My Neighborhood Insider

Top 10 Walkable Neighborhoods in Denver

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:29:36 +0000

A recent study ranking the walkability of major metropolitan areas rated Denver #4 in the nation. This may be confusing to people who still remember the striking National Geographic issue on sprawl featuring a depressing shot of Highlands Ranch on the cover (many other states feature sprawling subdivisions but they presumably chose us because we don’t have trees to hide it).

There are actually many areas, both city neighborhoods, and more suburban areas, that are walkable in and around Denver. First though, what does “walkable” really mean?

It may seem obvious, but walkable areas and neighborhoods have sidewalks, preferably wide ones. Believe it or not, there are neighborhoods that lack this feature. Being walkable also means having things like shops, services, offices, parks, and restaurants within easy (10-15 minutes) walking distance. The following is list of the top 10 walkable neighborhood and areas in/around Denver (in no particular order).

1. The Highlands. Roughly the area around 32nd and Federal. Great little downtown area within walking distance of many homes. City neighborhood 10 minutes from downtown Denver.
2. Cherry Creek. Neighborhood bounded by Cherry Creek south, East 6th Ave north, Colorado Blvd. east, and University west. City neighborhood. 10 minutes to downtown.
3. Washington Park. Neighborhood around Washington Park (go figure) bounded by I-25 to Cherry Creek and University to Downing. City neighborhood. 10 minutes to downtown.
4. Stapleton, Denver. Quebec and 29th street. City neighborhood but new. 10 minutes to downtown.
5. Lowry. Denver. Bounded by Quebec east, Alameda south, 11th Ave North. 15 minute drive to downtown. City neighborhood but new.
6. Bonnie Brae. Bounded by University west, Exposition north, Mississippi south. 10-15 minutes to downtown. City neighborhood.
7. Downtown Littleton. Areas around the downtown. Bounded by Santa Fe west, Berry Ave north, Church Ave. south. 20 minutes south of downtown Denver. Suburb of Denver. Has own light rail stop also.
8. Bradburn Village, Westminster. 120th between Sheridan and Federal. Suburb of Denver. 30 minute drive to downtown Denver.
9. Downtown Golden. 30-40 minute drive to downtown Denver (east).
10. Olde Town Arvada. Suburb of Denver. 20-30 minute drive to downtown Denver (east).

Neighborhoods - A new section on My Neighborhood Insider

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 22:25:39 +0000

We've added a new section to My Neighborhood Insider called Neighborhoods . This new section contains articles that will give you things to think about when choosing your new neighborhood. The first two articles for this new section are Neighborly Modernism and The Not-So McMansion .

We hope you enjoy them!

Neighborhoods in Magazines, where are they?

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 15:20:07 +0000

I write for and read a large number of home and garden magazines (referred to as “shelter” magazines). These magazines always feature many beautiful homes, meticulously laid out with the oh so perfect throw tossed “casually” over the sofa arm, beckoning the reader to imagine sitting there. Page after page of fabulous homes with usually a single shot of the exterior (unless it’s a garden piece). What you usually don’t see is a neighborhood picture—a picture of the streetscape. Why is this? There’s an easy answer: Many neighborhoods suck.

This month’s Dwell magazine has a treatise by the editor that really struck a cord, he talks about how America is filled with what he calls “undesign”—buildings and areas no one cared enough about to think through. Usually what determines design in America is money—the cheaper the better. This is why our country is filled with cheap, crappy looking strip malls and blank, soulless big box stores, and acre after acre of forgettable ticky tacky houses massed together without any relationship to each other (other than all being beige and the exact same house) or the larger neighborhood. Americans fetishize the private home and ignore the surrounding area, but it’s not their fault—we’ve been given nothing to care about for the most part for the past 50 years.

Thankfully, this is changing, the neighborhood is getting attention from designers, urban planners, and architects—and there are plenty of examples where good design isn’t only for the millionaires—neighborhoods that provide housing at many different price points. This is for the most part, thanks to the new urbanists, who have created a whole movement around creating places people can care about again.

There are a few magazines that have articles on neighborhoods, most notably Cottage Living, which has an article in almost every issue highlighting a great cottage neighborhood. I’d say the neighborhood is back, but it never left—people have always wanted to care about their neighborhoods, they just haven’t had much to care about in new construction until recently.

Denver Neighborhoods�Up and Downs

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 02:08:20 +0000

Did you know there are neighborhoods in Denver with a greater than 75% foreclosure rate and more than 20% price decreases in from 2006 to 2007? There are also neighborhoods that had greater than 15% price gains in the same time period with a less than 10% foreclosure rate.

They are often almost next door to each other, especially close to the Denver downtown core. What distinguishes these neighborhoods? Average price. All the neighborhoods with huge decreases and very high foreclosure rates have an average house price around 100K, the neighborhoods doing well? Average house price around 800 K in close to the core and around 400 K in the suburbs.

The Denver Post has an excellent graphic showing different neighborhoods around the Denver metro area listing price change, foreclosure rate, average discount, average price, homes sold, and days on market for the year ending Dec. 31st, 2007.

This article in the Denver Post emphasizes the old adage: all real estate is local, that’s never been true more than it is today with the subprime lending crisis.

Denver Neighborhoods with the Largest Appreciation

Name	Average Price	Average Price Change through 06-07	City
Cheesman Park	869 K	+54%	Denver
Sedalia	604K	+34%	Sedalia
Country Club	1 Mil	+25%	Denver
Larkspur Heights	685 K	+25%	Douglas County
Cherry Hills	2.2 Mil	+18.9%	Denver

Denver Neighborhoods with the Largest Losses

Name	Average Price	Average Price Change through 06-07	City
Del Mar	120 K	-39%	Aurora
Val Verde	92 K	-30%	Denver
Aurora Heights	94 K	-22%	Aurora
Northwest Aurora	100 K	-17%	Aurora
Northeast Park Hill	132 K	-17%	Denver

Take a family trip to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 23:08:36 +0000

On cold days in the winter, it can be difficult to find things to do in Denver as a family. You can see only so many movies, and shopping can get boring quickly. One place that we frequent often is the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

The Denver Museum has a large exhibit on dinosaurs and evolution, space, and gems and minerals. The museum also has a small exhibit on Egyptian mummies. The largest area of the museum is the Edge of Life – Wildlife Dioramas. You can spend hours walking around looking at the dioramas of different ecosystems around the world.

The Museum also has shows at an IMAX theatre and a planetarium. The museum is large enough where you can kill an afternoon with the family. They even have a deli where you can get lunch.

The best deal at the museum is to get a membership. The $100 family membership will get you 10% discounts in the café and museum shops, and other cool privileges. With the membership, the deli prices are actually quite reasonable.

They also have special exhibits from time to time. Here’s a sampling of what you’ll see. We hope you enjoy as much as we do!

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Welcome to My Neighborhood Insider

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 07:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the "My Neighborhood Insider" blog. Here we will discuss more general things about life in Denver, home ideas, and neighborhood life in general.

We created this website and blog to give people a better idea of what it is like living in Denver. We also hope to give you accurate information about the different neighborhoods that you can't find anywhere else. We want to help give you information that you can't get from a source that may be biased. We are not realtors, so we are not selling a particular house or neighborhood.

If you have ideas about things you want to hear more about, questions that we are not answering, or let us know how we are doing, please use the contact us form!

Thanks!