What's Boulder, CO really like?

I think The People's Republic gets WAY more hype for being a "climbing town" than it deserves. If I was after rock climbing first, I can think of probably a dozen towns I'd choose before Boulder. If I was after culture and quality of life first, again at least a dozen towns I would put ahead. Combo of the two, again at least 6-8, probably more. YMMV.

Earlier I made an unsupported statement regarding the price of housing in Boulder. So I looked it up and found these 2009 numbers, which might still be relatively accurate:

Mean prices in 2009: All housing units: $516,076; Detached houses: $629,893; Estimated median house or condo value in 2009: $477,700

source: city-data.com/city/Boulder-…

Pretty pricey, I think...

Will S wrote:If I was after rock climbing first, I can think of probably a dozen towns I'd choose before Boulder.

Which towns?
Why would you find them a better climbing town than Boulder?

Where else could I pull (outside) after work every day? Even if it's raining or snowing thanks to the Roof Routes!

Not that I doubt other cities offer this; but c'mon, name drop already.

coppolillo wrote:the horror stories of $800,000 homes are overblown. the average price of a house pre-bust was up in the 400s...but that has come down substantially. if you're interested in talking to the best realtor in town, contact Tim Goodacre, 303/817.9300 and he'll give you a great idea of what's out there in the less expensive neighborhoods (where i live). a buddy of mine (who DOES IN FACT climb 5.14, woh!) just flipped a house around the block: gorgeous, about 2000 sq ft, and it was going for less than 6. and it is BRAND NEW.

You admit that you live in a "less expensive" neighborhood, and yet a buddy around the corner from you just sold a 2000sq ft house for "less than 6"...which I'm guessing means somewhere between $550-600k. Sure, it's not $800k, but to most people $600k is still way too much. I recently bought a pretty nice 3200sq ft house in a decent neighborhood in Fort Collins for $290k. It's not hard to find houses in the "less expensive" neighborhoods for less than $200k. That seems like a pretty huge price difference to me...

richard magill wrote:Earlier I made an unsupported statement regarding the price of housing in Boulder. So I looked it up and found these 2009 numbers, which might still be relatively accurate: Mean prices in 2009: All housing units: $516,076; Detached houses: $629,893; Estimated median house or condo value in 2009: $477,700 source: city-data.com/city/Boulder-… Pretty pricey, I think...

OUCH!!

Jeffeos wrote: Which towns? Why would you find them a better climbing town than Boulder? Where else could I pull (outside) after work every day? Even if it's raining or snowing thanks to the Roof Routes! Not that I doubt other cities offer this; but c'mon, name drop already.

+1. Id also be curious to here others ideas about the best climbing towns. Especially the best climbing towns that are close to large cities (ie. Boulder-Denver).

So people have been asking a lot of questions about Boulder on this website recently. My question is how many people are born in boulder? How many people are climbers that were born in boulder? I am just curious because I am a republic baby and I have only meet a handful of people who share the same birthplace.

Ian Stewart wrote: You admit that you live in a "less expensive" neighborhood, and yet a buddy around the corner from you just sold a 2000sq ft house for "less than 6"...which I'm guessing means somewhere between $550-600k. Sure, it's not $800k, but to most people $600k is still way too much. I recently bought a pretty nice 3200sq ft house in a decent neighborhood in Fort Collins for $290k. It's not hard to find houses in the "less expensive" neighborhoods for less than $200k. That seems like a pretty huge price difference to me...

and JLP has the good word. 70% of homes in Vegas are upside down on the their mortgages. it would take a global catastrophe for that to happen in boulder...yeah, it's pricier here than fort collins...but it's no $800K as was stated previously.

exactly four people in the history of the universe have been born in boulder.

Matt Toensing wrote:How many people are climbers that were born in boulder? I am just curious because I am a republic baby and I have only meet a handful of people who share the same birthplace.

Here's one!
It wasn't until my early twenties that I switched from a focus in mountain biking to climbing however. I used to be so proud of all of our challenging riding; and now I'm stoked to be into a sport that is even more convenient to enjoy.

all the talk of the "expense" in boulder...and people are buying 3200 square foot homes...perhaps the problem is appetite and not the cost of the food.....make do with a bit less and live the good life. bike-commute instead of the car, live in a smaller home, and cut back on some consumption...that's a good way to afford to live in a nicer city, IMHO....Lauren, come visit a bunch of places on the Front Range...tons of nice spots and see where you dig....

Lauren, if you're applying for a job a Crispin, you'll definitely feel at home in Boulder. There are more designers/artists/marketing/advertising peeps in this town than there are climbers. In fact, about a third of the climbers I know fall in to that category.

Looking out the window of my office at the Flatirons now. The morning clouds are just clearing and the trails up in to Fern Canyon and Devil's Thumb invite me for a lunchtime run. When I get off work at 5 today, I can drive to Eldorado and get a lap in on the Bastille or spin my bike around the Morgul Bismark course.

Boulder is a great place to live if you're a climber or otherwise engaged in the world. Sure, it's easy to bump egos around here: you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a world-class bike rider or Olympian athlete of some sort. There are probably 100 people in my zip code who have climbed Everest and a similar number who climb 5.13. I find that the best way to avoid the ego hits is to put my own ego on the shelf. Roll with others' egos rather then try to interrupt that energy. You'll find that it simply slips by and disappears, revealing, possibly, an interesting person.

Celebrate weirdness. The story Sam Stephens shared is priceless. It happens all the time. But you might just find yourself in the coffee shop chatting up the founder of a fortune 500 company or climbing with Jim Collins (Author of Good to Great, etc) at Movement Gym.

Whatever happens, good luck. I hope to see you in Boulder some day.

Mal

Shumin Wu wrote:The best fried chicken is found at the King Soopers (Kroger) deli.

I would definitely have to agree! I went there with a coworker the other day. Second only to Chic-Fil-A in Westminster.

On another note. I moved to Cary, NC when I was 2 yrs old. Then spent 10 yrs in Raleigh, and 1 more yr in Cary before moving to CO 5 yrs ago. There is no question about how great Boulder/Denver is, hell anywhere when you compare it to NC. My family is in Boone and I cut my teeth at the New River Gorge, Obed, and Red River Gorge. My first climbing wall was the Faux Rocks at NC State and the traverse wall outside of the gymnasium there and Vertical Edge. Just in Boulder you have 4 climbing gyms, sandstone, granite, gneiss(Golden), plenty of mtn biking, hiking, and here's the most important part it's all available after work. No more weekend trips to the NRG, or NC climbing areas just to get rained out. During the off chance that I do get rained out here I don't care because I can either wait if off, or just come back the next day.

Disclaimer: Most of the climbing here doesn't even compares to the quality of the climbing in the Southeast. There are plenty of great routes here, but you have to sort through the BS to find those great lines. At the New River Gorge I'd trade most of the zero star routes for the 5 star routes here. However I've learned it's not about quality, but quantity and proximity living in CO. I could care less about anything the Southeast has to offer when it comes to low humidity, perfect temps, great gyms to train at, winter cragging, alpine bouldering, and rock so close I can ride my bike to it after work.

coppolillo wrote:and JLP has the good word. 70% of homes in Vegas are upside down on the their mortgages. it would take a global catastrophe for that to happen in boulder...yeah, it's pricier here than fort collins...but it's no $800K as was stated previously.

coppolillo wrote:all the talk of the "expense" in boulder...and people are buying 3200 square foot homes...perhaps the problem is appetite and not the cost of the food.....make do with a bit less and live the good life. bike-commute instead of the car, live in a smaller home, and cut back on some consumption...that's a good way to afford to live in a nicer city, IMHO....Lauren, come visit a bunch of places on the Front Range...tons of nice spots and see where you dig....

I agree with you completely. Honestly we WERE looking for something around 2000sq ft, which is more than big enough for us, but unfortunately if you have an eye on a particular neighborhood sometimes all of the houses are that big.

That being said, the financial problem with buying a home is that Americans just LOVE to borrow money they don't have. They buy the most expensive home they can buy, financed over 30 years, instead of just buying what they need and paying it off sooner. Using todays rates, a $600k loan over 30 years pays almost $500k in interest. A $300k loan paid at the same rate paid over 15 years is about $115k in interest. Sure, the Boulder home will appreciate, but you're paying far more interest...and interest is _usually_ higher than appreciation rates.

I'm not saying "don't go to Boulder because it's expensive", I'm just saying that it's a huge factor in the decision to live there. Personally, that's one factor why I decided on Fort Collins instead of Boulder. Also keeping in mind that I moved from the Bay Area, where house prices are 50% more than Boulder, even.

fully hear you, Ian...if you're coming from the Bay, then Boulder seems great! but the rest of the world....man, you get a 1500-sq-ft home for what a 4000-sq-ft would cost elsewhere...

and Mal--great post, as usual.

Lauren--just come visit and check out FC, Boulder, even parts of Denver...

People love hating Boulder for some reason.

I think it's great! Lots of friendly people, great food, and of course AMAZING climbing!

Lived in Boulder County since 1973, hung out in Boulder since the late 70s because I liked the record shops, library and general offbeat funkiness (I think leftover from the 60s). I like it now because of the mountains on the doorstep, the active lifestyle/hiking trails, access to high quality food (aka health food), and generally progressive politics. I love Movement Gym, was a member at BRC for years. I climb in Boulder Canyon often but have easy access to many other areas from Boulder.

As for jerks and poseurs and weird people sitting at your table uninvited (sounds like he had too much espresso!), there are jerks and weird people every where. Go to Denver to an average neighborhood grocery store in the evening. You'll find more "characters" than you will all week in Boulder. :)

I recently road the bus from Denver to Boulder in row 2 and had to listen to an older guy drone on and on, complaining about people in Boulder. He made a point to say: "I don't live in Boulder, I reside there. I live in reality." I felt like tapping him on the shoulder and saying, "Turn around look at the face behind you. They're all normal working stiffs returning home to their families. Normal people. And they are having to listen to you demean the entire population of the place they live in."

But I just bit my tongue. You run into that attitude a lot around except it usually the people who don't live in Boulder. I say: live in your reality outside my bubble. We won't miss you!

(fixed typos)

JLP wrote: "Estimated median house or condo value in 2009: $477,700 (it was $272,200 in 2000)" This is more realistic, though it's still skewed a bit by a minority of very expensive homes.

Here's a window on houses currently for sale in Boulder:

How's that for affordable?

Or go here to see them all:
zillow.com/homes/fsbo/Bould…

I moved to the Boulder area from Seattle back in January. My impression so far:

--Boulder is weird as shit, but that's not a bad thing

--The employees at The Spot climbing gym are such big dicks that I stopped bouldering there and switched to BRC and Movement where the staff is pretty friendly (more so at BRC)

--There are a lot of self righteous "trust fund hippies" who are fine in small doses. Take what they say with a grain of salt

--There are a lot of snobby rich pricks...but usually people aren't pricks to you for no reason, so don't give em one. And they can't help but be snobby, they grew up as over-privileged "trust fund hippies".

--Yes, people climb damn good here. But finding a partner should be no problem. In fact you'll probably find several partners that double as friends and then you'll be set.

--It is expensive but it gets cheaper right outside of town.

Overall, I feel like Boulder is pretty awesome. Lots of sunshine, sexy girls, 4 seasons, friendly people, great bluegrass scene, great climbing and good beer. Yes, it has its problems-- but you'll find problems everywhere. I say move here!

E Johnson wrote:Lived in Boulder County since 1973, hung out in Boulder since the late 70s because I liked the record shops

What's a "record shop"? Ha! I also recently heard of something called a "typewriter." Such strange language...

Never been to Boulder, or Colorado, for that matter, but this thread is motivating me to check it out. Colorado sounds like a good area for outdoors people.