Hi dougas_b,
While I can't provide you with the "best" communities, because that's
subjective and something I'm sure you'll want to decide for yourself, I can
provide you with an answer based on the criteria you've listed and I can show
you how to find more information about the communities between Denver and
Boulder.
To find your answer, I looked for the counties in the Denver and Boulder areas.
I came up with the following three areas that fit your criteria:
Adams County
Boulder County
Jefferson County
Here's the information on a random sampling of five cities within these
counties:
City: Superior, CO
County: Boulder and Jefferson County
Crime Index: 78 (County average is 100)
Elementary Schools: Superior Elementary School – Excellent
(There are 2 listed.)
Middle Schools: El Dorado K-8 Elem. School – High
(There is 1 listed.)
Cost of Living Index: 104 (National average is 100)
Affordable Benchmark Home Value (County): $200,363
Affordable Rental Costs for a House (County): $872 [2 bed/1 bath]
City: Arvada, CO
County: Jefferson
Crime Index: 81 (County average is 100)
Elementary Schools: Allendale Elementary School – Average
(There are 25 listed.)
Middle Schools: Arvada Middle School – Low
(There are 6 listed.)
Cost of Living Index: 119 (National average is 100)
Affordable Benchmark Home Value (County): $172,272
Affordable Rental Costs for a House (County): $761 [2 bed/1 bath]
City: Brighton, CO
County: Adams
Crime Index: 133 (County average is 100)
Elementary Schools: North Elementary School – Low
(There are 4 listed.)
Middle Schools: Vikan Middle School – Low
(There are 4 listed.)
Cost of Living Index: 101 (National average is 100)
Affordable Benchmark Home Value (County): $ 173,011
Affordable Rental Costs for a House (County): $ 761 [2 bed/1 bath]
City: Commerce City, CO
County: Adams
Crime Index: 257 (County average is 100)
Elementary Schools: Alsup Elementary School – Low
(There are 7 listed.)
Middle Schools: Adams City Middle School – Low
(There are 2 listed.)
Cost of Living Index: 75 (National average is 100)
Affordable Benchmark Home Value (County): $ 173,011
Affordable Rental Costs for a House (County): $ 761 [2 bed/1 bath]
City: Broomfield, CO
County: Boulder
Crime Index: 94 (County average is 100)
Elementary Schools: Birch Elementary School – High
(There are 8 listed.)
Middle Schools: Westlake Middle School – Average
(There are 4 listed.)
Cost of Living Index: 121 (National average is 100)
Affordable Benchmark Home Value (County): $200,363
Affordable Rental Costs for a House (County): $872 [2 bed/1 bath]
City: Evergreen, CO
County: Jefferson
Crime Index: 70 (County average is 100)
Elementary Schools: Bergen Meadows Primary School – High
(There are 5 listed.)
Middle Schools: Evergreen Middle School – High
(There is 1 listed.)
Cost of Living Index: 162 (National average is 100)
Affordable Benchmark Home Value (County): $172,272
Affordable Rental Costs for a House (County): $761 [2 bed/1 bath]
Here's how you can find more information about the cities between Denver and
Boulder:
1. Elementary and Middle Schools:
Colorado's school accountability reports give you information on "a school's
academic performance, CSAP results, safety and discipline incidents,
student/teacher ratio, teacher qualifications and how taxpayer dollars are
spent. " Unfortunately, it doesn't post the ranking on the full list of
schools, so you'll have to click into each one to get a rating.
http://reportcard.cde.state.co.us/reportcard/CommandHandler.jsp
2. Crime Rate
Yahoo! Real Estate's Neighborhood information section provides you with
demographic, cost of living, housing and quality of life information. Just
type in the city and state.
http://list.realestate.yahoo.com/re/neighborhood/main.html
3. Cost of Living
All of the data that I found compared cost of living to a national average,
versus a state one. However, you can get a feel for how the costs compare
statewide by looking at more detailed factors such as utility, transportation,
entertainment and education costs. You can find that information on the Yahoo!
neighborhood information list using the link that's listed above. A number of
tools on the web show you side-by-side comparisons city statistics. I found
this one to be the most helpful given your criteria when I ran a search of
cities between Denver and Boulder:
http://www.bestplaces.net/html/citycompare.asp
4. Reasonable Housing Costs
The Colorado Division of Housing has put together a countywide list of
what's "affordable." This report was revised in Sept. 2001 and is based on data
from various months in 2001. The information covers purchasing and renting
homes and renting apartments.
http://www.dola.state.co.us/doh/Documents/What%20Is%20Affordable.pdf
5. Housing Options
There's not a single repository for all of this information, but it can be
culled from the web from a variety of sources. The information on housing costs
was covered by the links above. Here's a breakdown by county of the average
apartment rent:
County 1 BR 2 BR/1 BA 2BR/2BA
=============================================================
Adams $700 $795 $968
Boulder $885 $868 $1,174
Jefferson $723 $774 $954
http://www.jeffco.org/jec_site/Pages/doingbusiness/city_county_data/lifestyles/h
ousing.html
Here are some addition links on housing types and costs that you might find
helpful:
Boulder County Chamber of Commerce
Includes average costs for Boulder County apartment rentals and purchasing of
single family homes and condos or townhouses
http://www.boulderchamber.com/life/demographics.asp
Cost of Housing Analysis for Colorado: 2001 Report
(Has projections for houses ranging from 1,300 square feet to 2,000 square feet)
http://www.dola.state.co.us/doh/Documents/CostofHousing2001.pdf
Multi-Family Housing Survey of rent and vacancies for Q1 2002 (Includes
different housing types)
http://www.dola.state.co.us/doh/Documents/Vacancy/areas.pdf
I think these links would also be useful if you are planning to move to one of
these areas:
Colorado Department of Local Affairs
Includes data on the labor force and job market for Colorado cities from 1980
to 2000
http://www.dola.state.co.us/demog/employ1.cfm
Boulder County Almanac
From The Daily Camera newspaper. Among other things, it provides a summary of
the major cities in Boulder County and demographic information
http://www.thedailycamera.com/extra/almanac/index.html
Boulder County Census 2000
Analysis of the 2000 Census by The Daily Camera newspaper. Includes easy-to-
read charts on median household income, renting costs, commute time and a host
of relevant information. (Look on the right side of the page.)
http://www.thedailycamera.com/census/
Jefferson County City Profiles
http://www.jeffco.org/jec_site/Pages/doingbusiness/city_county_data/city_county_
profiles/countyprofile_intro.html
I used the following search terms on Google as a starting point and then surfed
around on the listed sites. The links that I've listed above are the ones that
deal most directly with your question:
map: denver, boulder
boulder county
jefferson county
adams county
Good luck,
Katwoman |
