargate (more expensive, more variability amongst neighborhoods and crime, good schools, easy commute, closer to city things)


I’m sure I missed one or two generalized areas, but this is what immediately comes to mind.

 

Seems like you nailed it. That is the reason we chose Briargate. It's just convenient to everything for my daughter and I don't worry about her as much up here as I would in a different area. Not to say that something couldn't happen up here. It can happen anywhere. But for the amount of things to do, proximity to her job and college? It's the perfect fit for "us". But like you said, without actually visiting and figuring out what works best for someone else's needs, it's pretty hard to adequately describe.