insiders know ...

[october 2024 roommates]

SO, roomiematch.com's Colorado Springs roommate rundown:

Colorado Springs is on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, about 70 miles south of Denver.

So attractive mountain scenery abounds. And all that stunning scenery is covered in wildflowers in summer! The pretty goes to eleven, for sure.

So do the military installations.

Many have described the culture of Colorado Springs as "strong military presence." What does that mean, exactly?

There are almost 50,000 active-duty troops and more than 100,000 veterans in Colorado Springs. They've all variously served at the Cheyenne Mountain Space Force Station, the Peterson Space Force Base, the Schriever Space Force Base, Fort Carson and/or The United States Air Force Academy. Many defense corporations and The Space Foundation are here as well, along with the Olympic Training Center!

Basically, many military installations and educational institutions vitally important to the defense of the United States are all right exactly here.

So how does that influence the culture? You could say the military gets what the military wants in Colorado Springs . . . but that was probably obvious already, right? (Because they're the military.)

But what might be less obvious is that folks associated with all the military listed above equal half of everyone here. Half is a high percentage, that's the notably outlier statistic.

So a lot of military folk, who attract a lot of high-tech corporations who want to work with them as well. They're all working together right now in Colorado Springs.

There's also a LOT of figure skating. SO many skating championships and a museum and an arena and a club! You and your roommates could skate on through!

(If that appeals even though you can't yet figure skate, no worries, as there's a training center for figure skating too! And that's just . . . not at all surprising, is it?)

The rest of the Colorado Springs roommate lowdown:

• home to U.S. Air Force Academy, Beth El College of Nursing, Colorado College, and the University of Colorado
• 2 professional baseball teams
• Almost 500,000 folks live here one mile above sea level. You and your roommates (from lower altitudes) may need up to a week to adjust, but it's hard to say for sure because it's individual. (If you suffer from any breathing or circulatory issues please consult a doctor before traveling to Colorado Springs or other higher altitude areas.)
• Colorado Springs experiences mild weather compared to the rest of Colorado. It does snow here, but with all the intense sunshine and all the intense snow plowing roads are usually clear again within hours. But if you and/or your roommates insist on driving in an unplowed snowy situation, you'll want snow tires and all-wheel drive, for sure.
• The air is clean and crisp, but extremely dry. Feels nicer outside than heat plus humidity, but many raisin folk didn't know in advance that's also dehydrating. Make sure to remind any new-to-Colorado-Springs roommates to drink more water to avoid elevation sickness and raisinhood as well. OK, no actual raisin folk, that was just a metaphor, but folks do get dried up here for real.
• Similarly, due to the dry air and high elevation, the temperature can swing widely in a matter of hours. If it starts bugging you, seriously consider dressing in layers.

After you're settled down, you and your roommates should experience Colorado Springs':

• Pikes Peak: About 10 miles away is the peak that inspired the song, "America the Beautiful." If you don't feel up to hiking to the summit, they also allow driving and there's a train that goes all the way up (Cog Rail).
• Garden of the Gods: It's a city park around a series of dramatically different sandstone formations.
• Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame and Museum of the American Cowboy: Their name already speaks volumes, but this museum also features live rodeo events and a Cowboy Ball.
• Trails: Many that are interconnected, mostly gravel, some stretches paved. Motor vehicles are not allowed but you can ride your horse on them all the way to Fountain, Colorado.

Here's the city of Colorado Springs official .gov where you can learn about biking, including The Bike Master Plan.

Notes

1.   The non-traditional roommate rent average for this city we've experienced over the last 3 years. We can't predict future rental availability, because we're neither in control of any rental market nor psychic, sorry!

But in most cities most of the time, the recent and relatively recent past are the best predictors.


2.   This idea came from smartasset.com's ranking of what a roommate saves you in 50 cities. They ranked where roommates will save you the most money, based on the average cost of a 1BR as opposed to a 2BR ÷ 2. Unsurprisingly, the more expensive the city, the more you can save, but the savings are significant in all larger metros. So we got the data for the rest of our cities from Zumper too.

This is really the minimum you could save, as you could live with more than one roommate, split more services, share food or other supplies, etc. More sharing tends to lead to more savings too, as per our roommate roadmap.

As per the rest of the description at the top of this page, we're calling this "traditional" roommate rent.


3.   From zumper.com.


4.   Directly quoted from the Trust for Public Land's parkland rating system.

"The ParkScore index awards each city up to 100 points for acreage based on the average of two equally weighted measures: median park size and parkland as a percentage of city area. Factoring park acreage into each city’s ParkScore rating helps account for the importance of larger “destination parks” that serve many users who live farther than ten minutes’ walking distance."

While each city's rundown already includes their individual ParkScore, nature lovers might like to see all roommate cities ranked for parkland.


5.   Directly quoted from Walk Score's Cities and Neighborhoods Ranking. They've ranked "more than 2,800 cities and over 10,000 neighborhoods so you can find a walkable home or apartment."

While each city's rundown already includes their individual Walk Score, dedicated pedestrians might like to see all roommate cities ranked for walkability.


6.   From various lists here on our own best roommate cities.


7.   From hoodmaps.com: a collaborative map where residents use tags describing social situations you're likely to find. Other users can thumb up or down, so the largest tags have been thumbed up the most.