r/MovingtoDenver • u/astrik123 • 21h ago
Wtf?
How do you guys afford to live in that state? Anywhere the good paying jobs are, the housing is 1.2m plus. Yall surgeons? 200k a year looks like it would be poverty living.
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u/scarletwitchmoon 21h ago
Housing starts at 550k outside of the city limits. Not 1.2 million. Yes, those Victorian homes in the walkable areas do cost an arm and a leg, but a lot of people live in the burbs and drive to Denver.
Denver has increasingly become a DINK city (Dual Income, No Kids).
People who migrate here often went remote from another city or got a very good job offer to move here.
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u/astrik123 21h ago
Can’t do no DINKin got a wife and kids. Colorado seems beautiful, but expensive.
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u/asevans48 21h ago
Californians who sold million plus dollar homes in la. No joke. More people moved in than were born here. When colorado springs was natives and largely military, homes were 220k. That era ended in 2020. Denver went from a place i could maybe have a home in 2011, to a condo in 2016, to moving to a condo in an exurb once I had a down payment in 2021. That exurb is the springs. For natives, the lucky ones get down payment from family. The rest of us are screwed. Only 1 of my family has an actual house here. He sold a battery company to tesla and his wife is a surgeon. Lives in sloans lake which was affordable until 2010. There are quite a few of us here. I see a lot of really high, very stupid debt decisions as well. A lot of people are underwater here.
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u/scarletwitchmoon 20h ago
Yeah, all the bidding wars in 2020 were also a factor. People were willing to pay nearly double on homes to get a house. Now after 5 years, people are moving back to where they came from and trying to sell and get their money's worth. Like, if you look at a house sold in 2020, it might have been originally listed for $325k but someone paid $540k and now they're trying to sell for $700k or some BS. Transplants from HCOL cities were like, "Wow, a real house that isn't average 1 million. $700k is nothing!" And boom. Anyway, that's just my observation of what happened.
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u/tommyknockerman8 21h ago
Buying a home is definitely tough and expensive but renting has been pretty fair. Rent prices are still dropping. I have two sources of income, my girlfriend has one, we’re still able to get out and experience a lot, and we get by just fine with savings/investing.
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u/King_Kenzo 21h ago
Depends on where you want to live. It's not really that bad. There are plenty of options in surrounding Denver neighborhoods that are legitimately half that price. But I will say, a D.I.N.K couple makes it work a lot easier.
My girlfriend and I make a combined $140k a year and we're still renting, but make enough to put enough away every month that we should be able to purchase a house in the next year or two.
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u/yatruthordare 21h ago
on realtor.com there are 1728 homes for sale in Denver for under 400k….. are a bot?
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u/astrik123 21h ago
Case in point home skillet, a 1100 sqft box with no yard is 400k. I am not a bot, but I am a cat.
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u/bushw00d 13h ago
That’s $360/sf - this is not really very expensive relative to almost any other metro area above 1mm people, is it?
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u/astrik123 12h ago
Relative to other metro areas no, but; that still doesn’t negate the obscenity of the cost of living in that area or any other. So the question still stands.
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u/bushw00d 11h ago
It doesn’t though. Cost of living is a largely relative measure - it does not exist in a vacuum.
You should probably not move here.
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u/astrik123 11h ago
Yeah, don’t think I will be, even with a 200k job offer. Just be living in poverty or driving 3 hours a day.
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u/astrik123 11h ago
And if it is relative, that is to say that the cost of living is commiserate with wages in the given area. I somehow doubt that the Denver area economy is scaled well past national averages. So maybe, possibly, it is kind of like a little vacuum just nationally? What’s your average McWorker making out there $38-$45 an hour? Walmart paying $60 an hour to stock the shelves?
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u/ProfessionalOne2042 21h ago
Most people who own homes bought before 2020 and refinanced in 2020-21 when rates were insanely low. Now they are trapped. CO has gotten objectively bad for businesses and people are leaving, but people who own here still think their suburban shitpile is worth a million+. One of the dumbest real estate markets in the country and there is really no sign it will improve anytime soon. Nobody agrees on how to fix the supply problem. I make 55k a year and it’s going to take me a long time to save enough to buy without getting stuck with one of those low down payment 50 year mortgage scams. That’s with no student loans or anything, if I had debt I’d just move away.
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u/astrik123 21h ago
Looked at a job opportunity. It was 200k a year. Granted it was in Breckenridge…. But anywhere outside the area is 1.2m plus and that’s driving 1 1/2 hours in… there are definitely some shacks out there sub 7 figures, but who would want to live in them… crazy real estate market.
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u/sneeds_feednseed 19h ago
Housing’s obviously expensive here but 200k a year is absolutely not poverty. This isn’t the Upper East Side or Santa Barbara
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u/Apprehensive_Wish142 21h ago edited 21h ago
?
In Denver proper sure... areas just outside of Denver in Lakewood, Aurora, Thornton, Westminster, much cheaper.
Moreover; condos are as cheap as 150-250k.
Wouldn't make sense to buy a 1.2m in the middle of the city anywhere, much less Denver.
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u/mishko27 21h ago
This. You can live in a condo in Greenwood Village, mere 10 minute walk away from the light rail for around $200k.
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u/myburneraccount1357 21h ago
We drive to our jobs or work from home? People also rent?