I live in Erie. It's more or less a bedroom town area. Not a lot of of actual business and stuff happening in Erie. That said I have lived in Erie for about 15 years and like it. It is very convenient to Boulder, Denver, Loveland, etc.. It is still a little less money than surrounding areas like Louisville and on the west side of I-25 which keeps the value and house prices higher than east of I-25. I've been in erie air park many times. Sort of different. Love it if you like to fly but some homes are a little dated. You should have good mountain views there. The air park is in Weld County. Taxes are better than a little to the west in Boulder County. There is another air park a little to the north and bigger lots and more reasonable. Most areas are very small lots with nothing but tract home builders. Water rights eliminate large lots. Everything is controlled by developers. You cannot just go and buy land to build on. I repeat this. You cannot buy land to build on unless you are prepared to spend a lot of money! It is all by developers. It's something like 34 acres minimum if you are not a developer to access water rights.
Smog laws aren't bad. Depends on the year you are building. Weather is generally great if not exceptional. Very dry but sunny. It has been a colder winter but we have a ton of sunshine and most winters are pretty mild with most of the snow in the mountains. One thing I don't like is that it is semi-arid. It is brown during the summer and not a lot of trees or green grass. I grew up in Wisconsin and really miss the green and trees. If you look west it is mountains. If you look east it's basically flat, dry and Kansas. To get to the mountains to do anything it is some effort. At least a day trip if not more and traffic sucks up and down the I-70 corridor to the mountains. Really it sucks bad. I love to ski, hike and all mountain things but we don't get up there that much because of the nasty traffics on the weekends.
That said, if you want 4 seasons it is probably one of the better areas to live. There are places I like better but overall it's pretty good.
Wes
|