Experience at CU Boulder

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Colorado
41

Recently read a list of the ten US cities with the fastest rising cost of living. If I recall correctly, the top 4 were:

Portland, Oregon
Seattle, Washington
Denver, Colorado
Phoenix, Arizona

Denver is only 35 minutes outside of Boulder, Colorado.

42

@twoinanddone-- You may be thinking of the city of Erie which is divided 50% in Boulder County and 50% in Weld County? All of downtown and residential Longmont is located in Boulder County, Boulder County goes all the way to County Line Road, which is the far east of most of Longmont ( County Line Road which is the border with Weld County Colorado. )
So Longmont is located in Boulder County except for two city parks to the far east, Union Reservoir with our sailboat racing clubs and paddle boarding and Sandstone Ranch which is a soccer and football field related park in very western Weld County owned by the city of Longmont.
Longmont also serves the western unincorporated, and pricy community of Niwot for schools, and that is very close to eastern Boulder, adjacent to Gunbarrel so Boulder students go to high school in Niwot/Longmont in fact, as its close than say Fairview HS in western Boulder, and thus Niwot feels like part of the Boulder community. Likewise the city of Lyons directly north of Boulder is served by the Longmont, Saint Vrain Valley school district. Many parts of Longmont are closer to Boulder than say Broomfield and Superior to the south, but students and professionals live in all these communities.

Students find shared arrangements that are much less than your nephew, but some parents buy a condo for their student in Boulder but that may be getting to be prohibitively expensive.

That is correct that Broomfield became a city and county ten to fifteen years ago, but that is too far south
to be close to Boulder, for students, although many professionals live in Broomfield and can commute to Denver
or Boulder for work.

Students do live in West Longmont, and find the busses to campus convenient. It is 10 miles NE of campus.

Also note that Denver, Fort Collins and Colorado Springs recruit CU Boulder students.
Denver is by far much more expensive in parts than Boulder and Denver has a much more serious housing shortage today than the Boulder area, which has kept up with building condos and apartments. Denver also has some sketchy areas north and east of LODO, near 20th and Stout, that are dangerous at night. Boulder is safe at night, and a smaller city, only 100,000 plus another 95,000 in Longmont the other larger city in Boulder county.

Longmont has become the go to retirement city for Boulderites who want to downsize and stay in the area, so
values are way way up, but still affordable.

43

I’m a little late, but hopefully as a Boulder resident who knows a lot of people that teach, work and attend CU I can give some insights that are helpful.

  • The long term residents of the City of Boulder are very liberal, and it's an affluent brand of liberal. The residents of Boulder generally didn't go to CU, so they're not representative of the student body. The lack of CU grads living in Boulder was a topic at my block party last year, and nobody really knew why.
  • The student body seems to be the same politically as most large universities. Leans left with a group that's hard left, but those hard left college students are part of the experience. :) I'm sure the OP will be fine.
  • There has been a push by landlords to move the rental signing period earlier and earlier. There has been some talk about the city putting some rules in place, but I doubt it happens. Housing in Boulder is expensive, but it's also mostly run down. It sucks to spend a lot for a not so nice place.
  • There are a lot of nice places to rent in the surrounding towns like Longmont, Lafayette, Louisville, and Superior. I think students move to those cities because they can rent a much nicer place that is also quiet in exchange for a longer bus ride to campus.
  • The wind is real!!!!! lol. It happens about 10 times a year and mostly in the winter. The highest I've seen is 98 mph!