Have you heard?  Denver has allowed residents to own chickens, ducks, and dwarf goats within city limits since June 2011.

For those who enjoy their eggs fresh from the chicken coup rather than fresh from the grocery store, this has been great news.

So if you have your Denver home, but want to explore what it’s like to be an urban farmer, here are a few resources and tips we’ve gathered, that I’m sure you’ll enjoy.

First as the denverchickencooptour.com website details, ‘As of June 2011, Denver now allows each lot to have up to 8 chickens and ducks (total of and 2 dwarf goats.  These must be females, although young male kids are allowed as well as neutered male goats.’

Then you must consider how you will ‘coop’ the chickens and ducks to be safe from wild animals as well as warm in the winter time.  Many choose to make a chicken coop, and others choose to match the architecture with their homes.  Check out this photo of one taken by David at NotQuiteHippie.com:

A chicken coop taken during a coop tour by NotQuiteHippie.com

The web is also a great resource for finding the success stories of those who have been urban farming for years with chicken coops in their own backyard for years longer than Denverites have been.  A Facebook page for UrbanChickens.net has many community members talking about what works from their own personal experience.

Do you have experience with a backyard chicken coop?  And if so we would love to hear your recommendations on how to get started!  Everyone in Denver is waiting to hear!

You may have heard the news, but if you haven’t Forbes magazine recently ranked Denver amongst the best places for young adults to live.

They looked at the 100 largest metro areas and ranked their list based on

• projected job growth rates for 2010 to 2012 (data from Moody’s Economy.com)
• cost of living data (data from Moody’s Economy.com)
• median salaries for 24-34y.o. employed college grads (data from Payscale.com)
• unemployment rates
• Census Bureau data on the number of small businesses and large businesses per capita
• percentage of college graduates in the local population

Denver was ranked #7 because ‘The Mile High City boasts a significant college-educated population, a note-worthy number of small businesses and a healthy job growth rate that’s bolstered by the presence of companies like Lockheed Martin and IBM’ (Forbes, The 15 Best Cities For Young Adults).

We think that Denver will always remain popular amongst the younger residents as well as those young at heart because

• Denver is an active city with plenty of outdoor activities
• Denver has a vibrant culture with events and venues from sports to the arts
• So basically its not just a place to live but the lifestyle of living in Denver…

Trailing Denver, Colorado Springs was ranked #8 because ‘The Rocky Mountain metro area is home to an impressive number of defense contractors and universities, ensuring big business job opportunities and a notable number of college-educated residents” (Forbes, The 15 Best Cities For Young Adults).

But in case you were wondering, Des Moines Iowa took the title as the Best Place for Young Adults to live in the United States because: “The corn-belt city has the most big businesses per capita, a brag-worthy unemployment rate, low cost of living and a flourishing number of young professionals residing in the area” (Forbes, The 15 Best Cities For Young Adults).

But really?  Would you really want to leave the Denver walking neighborhoods of Wash Park and Highlands for the midwest?  Or would you really want to leave those foothills views from most Colorado Springs homes for the midwest?  I can speak for those of us at 8z Real Estate that I think we’re pretty happy in Colorado!

John Rebchook from InsideRealEstateNews.com recently reported that Denver was ranked 14th in metro areas to raise children based on the increase in number of children in Denver.

Over the last decade from 2000 to 2010 the number of children in the Denver area, aged 5 to 17 years old, rose by 12.8 percent.  Compare that to the increase nationally of only 3.8 percent.

These statistics were put together by NewGeography.com. Analysis of the report attributed affordable housing as an important factor for states like Colorado that increased the population of families with children.

These stats are also very quantitatively based rather than qualitative.  Las Vegas has had an increase in children residents in the state.  This is attributed to the fall in prices and great affordability of the area in recent  years.  Yet many would probably still argue that there are better places to raise a family.  What do you think?

Colorado is a popular family location. Certain cities like Castle Rock, Highlands Ranch, Boulder, Fort Collins, Parker and Loveland have each been ranked in different rankings for the lifestyles the are provides residents.

Every neighborhood needs a local coffee shop.  Some neighborhoods even have a convenient neighborhood caffeine joint.  It is the perfect place to grab a cup of coffee, read the newspaper, or boot up the laptop.  While it seems that there’s  a Starbucks at every other street corner, there is a novelty that can’t be denied of the neighborhood coffee shop. Read the rest of this entry »

The WSJ, not to be outdone by pubs like Money/CNN, Outside Magazine and others, have printed a list of the Next Youth Magnet Cities. I wondered, while reading the list: Do people really use these guides when conducting their relocation research? Are they helpful, or do they just sell papers? I’ve asked the same question when the college polls are published, especially when I was lured to to GQ’s rundown of America’s 25 Douchiest Colleges.  (Looks like GQ took a page out of the of The Onion playbook.)

In any case, the folks who put their heads together and opined for the sake of rankings put Seattle in first place in a tie with Washington DC.  Denver and Raleigh-Durhum tie for seventh.  Here you can read what one of the judges/contributors, Richard Florida, had to say about the major Front Range town at his blog, Creative Class.

Just as a side note, I think it’s interesting that Richard put these two cities into the same slot.  However you feel about the Boulder v. Denver debate, I think a lot of locals would agree that, while the two places are close in geography, their independent flavors are as far apart as possible.

How do you consider Boulder vs. Denver? Just another symptom of sprawl, or two distinct cities with different styles?