My husband and I currently live in the Denver-Metro area and we are always complaining about all the people moving here. Over the last few years, we have noticed the traffic getting worse, and we’ve seen the housing prices rise. It feels like people are pouring into the city and making it burst at the seems! Though I can’t complain too much – I am a transplant myself as of 2013. There are just so many people moving to Denver!
I originally came out to Colorado for college, but there are plenty of other reasons why other people are constantly moving to this square-shaped state. Here are the top 5 reasons that people are moving to Denver.
1. Jobs
Denver has been working hard at job creation over the years. They have a lot of great industries to get involved in including, but not limited to, aerospace, bioscience, homeland security, energy, engineering, tourism, and outdoor recreation.
Denver has achieved some top rankings in certain areas including #1 in private aerospace employment, #3 for concentration of high-tech workers, and #4 for start-up activity! We recently found out that Denver is now eighth-best in the country for tech workers.
According to the MetroDenver Labor Force Statistics, the total number of employed individuals in the city and county of Denver in 2007 was only 301,750. In 2017 that number hit 386,225! People are moving to Denver for the great jobs that it has to offer.
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2. The Mountains
Colorado is home of the Rockies! We are so blessed to have easy access to all that the Rockies have to offer. Denver is roughly 30 min away from the entrance to the mountains. Once you hit i70 and keep on cruising all you see is postcard-perfect views!
The mountains have so much to offer all year round. Hiking, biking, and camping in the summer, and all the exciting snow sports in the winter! In fact, Denver ranks in the top 10 for best cold-weather winter destinations. Colorado offers some of the best ski resorts in the country. It’s part of the reason why the tourism industry is thriving out here.
3. Great Weather
When I was planning on moving out to Colorado, I had a lot of people asking me how I was going to handle the winter’s out here. I now chuckle at that question, because I sometimes wonder how I handled the winter’s before I moved out here – I came from the suburbs of Chicago!
Denver is known for having 300 days of sunshine (though it determines on how you classify a day of sunshine). Whether or not you believe that; let me describe a typical winter here in the Denver-Metro…
It will snow overnight from Sunday to Monday. By about noon on Monday, the snow will be gone. That afternoon it might get up to 50 degrees. Tuesday will be 50s-60s and then on Wednesday or Thursday, we might have a day of 70 degrees and sunny. People will be outside playing with their kids. Then, that weekend it will go back down to the 40s. It may be another week to 4 weeks before it snows again… But generally, the temperatures stay in the high 30s to 50s.
The climate is dry, so you don’t have to worry about frizzy hair or melting with sweat when you walk outside. Though it does call for a lot of water, lotion, and chapstick
4. Cheaper Than the Expensive Cities
After living here for 6 years, I would not consider Denver a “cheap” place to live. In fact, if you ask most people who have been here for a while, or are moving from the midwest, they would tell you that Denver is outrageously expensive now.
However, to a family coming from San Francisco or Seattle, they might think that Denver is a bargain! We get a lot of people moving here from California – which we all know is a very expensive place to live. So, we see a lot of Californians moving here to get away from their own expensive cities.
When I was working in property management I saw this a lot. If I had a high-end loft that was up for rent in the city, the people that usually ended up renting it
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5. Great Place to Be Single
Are you still looking for your special someone? If you move to Denver you might just find your one and only. Denver is apparently the 4th best place in America to be single. Denver offers a lot of great date opportunities. There is a good balance of nightlife and outdoor activities.
Maybe it is a great place to be single here because apparently, Denver is in the 10 most attractive cities! There are a ton of very athletic people out here in Colorado. And if people aren’t very active, the lack of oxygen makes everything feel like a
Not only does Denver have the beauty, but it also has the brains. Colorado is the 3rd most educated state according to Forbes. There are plenty of great colleges out here to choose from.
Where are they coming from?
Now that we know why people are coming to Denver, I wanted to know more about where they were coming from. I did a quick search to find out what the state-to-state migration patterns were like.
As of 2016, the top 5 states that people are moving from are 5. Florida 4. Arizona 3. Washington. 2. Texas 1. California. An estimated 22,540 people moved from California to Colorado between 2015-2016!
Truthfully, I get frustrated sometimes by all the people moving to Colorado. But when I take a step back and look at the facts, it makes a lot of sense. We love living here very much, it is a great place to call home. This state is one of a kind and can be hard to beat!
Colorado may be shaped like a square, but it is anything but!
