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Google is growing their Boulder office from ~400 to 2,000 over the next few years.

by drumdance 10y ago

shostack 10y ago
Last I checked Boulder had Bay Area house prices (literally) and no where near comparable pay. Is that still the case?
- Kephael 10y ago
  I'm currently in Boulder and only one person out of the three dozen I work with is able to afford their own home here. Everyone else seems to commute from Denver or Longmont. I don't see how the limited industry in the area is able to support the housing prices, it seems like a bubble to me.
  - shostack 10y ago
    Longmont looks like it has no downtown and seems a bit on the less affluent side--is that accurate? Hard to tell from online research. But a much better commute to Boulder than Denver. How would you describe it? How does it compare to say, Cherry Creek?
    - Kephael 10y ago
      Longmont is nowhere near as nice as most of Boulder. It looks like you can get more for your money in Cherry Creek as well. Boulder is very nice if you can afford to live here and are prepared to pay Bay Area housing prices. I'm in an area heavily populated by students and I need to be careful that I don't trip over a transient when I walk to work. You can buy sixty year old homes for half a million dollars here, but I think you'd be looking at a million plus to get something nice and modern. Unfortunately I'm here without a vehicle and the public transport system is poor, I rode the bus once and almost died. I'm using ride sharing services to get everywhere. I've been very impressed with the Pearl Street area of Boulder and I don't think Denver can beat it. I would describe the Pearl Street mall as a cross between Disney Word, Las Vegas sans the gambling, and Duval Street in Key West.
      - shostack 10y ago
        Very interesting. How is the tech job scene in Denver compared to Boulder? Is there a ton of opportunity there in comparison? Or is it pretty much Boulder or bust?
        drumdance 10y ago
        I moved from Boulder to Denver late last year. I'd say the tech scene in Denver is very solid. The only difference is it's a bit more spread out, so you don't have quite the same serendipity that you have in Boulder (i.e. bumping into another founder at the coffee shop). Boulder probably has more startups per capita and aside from a few whales like Google and Ball Aerospace, it leans more towards startups. This is partly because once a company grows beyond 100 people or so it's too expensive to find office space in Boulder, so they move to Longmont or somewhere like Broomfield along the Boulder-Denver corridor. Denver has lots of tech startups too, but also a lot of enterprise-y companies like Charles Schwab, Comcast etc. I personally prefer Denver because I'm a city person, but I lived in Boulder for 15 years and really liked it as well. I may even move back there at some point. I still own a townhouse there; it may end up funding my retirement.

Google is growing their Boulder office from ~400 to 2,000 over the next few years.

shostack 10y ago

Last I checked Boulder had Bay Area house prices (literally) and no where near comparable pay. Is that still the case?

Kephael 10y ago
I'm currently in Boulder and only one person out of the three dozen I work with is able to afford their own home here. Everyone else seems to commute from Denver or Longmont. I don't see how the limited industry in the area is able to support the housing prices, it seems like a bubble to me.
- shostack 10y ago
  Longmont looks like it has no downtown and seems a bit on the less affluent side--is that accurate? Hard to tell from online research. But a much better commute to Boulder than Denver. How would you describe it? How does it compare to say, Cherry Creek?
  - Kephael 10y ago
    Longmont is nowhere near as nice as most of Boulder. It looks like you can get more for your money in Cherry Creek as well. Boulder is very nice if you can afford to live here and are prepared to pay Bay Area housing prices. I'm in an area heavily populated by students and I need to be careful that I don't trip over a transient when I walk to work. You can buy sixty year old homes for half a million dollars here, but I think you'd be looking at a million plus to get something nice and modern. Unfortunately I'm here without a vehicle and the public transport system is poor, I rode the bus once and almost died. I'm using ride sharing services to get everywhere. I've been very impressed with the Pearl Street area of Boulder and I don't think Denver can beat it. I would describe the Pearl Street mall as a cross between Disney Word, Las Vegas sans the gambling, and Duval Street in Key West.
    - shostack 10y ago
      Very interesting. How is the tech job scene in Denver compared to Boulder? Is there a ton of opportunity there in comparison? Or is it pretty much Boulder or bust?
      - drumdance 10y ago
        I moved from Boulder to Denver late last year. I'd say the tech scene in Denver is very solid. The only difference is it's a bit more spread out, so you don't have quite the same serendipity that you have in Boulder (i.e. bumping into another founder at the coffee shop). Boulder probably has more startups per capita and aside from a few whales like Google and Ball Aerospace, it leans more towards startups. This is partly because once a company grows beyond 100 people or so it's too expensive to find office space in Boulder, so they move to Longmont or somewhere like Broomfield along the Boulder-Denver corridor. Denver has lots of tech startups too, but also a lot of enterprise-y companies like Charles Schwab, Comcast etc. I personally prefer Denver because I'm a city person, but I lived in Boulder for 15 years and really liked it as well. I may even move back there at some point. I still own a townhouse there; it may end up funding my retirement.