What is Colorado Springs like?

You guys have been very helpful. Thanks for all of the insight.

Hopefully I can go out there soon and start seeing things for myself and honing in on some houses.

 

I'm not sure if anyone recommended Peyton. That could be considered falcon though. Big plots of land out east, just a farther drive into town

 

Getting the first snowfall of the season right now. Depending on where you are on the front range it could be anywhere from 3" to 7" - 8" tonight. It's so strange how the weather works here. If they say there is a 20% chance of rain? It's going to rain. If there is a slight chance of snow? It's going to snow. But where you are in the city is very dependent on just how much you are going to get. The mountains make their own weather here. It's nothing like where we moved from. If there was a 20% chance of anything happening you might as well make that a 0% chance because it won't happen.

Just 10 miles North of us in Monument it is snowing like crazy up there. No idea how much they will get by the time this is over. But North and South of us it is dumping snow. It is snowing pretty hard here to but nothing like up just North or South of us. It's just so weird how the mountains block the weather here.



I had to buy my daughter some new tires for her car this month. I thought about getting her dedicated snow tires but I just don't have a place to store a set of snow tires and summer tires. I ended up going with Bridgestone WeatherPeak all season tires. I took my daughter to work tonight because I wanted to see how they performed in the snow. It is dumping snow up where she works and I couldn't make them spin nor activate the antilock brakes. So far I'm very pleased with these tires. After all the reviews I read, I'm happy with this purchase.

Not a good representation of the tread but they are aggressive enough to plow though the snow and quiet and comfortable when it isn't snowing.

*EDIT* I went and picked her up at her work and she drove home. She's never really driven in snow before (because we never fucking got any back home) but she did fine. The only issue she had was it was snowing so hard it made it hard to see. The streets up where she works had about 3" of snow on them when I picked her up but she did fine. She said it was a little disconcerting not being able to see the lanes since the roads were covered. She'll get used to it. At least it isn't fucking ice like we always got back in Arkansas.



We ended up with about 6" of snow last night. And like everyone has said up here... It only lasts for a day or so then the sun comes out. That is exactly what happened today. No idea how much snow they got North, South, or East of us but I know it was a lot more than we got. It snowed like crazy up at my daughters work last night and that is only about 2 miles away. It was snowing so hard it made it hard to see. But, I will say that they do a great job at clearing the roads here. They even plowed my daughters entire apartment complex last night. Woke up to a wet parking lot with no snow.

It's 20 degrees right now and it feels like 7 degrees. It's supposed to get down to 5 degrees tonight and if the wind doesn't die down, no idea what it will actually feel like but it will be cold no doubt. Wife and I took a walk today with Bear and the front range is beautiful right now with all the snow. Couple more days of cold weather then it's supposed to be back up in the 60's.

 

ignore the snow forecasts - if you can smell Greeley (cow shit) it will most likely snow

 

Yeah it was about 80 degrees and sunny yesterday over here in the south. Would definitely take some getting used to. I don’t mind the cold/snow but I’d have to see how the wife feels about it

 

One phrase that stuck with me though my 20 year AF career. Each PCS is "what you make it". Heck my 1st base was Cannon AFB, in Clovis, NM....... I made it work. When I retired, and got to choose where to live/work, Colorado, and specially Colorado Springs was my preferred landing spot. NO place, I repeat, NO place in my opinion is perfect. There is almost always going to be a negative about a location, it just depends how much you want to magnify it. Places change, and I think some people don't adjust to that change well. If you grew up some place in the 70's, 80's or 90's, odds are it's not the same today. It is what it is. For me COS is just about the right balance for the things I enjoy in life. Close to so many places for hiking or mountain biking. The amount of OHV trails seems endless. I love snowboarding, and Colorado is hard to beat from that aspect. "If" I want the big city (which is RARE), I can head up to Denver. The key is I can leave when I'm done. If you aren't a big fan of the outdoors, than COS might not be as appealing. If you don't like the cold, and are a beach person, adjusting might take some work. But overall, I can think of few places I'd prefer to be (I do miss Europe!). So in short, "if" you get out here, make the most of it.

 

So it’s damn near official, was told today I will almost certainly go to Colorado Springs today. The house hunt begins!
Anyone got any experience with Fort Carson base housing?

Cimmaron Hills and slightly north looks like a pretty affordable area. Pictures don’t look too bad either. Any opinions on that area?

 

What are you looking for? 3 bedroom/2 bath in a nice neighborhood close to the mountains? A bigger lot away from the mountains? Anywhere as long as its close to bars and stuff?

 

Yeah, at minimum a 3 bedroom
2 bath house. 4 bedrooms would be nice but I’m not expecting a miracle here.

Number one consideration is being in a safe neighborhood. I don’t want to deal with a ton of crime. All other considerations are secondary. Mountain views would be cool but that’s not a primary consideration by any means. I have no interest in being near bars or nightlife.

We’re currently suburban and that’s probably where we’re looking stay.

 

I spent 6 1/2 years on Carson and hopefully heading back there this coming year if everything works out.

Base housing like any Army instillation. It depends on your rank and family size. Some ok but livable duplexes and some nice new ones.

I lived off Academy and constitution. The houses were older but nice. Then I moved off of Powers and Barnes. It’s more expensive over there but the houses are newer.

 

I would recommend Falcon in this case. It’s pretty suburban, more consistently safe than most of Colorado Springs, and typically more affordable. Much further from the mountains though.


Briargate is also a bit more consistently safe area, though pricier.


The nicest, and priciest is the Broadmoor area. If you can afford it, you will likely enjoy it.

The issue with Colorado Springs is that much of the city/town is pocketed with really nice areas and areas that are less than ideal. You might have one block that is really really awesome bordering up to a block that is pretty grim.

 

Yeah Briargate and Broadmoor look nice but probably out of my price range. Looking to buy and my max budget is $350k.

The rental market looks a little better (closer to BAH). If I have to rent, I guess I will but throwing $86k down the drain as a renter over 3 years, assuming I don’t stay out there for even longer, is a hard pill to swallow.

 

I feel you. I think Falcon is probably your best bet if you’re ok with suburbia-land and being an hour away from the mountains. Definitely the best bang for your buck in a lot of ways. Feel free to DM if you have questions about specific areas though! Like I said, there are food and bad pockets in just about every part of the springs and the little crime maps you see don’t always do an area justice IMO

 

Be careful in Briargate. I lived there and there was a LOT of petty crime. Invest in cameras.

Nothing affordable in Broadmoor.

 

Colorado Springs is great. It is not far from Denver and you have great views. It is pretty easy to get into the mountains. I used to like in Manitou Springs in a RV. good times. let me know if you have any other specific questions.

 

I have to agree with you on renting right now. We have rented an apartment for our daughter literally next to the Promenade off of Briargate. And yes, it feels like we are throwing money away but very few of us when we were growing up didn't live in an apartment before buying a house. Housing costs here are no different than where we moved from. Keep in mind, there are many issues with buying a house right now. Interest rates are much higher than we are used to seeing is the main issue. We sold our house back in May for $410,000 and put every bit of that money in our investments. We were within a year of paying it off and we had refinanced it at 2.9% interest back in 2009. The issue is now, if we decide to buy a house (townhome in our case), interest rates are hovering around 8% and I can't stomach that. The second thing to consider is housing prices are about to fall. We got out of our house at the right time. The same volatility we are seeing in the stock markets is about to happen in the housing market. That volatility will just take longer to take effect opposed to the volatility we are seeing in the stock market.

If you have to rent, just know that there are plenty of rental properties up here. And although it feels like you are throwing your money away (and you essentially are), look for a complex that fits your needs and offers the amities you are looking for if you don't want to pay extremely high interest rates. Interest will "eventually" come back down some but it will be a long road ahead before that happens. I don't think we will ever see interest rates around 3% again in our lifetime. But any % point is better that where they are right now. We're just waiting out the storm.

As far as Briargate area goes. "So far" I've found it to be the nicest area of the city. Literally 2 miles from Interquest (where my daughter works) and only a few miles from where she goes to college. As far as petty crime (or any crime for that matter) I've not seen it (yet). I'd say anything in the Northern part of the city is about as safe as you are going to get with plenty of things to do up here. I've not felt unsafe since we have been living here in this area. And the main point for moving to the Northern part of the city is I want my daughter to feel safe.

When we do finally decide to settle down, we are looking in the neighborhood of Wolf Lake off the end of Briargate. Almost all new construction and perfect mountain views no matter where you are. I suppose that goes for most parts of the city though. The Springs is kind of unusual when it comes to really nice houses down in the Southern part of the city. Like others have said, you may have an amazing neighborhood but you have to drive though some sketchy areas to get to that area. Broadmoor is out of reach for many people (myself included). But I don't want to live in that area anyway so it's a wash even if I could afford it.

Pretty much any place in the Northern part of the city will serve you well as there are plenty of things to do up here and I've not once felt unsafe in this area. If you want land then your drive is going to be much further away than normal. And the Springs is a very traffic heavy city pretty much any time of day. I would definitely stay away from any area South of Colorado Springs as road construction on I-25 is a bitch right now if you have to travel up from that direction. I'm sold on where we are now.

From our daily walk with our dog. This is about 2 miles East of where we live off of Brairgate

 

As far as Briargate “petty” crime goes. I guess I agree, but we are talking things like random kids taking a package off a stoop rarely, or even a car getting egged once in a while. 90% of crimes you see in that part of town are almost going to be dumb teenagers being kids. These are gonna be the typical “suburbia” kind of crimes IMO, which it sounds like the OP is used to.


Another wild card could be parts of Fountain. But, again, that area is also super hit or miss and hard to gauge remotely.

 

One of my issues was that the property wasn’t particularly cheap for the level of crime.

I think at one point I had a spreadsheet of all the things done to my house and cars that we and the other residents in my neighborhood tried to submit to El Paso sheriffs and CPD to do something, but they didn’t seem too interested.

This was stuff like people breaking in and rummaging through cars, stealing packages, stealing flags, breaking backyard gates, breaking into garages, running over all the trash cans in the neighborhood… stuff you would expect in San Francisco or Richmond.

I’ve lived in Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, and Monument, and I thought it was odd why this was happening… especially since my neighbor was an Air Force vet and he would always brag about how he would leave his doors unlocked.

My friend who has lived in Briargate for almost 40 years said it really depends what neighborhood you’re in, and the delineations may not always be very clear.

Your experiences may be different.

 

well the "springs" as everyone who lives there calls it is a decent area my sister in law still loves out there now that her boyfriend is out of the army. lots of beautiful things to see, lots of cool places to visit. just know unless your ready the altitude can kick your butt for a while!

my sister in law lives in Aurora now, but you know

 

Anyone have any opinions on this part of town? There seems to be some affordable options here. Closer to the base seems a little too affordable, but in the northern section it kind of hits the sweet spot for budget. Looks like a lot of new building on the northeast side of town as well.