DENVER IS IN THE MIDST OF A SEISMIC TRANSFORMATION: Walk the streets of Cherry Creek North or the Golden Triangle or the burgeoning neighborhood just west of Union Station, and you can see it. More important, you can feel the metamorphosis as these neighborhoods infill old surface parking lots and the like and grow up, both literally and figuratively. Much of the change in these areas is coming in the form of big new mixed-use buildings that include significant numbers of apartments—inventory Denver desperately needs because of the dearth of houses on the market.
As the city’s rich blend of neighborhoods undergoes this growth spurt, we thought it would be worthwhile to examine what makes a place especially livable. We considered real estate stats, of course, but also crunched crime data, collected school ratings, and gave each neighborhood an “X factor” rating that considers things like the overall vibe, proximity to parks, access to public transportation, and nearby restaurants and nightlife. Then we weighted each category (35 percent for percentage increase in home value*; 30 percent for safety^; 20 percent for neighborhood school ratings**; and 15 percent for the X factor^^) to come up with a final ranking*** of Denver’s most livable neighborhoods from one to 66.
Any ranking like this is fundamentally subjective: Some Denverites might be keenly interested in public schools, while others might prefer not to factor in schools at all when choosing where to live. Some might want to be able to walk to a top-tier restaurant; others are happy to hop in the car when they need to grab a bite. Given the inherent subjectivity, we’ve also created a customizable version of this list at 5280.com/realestate, where you can adjust the weighting for each category and come up with your own list of Denver’s best neighborhoods. No matter your preferences, we hope you’ll be able to find a neighborhood that fits your needs—a place you truly can call home. The Fine Print: *Average home prices (as of January 2015) and percentage increases are courtesy of Your Castle Real Estate. Percentage increase reflects the change in average prices from 2013 to 2014. A few Denver neighborhoods did not have statistics available and thus were excluded from consideration.
**Crime data—the total number of crimes reported in each neighborhood in 2014—are from the Denver Police Department.
**School ratings were taken from Denver Public Schools’ School Performance Framework. The SPF scores for the public schools in each neighborhood were averaged: Five is the highest score, one is the lowest. For areas that did not have schools within their boundaries, we averaged the ratings of the neighborhoods’ feeder schools.
**Each neighborhood was given an X factor rating: Five is the highest score, one is the lowest.
***Ties were broken using the X factor score first and then percentage increase.
See what neighborhoods ranked the highest here!