The headache of house hunting

Quite a few people have inquired about our house hunting adventures, so I figured I better do a blog about it. First off, I want to preface with house hunting is challenging because there are so many variables to consider. Unfortunately, Shawn hasn't had much time to go driving around looking with his bum foot, work, and then the flu/cold last weekend. I, however, have more free time obviously, so I've gone driving around Highlands Ranch area quite a few times looking. Here is where the variables come in. We have to decide if we want to stay in HR or look around other cities. I've ventured out to Lone Tree because that's where the Super Target and the Park Meadows Mall are and I like that area as well. I haven't gone too much into Littleton or Centennial, but I've driven past them and honestly they are all have pretty good qualities. Originally, Shawn wanted to check out Golden because that's where he grew up and has a special connection to it, but those neighborhoods tend to be a bit older. This is a good thing and a bad thing. Since they are older, the lot sizes are bigger, which means more of a backyard and space in between houses. Bad thing is older homes mean potentially more upgrades/remodeling needed. One of the reasons I wanted to buy a home in CO and not CA is I feel the homes in CA are built too close together and I love the idea of having a bit more land with my home. I want my kids to have a big backyard to play in as well. But I also hate the idea of having to do a lot of work on a home, especially because we'd have to pay someone to do it because with Shawn's work schedule, he's not going to spend his few hours every night and every weekend doing the work himself. Plus, neither of us know how to do the work ourselves anyways. So that brings us to buying a new home. Also, one of the bonuses of buying in HR is that the city has 4 recreation centers that residents have full access to. These centers have full gyms, plus pools, tennis courts, climbing walls, playgrounds, etc. etc. I love the idea of having access to these facilities. They also offer tons of classes that you have to pay extra for, but they aren't a ton of money, so when Inara gets older we can enroll her in swim lessons, dance classes, or any other things that interest her. I have already started going to an exercise class Tue/Thu mornings at 8am called Fit Moms, which is perfect because the class is stroller friendly, so Inara goes with me and hangs out in the stoller for the 50 minutes while I work out. It's been a great transition back into working out, plus I've met a few moms already and am hoping to make some friends this way. (More on this later. Back to the househunting.) Since HR has the rec centers, it's a little less of a negative that the houses don't have big backyards because we could always take the kids there for outdoor fun. And this area has a TON of parks. I think every neighborhood has one within walking distance. Oh, and there are a lot of walking/biking paths as well. The other variable to consider obviously is price, which HR makes this difficult as well because I've found 3+ bedroom houses for $299K as well as 6+ houses for $900K and everything in between. So if we really wanted to, we could pretty much find a house in our price range in this area, no problem. I've actually found a neighbor that I adore and it's within walking distance to the newest rec center. We found a 4 bedroom available and it's totally in our price range. The bummer about this neighborhood though is there aren't a lot available, so I wonder if that means they are popular and will be difficult to get into in a few months. The last variable to consider is when to buy. Shawn and I are already planning on looking more seriously this month and getting a real estate agent and pre-approved for the loan in the next few weeks. So do we buy before summer when a lot of homes go on the market but lots of buyers are out as well, or do we wait until the end of summer when home prices may go down but there may be few houses on the market? And of course, we obviously have to watch the overall market because we don't want to buy a house if the prices are going to go down again by the end of the year. Ugh! Like I said, house hunting can be such a headache because there are too many darn variables to consider!