What's it Like Living in Berkeley Denver? | Coolest Area in Denver
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Is Berkeley Denver one of the best walkable neighborhoods in Denver CO? In this Berkeley Neighborhood Tour, we break down what buyers need to know. If you are moving to Denver Colorado, relocating within Colorado, or trying to figure out which Denver neighborhood actually fits your lifestyle, Berkeley is one of those areas you need to understand. It has a lot of what buyers ask us for: walkability, local restaurants, parks, coffee shops, access to downtown Denver, and a real neighborhood feel. But like every area, it also comes with tradeoffs. In this video, we take you through Berkeley Denver CO and talk about what it is actually like to live here. We cover where Berkeley is located in northwest Denver, how close it is to Sloan’s Lake, West Highland, Downtown Denver, the mountains, and Denver International Airport. We talk about why the west side of Denver is so popular for buyers who care about lifestyle, commute, mountain access, and long term home value. A huge part of Berkeley’s appeal is Tennyson Street Denver. This is the main street that gives the neighborhood so much of its character, with restaurants, bakeries, coffee shops, local businesses, and that front porch community feel people are looking for when they want something more walkable than a typical Denver suburb. Jake and Megan Freedle dig into the real estate side of Berkeley Denver. You will learn about Berkeley home prices, lot sizes, average days on market, common home styles, modern infill, duplexes, bungalows, Tudors, Denver Squares, and why this neighborhood can get competitive when rates dip and buyers start moving again. This paints the picture that Berkeley is a great place to buy a home, and has shown strong appreciation. If schools are part of your search, we also walk through Berkeley Denver schools and nearby options, including Denver Public Schools, charter schools, private schools, Denver school choice, Centennial, Skinner Middle School, North High School, Thomas Edison Elementary, Midtown Montessori, Highlands Micro School, Rocky Mountain Prep, and more. For people moving from California to Denver this is a great option so we help by comparing California vs Denver costs for housing, groceries, restaurants, income taxes, property taxes, babysitting, and private school costs. Berkeley may look perfect from the outside, but this video will help you understand the lifestyle, pricing, schools, transportation changes, walkability, and real estate details before you decide if it is the right Denver neighborhood for you.
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Berkeley Denver Neighborhood Tour Intro
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Hey everybody, welcome to Southern Denver Living. Today we are reviewing one of my favorite neighborhoods in all
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of Denver. If you're looking to live the sort of European lifestyle, walk to your coffee shop, walk to your local
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restaurants, walk to your refill stations and grocery stores, we have the perfect neighborhood for you. [music]
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It's called Berkeley. It's on the west side of town and we cannot wait to get into all the juicy details that make
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[music] this such an amazing neighborhood, including some big changes that are coming to the area that you're definitely going to want to know about.
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So stay tuned so we can talk about some transportation changes and big lifestyle changes and how they're going to impact
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you in different areas of Berkeley. We're Jake and Megan Fredel, your part-time tour guides, full-time real
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estate [music] experts to Southern Denver living, and we are so excited you're here. So, please subscribe for
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all the latest updates on neighborhoods and check out our other videos. We have so much to tell you about Denver. I'm
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really envious in that beanie right now. My head is so cold. It's freezing out here. We should have just done a studio video today inside.
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Every [music] Friday. Every Friday. But we got to get out and show the people the city, you know. Yeah. How many people are doing this? Like getting out in the city and really
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showing it to people instead of just being tucked up in their offices. [music] Just the dumb people. We got to do it.
Where Is Berkeley Denver? West Denver Location
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So, if you're from California, you probably already are aware of Berkeley because you are like a moth to the flame
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here. All of my friends from California came here and moved to Berkeley. Um, so, but for those of you who are not from
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California, let's talk about a little bit about where are we. [music] We're in the northwest section of Denver. We are
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just a little bit north of Sloan's Lake in the West Highland area. We're west of
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the low of Lowhigh in the Highlands and Sunnyside. And the boundaries here are
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38 on the south side, I7 on the north side, Sheridan and Federal on the east
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and west. Um, and so it's this nice little square pocket. We've got a couple of lakes uh that are really accessible,
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nice to run around. There's about a mile walk around each one. And we're right next to Lakeside, the small amusement
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park. And the location is just one of the many huge selling points of this area. So, we're on the west side of
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town, which is always attractive because we're close to [music] the mountains. Uh, but we're also an easy commute to
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some of the major places that you might be commuting to. So, if we're talking the airport, we're about 22 minutes away
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on a normal traffic day. Um, for all these numbers I'm going to throw at you, for bad traffic, multiply it by about
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1.5. [music] So, VIA about 22 minutes away. uh downtown Denver, 11-minute drive, 20inut
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bike ride, and there's [music] a lot of easy bike routes in this area as well. Uh if we're getting to the mountains,
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we're about 19 minutes away from Apex Trail, which is one of my favorite places to do uh some hiking and running,
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which is an easy access on the front side of the foothills. Uh about 19 minutes to Golden, which is a super cute
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little town. Um and so we're just really close, easy commutes to so many places. uh about 25 minutes to the Denver Tech
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Center. Really not a bad drive there. Um it awesome location. You just [music] you can't beat this. And you're on the
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west side of town where we experience all the great uh appreciation values that are a little better than the east
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side of town. And if you're coming here for the skiing, most importantly, being on the west side of town skips a lot of
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that crappy traffic uh just getting out of town. Uh but you're going to be want
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to be warned. you know, these numbers you might multiply by two to three depending on really bad traffic. Uh,
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folks moving to Colorado don't always understand that you have [music] to you have to do a little commuting to get to
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our ski town. So, uh, Winter Park just under an hour and a half in good clear
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traffic if you're going up on a Wednesday. Uh, Breen Ridge about an hour and 45, hour and a half. A Bas and
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Keystone hour and a half or so. So, not bad commutes during uh you know easy
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traffic times, but if you are driving up on a Saturday morning, you better budget. You better get up early or
Berkeley Lake Park, Rocky Mountain Lake and Tennyson Street
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budget yourself for more like 2 and 1/2 hours for these locations. We started this location to show you
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Colorado's abundant water sports and rich lake life. No, I'm joking. This is
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a Colorado lake and I know it's not much, but it is a really cool destination to come to and walk around,
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bike around, run around. And unlike, you know, Wash Park or maybe Sloan's Lake
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where those parks are the defining feature, Berkeley Lake Park is a little less so. It's more of a nice destination
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to go see those things, but they're really nice, beautiful scenic features of the area. And [music] there's two of
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them. We have the Berkeley Lake Park here, and then we also have the Rocky Mountain Lake that is really close by. But the reason I say that these are not
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the defining feature of Berkeley is because I think the defining feature of Berkeley is more so its walkability. And
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that's made so because of Tennyson Street, which really serves as Berkeley's main street. It has tons of
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great things to do and restaurants, lots of pizza places. Um, Atomic Cowboy is one really good one. If you're a
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vegetarian or even just vegetarian friendly like myself, um, you can hit Vital Root, really great. And then
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Bakery 4, Jake Fredel says, is so good that you've got to stop off for a sweet
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treat there. Jake says I didn't sell it enough. Totally undersold the bakery. Look, Bakery 4 is ridiculous. It was the 2025
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winner of some World Bread Awards. Uh don't be afraid of the uh line. There's
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a huge line. They actually move really quickly. But you got to try this if you're in town visiting. When you move
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here, you're going to love it. Um my clients live on Steuart Street and they get to smell the beautiful smells of
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Bakery 4 from the alley all the time. The Pop-Tarts are insane. You got to try
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this place. uh totally undersold it. Outside of being home to this fantastic
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bakery, Dennison Street also really gives Berkeley its community feel. You
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know, it's got that main street vibe that kind of makes it feel more like a small town while still having all these
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big city amenities and it's really close proximity to downtown Denver. Um without
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feeling, you know, like overly touristy trappy, you know, where like everybody who hits Denver for a visit is hitting
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it. It's more like a locals feel where you're going to consistently see your neighbors, people that you know, and
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really give that neighborhood driven feel. But unlike a lot of true small towns where they really do start and end
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with their main street, Tennyson is not all that [music] Berkeley has to offer. You have other little pockets of little
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restaurants. Um, you know, American Elm is another great one that's not on Tennyson that's a feature of Berkeley
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or, you know, coffee shops galore that you can walk to all the time. This is actually perfect timing because it's
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snowing right now. It just started snowing and I want to talk a little about walkability in the wintertime. So,
Walkable Denver Neighborhoods, Bikeability and Transit Changes
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walkability and bikeability are both really prevalent in the Berkeley area. Um, you know, there's dedicated bike
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lanes in a lot of the streets around here. Not a ton of like bike paths that
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go off of the street. Um, but still some really strong bikeability. And in the winter time, this does put a little bit
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of a damper on this if you're used to walking and biking and you want that cl
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uh that path cleared. You know, that does create a bit of a problem. But I will also say in Colorado, one thing
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that is true about when it does snow, is a lot of the time as soon as it's hitting the ground, like this probably will happen later today, um it melts off
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right away because the sun comes out. Today is a bit of a cloudy day, but usually even when it's snowing, we have
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sunshine, so it doesn't always stick. you know, if you were used to like a New York winter where that snow comes and it
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just sits and it just does not move, um, you don't have that as much here. So, that does clear the path for a little
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bit more bikability and walkability. But for as bikable and walkable as the Berkeley area is, I think it's important
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that we have a little nuance here. When we talk about being bikable and walkable in Denver, we have to have this
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important caveat that that might not mean you can just ditch your car and bike and walk everywhere. Denver as a
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whole is pretty car dependent. I think Berkeley is the kind of area where most of the folks that we have helped by in
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the area still have one car. They might share that between the couple. Um but
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you still kind of need the car to get out further for certain commutes. Um but
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still as far as Denver goes, super walkable area. The transit center also
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something that kind of lays something to be desired. you know, you have like a main bus route that kind of gets you around, but you're not right on the
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light rail station or anything like that. But we have some big changes that are coming to the transit system [music]
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that are going to impact Berkeley. Don't [laughter] Okay, see, I'm telling you, it really is
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the smart people doing the studio videos. This is nonsense. Uh, okay. Big change is coming to transit. Now, this
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is going to take the current 37 transit score of Berkeley and level it up. How
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much? not enough to be a rival to like your Bostons or your Chicago or your Bay
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areas that actually have good transit, but it is going to improve it. We've got a couple of BRTs, which is a bus rapid
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transit centers coming. Um, we've got a north and south one coming on federal. Um, and what that means is we're going
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to have just like nicer bus stations with uh digital, you know, arrival
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times, real-time arrival times of the buses. It's going to go a lot faster, less stops. Uh there's going to be a
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north or an east and west one that runs you a lot faster to downtown Denver. I can't tell you exactly what that score
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is going to be, but I think it's going to end up going from like a 37 to like
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maybe a 50s to 60s. We're still not super accessible to light rail here, but
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it's getting a lot better. So, this is my good friend and client Keegan, and he lives right here in Berkeley in such a
Family Friendly Berkeley Denver and Local Parks
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cool neighborhood. Keegan, what's your favorite thing about living in Berkeley? You know, having the park so close by and Tennyson Street right over here
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really gives us a ton of activities to do with the kids, which leads into my next point, which is just it's such a
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family-friendly neighborhood. You know, between all of the young families that have moved here, the support we get for
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one another, it's a tremendous area to raise kids and really get out and about and enjoy life. [music] How many
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families are you friends with like within a stone's throw? Oh my goodness. At this point, I we've lived in Berkeley
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for about 5 years. And at this point, I'd probably say I mean, upwards of 20 or 30 families. And I know that's a
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little tough to believe. I probably wouldn't believe that myself before I moved here, but just the social interactions that happen naturally at
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the park across the street, walking around, um, and all the activities and events like First Fridays that go on
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here, it's really just a tremendous place to meet people, connect, and and get to know one another over time.
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What is something that you wouldn't know until you moved here about Berkeley?
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You know, I think the access to the parks was really quite a surprise for me because we have Berkeley right up there,
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Sloans Lake, a short walk or drive or bike ride away. Um the park right across the street as well um in Rocky Martin
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Mountain Park uh up the road too. And really, you know, we can just kind of vary our week or day without going very
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far to take the kids out, have some fun, play soccer, go on the playground, or just go for a nice walk on a on a
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pleasant day. And what is your favorite spot to for date night in Berkeley? My favorite spot
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for date night in Berkeley probably is Hops and Pie. It's just so easy and fun and and such a nice atmosphere to go and
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have a casual drink and slice of pizza [music] um or salad and just enjoy your time together um with indooroutdoor
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seating and uh just a nice easy spot to be. Awesome. Thanks so much, Key. Yeah. Real quick before our normal
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introduction, we're doing something a little different today. We're going to dive into all of the schools in the
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Berkeley neighborhood as part of our video [music] today. Yeah, we heard your feedback. You want to hear more about schools and all the
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neighborhoods. So, expect these regularly in all of our neighborhood tours. All right, so we're making some comparisons to California and the Bay
Berkeley Denver Cost of Living and California to Denver
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Area a lot with finances today. Um, the reason being is like a lot of folks we feel like end up [music] moving into
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Berkeley from who are from California. Now, you don't have to be from California. It's a great neighborhood
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for anyone obviously, but [music] I think part of the reason people are moving there is because wow, it it's a
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pretty expensive neighborhood to live in as far as real estate pricing. That is Denver generally a pretty expensive
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place to live in comparison to a lot of metropolitan areas across the country, but not if you're coming from like Bay
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Area, San Francisco, you're actually going to feel a little bit of a relief over in Berkeley. Exactly. So, this is maybe the
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perfect neighborhood for you. cost of living generally something like 30% higher in the Bay Area than it would be
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in Berkeley. So what do we mean when we talk about cost of living? Obviously everything from housing to the food
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you're going to buy. And in [music] the Berkeley area or really even Denver as the greater hole, the prices of food is
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about 30% [music] less than you might see in the Bay Area. And that's surprising because you do always harp on
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how good food is so expensive in the Denver area. So it's nice to have a little bit of ease there. Similar thing
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for groceries. Over in the Denver area, you're looking at about [music] 25% lower around the Denver area than
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someplace like San Francisco, right? And then there's some other things like uh private school. If you want to send your kids to private
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school, um there are some great public schools in the Denver metropolitan area, but if you're into the private school
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thing, there's a couple really good ones in this area. We'll touch on those later, but your average cost is going to
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be something like $2,000 [music] a month, whereas in California might be more like $3,000 a month. And the most
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important question, I mean, we're talking about babysitting, right? Got to know. I mean, when you live in a neighborhood
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like like Berkeley where there's like a hundred restaurants [music] that you can walk down the street to, you got to have
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a good babysitter. Average if you want to ditch those kids for the for the restaurant experience. Absolutely. I Yeah, definitely. Yeah.
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Anyway, so it's like starting uh wages for a normal babysitter is going to be about [music] $23 an hour. Uh that's
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pretty normal. Well, I think you'll find a decent babysitter for that if you want somebody who uh you know does a little
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extra for you. Maybe they're doing some household chores and laundry. What are you paying for yours these days? Well, you know, I was actually going to
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say I think if you um are looking in Berkeley area, usually being right close to Denver means a little bit more
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expensive than some of the surrounding suburbs for a lot of things. Babysitting ain't it? Cuz I think in the like
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southern suburbs, you actually see higher costs for things [music] like babysitters. There's one way that I
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think you're going to beat out some of the maybe cheaper subs. Yeah, we have a part-time babysitter that helps out,
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especially like when schools are closed and, you know, we just need a little bit more time. She's fantastic. We pay her
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27 bucks an hour. We have two kids and she does extras. Like she unloads the dishwasher, she puts away laundry
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anytime she has free time. So, that's like that's like really good care. That's awesome. But we did build her from the ground up.
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Like she came to us with like a little bit of experience. So, I also I recommend doing that. [music] But really not a bad pricing. You know,
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a little pricier down here, better in Denver, which is a big surprise. [music] Um, but another draw towards the
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Berkeley neighborhood is actually just a draw towards Denver in general. If you're coming from California, especially, you are going to love the
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income taxes down here. Whereas California is what, like more like 14 13 14%. Denver's got a pretty flat tax of
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about 4.4%. Now, they're trying to change that into a more of a sliding [music] scale thing.
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there's some some legislation up for vote, but generally it's still going to be a lot lower and it's a really nice
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[music] environment for running a business. Um, we've always been a sort of like uh, you know, less a fair state
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economically [music] with lots of other values that you're going to be excited about coming from California to Denver.
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Yeah. And it's not just like those, it's not just the income taxes, it's also property taxes. We get a lot of people
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coming here who I'll tell them, "Hey, look out. This area has a little bit high [music] property taxes." and they're like, "No, this is not bad. This
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is we were expecting double that." So, you do get a little bit of relief in that here. Yeah. Your property taxes generally in
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Denver [music] are something like 0.55%. So, 5,500 a year on a million-doll
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house. Not bad at all. So, that's a great place to transition into the [music] real estate. What is the cost of
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real estate like in this neighborhood? Yeah, let's jump into those numbers. So, we looked at the last year of closed
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prices for single family homes and we saw an average just over a million with
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the lowest at $415,000. [music] Now, don't get attached to that cuz that was a fixer upper and we're talking like
Berkeley Denver Real Estate, Home Prices and Lot Sizes
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crazy fixer upper. Like, leave that to the investors. And then flip it on the glam side. We
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had one close at 3 million. And then if you're going to look into what the lot size for that is, your average is about
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5,550 ft. Megan, do you think anyone actually understands what 5,550
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ft means? [music] We do because we look at those lots over and over again, and I know like kind of exactly what that backyard looks like,
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but can you Google something to help us conceptualize if you're not [music] everyday showing houses?
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My homeboy Claude here contextualizes it for us and it [music] says about 1.3 basketball courts, roughly half the size
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of a football field, which that's clearly not true. Sorry, Claude. About 13 standard [music] parking spaces lined
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up. Uh, picture a square that's roughly 74 feet on each side. About 25 normal
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walking steps per side. Honestly, I think you got to a house on there, too. [music] So, you know, when you're picturing your basketball court, put a
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house on there and then what's left is your backyard. You got to have a front yard. Yeah. And so, I think the basketball court is actually a pretty good analogy.
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One basketball court is about 4,700 ft². This one's real. Uh, [music] unlike the
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football field analogy. So, uh, you know, average like 1.3 [music]
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basketball courts is a pretty average lot size in Berkeley. Yeah. And so, I'd say like for being so close to Denver, that's pretty good. I'd
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say it's slightly smaller than your average in a lot of suburbs, but still a pretty decent backyard.
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And hey, if you're comparing it to a lot of the new builds that are like out east where you are phenomenally far from the
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city [music] anyway and you're on a brand new house, uh, those lots are like 5,000 ft, too. [music] So, at least
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you're in the city on, you know, a smaller lot. And one thing to be cautious of is if you are having that
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lot but it maybe didn't have a garage to start with [music] and then you put a garage on that lot, that's also really
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going to eat up your yard space. And in Berkeley, the last year's average days on market was about 28 days. I'd say
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that's kind of on par with all of the rest of the Denver area. Um, but [music] I will say that that area does pick up a
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little bit in the spring seasons. I'd say it gets [music] pretty competitive. Yeah. And this year, this is 2026,
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depending on when you're watching this, was a hot spring. [music] For just a moment, rates dipped below 6% for the
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first time in a while. And the market went pretty bonkers in neighborhoods like Berkeley. Yeah. Very neighborhood specific. There
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were some areas where it didn't really pick up, but Berkeley was not one of them. Well, [music] and specifically also the million to $1.5 million uh purchase
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price in [music] there. That was the hottest uh that was the hottest price point. And I think that's because we
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have a lot of move up buyers, meaning [music] people who are selling homes and getting ready to move into their next
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homes. We have a lot of folks like that who have been bottlenecked for years, kind [music] of just hanging on to their
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2.75% interest rate and they were willing to make the move for about 5.75.
Berkeley Homes, Architecture, Infill and Front Porch Culture
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So I was shopping for folks in Berkeley this spring and it was crazy.
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Yeah. All right, so let's nerd out about my architectural stuff like I like to do. So Berkeley was [music] founded
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originally started in the 1890s and was developed all the way you know it's still developing today. So we have this
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breadth [music] of of sort of styles of all the different kind of architecture right and interestingly uh [music]
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Berkeley used to have a little trolley called the Berkeley motor that ran up and down Tennyson Street [music] and
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brought workers all the way to the downtown area.
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So, all that architecture, you're going to see a lot of things like you're going to see a lot of Craftsman bungalows. That's probably the most common house
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that you're [music] going to find in the Berkeley area. A lot of those left over um until you start getting I say next
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most common is maybe going to be some [music] of the the new modern infill. But the bungalow is kind of that wide
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front porch, singlestory home, uh low pitched roofs, um but a really beautiful
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house. And you'll see some of those that have the pop [music] tops. That's where you you just add on just going upwards,
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right? Yeah. Yeah. You have this rein into a twotory kind of thing. Exactly. [music] Uh then we're going to have lots of brick tutors which are more
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of like the um [music] they they're one story but they have higher pitched roofs. U and they kind of have like
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[music] this story book, you know, kind of thing going. Yeah. It's like a little it's like a little one-story castle.
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We will have uh some some Victorian homes which are more this twostory with the sort of like uh they have really
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high pitched roofs [music] and sort of like they almost look like little gingerbread houses. You know what I'm talking about? Lots of those as well.
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Okay. And then of [music] course you have what they call the Denver square which is kind of the Denver take on uh
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the modern four square. [music] You have four rooms per floor, usually a twostory. Um, and and just a pretty
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standard, but brick home, beautiful house. Uh, not as like gingerbread looking as the Victorian homes. [music]
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Um, and then we've got the Craftsman, which is kind of just like a more uh refined
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version of the bungalow. It's just like a little fancy and a little more ornate. Uh, we get into some mid-century
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ranches. So, this is the post-war era uh where you had more of a sprawling. You're only going to find these if
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there's [music] like a bigger lot. Um, but these are nice, you know, lower pitched roofs, a little more modern than
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[music] the old bungalow styles. And then just tons of what we call modern infill, [music] new builds, duplexes,
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all kinds of things. There are a ton of duplexes in this area. So, a lot of the stats we were talking about earlier uh
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[music] do include duplexes when we're talking those single family homes. Yeah. And these tend to be built
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straight up because [music] everybody now wants more square footage and there's really only one way to go. Um,
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so a lot of times you see those being like the threetory above ground and we're talking threetory with [music]
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a rooftop patio. So these are some pretty massive rooms and and people have opinions about them. You know, some people are super excited
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about them and buying them up left and right um because they love the modernness and the location and some people who've been there forever feel a
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little better about it and don't love it. You know, we've definitely talked with a lot of homeowners that have opinions both ways on them, [music]
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but most importantly, what you're getting is just like a a varied, you know, this is not a suburb. This does
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not feel like Highlands Ranch or Arvvada. You've got this breadth of different home styles. You're walking
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down the street and you get to enjoy the difference in the architecture. [music] And and while we're on that, like when
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you're walking down the street, this is we talked about those smaller lot sizes, a lot of big front porches, which really
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invites you out into [music] the community. This is a front porch culture sort of neighborhood and that's the
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point. You don't need a huge lot because the point of this is to be out on tennis Tennyson [music] Street is to be out on
23:12
your front porch saying hello to your neighbors. Um and I do find that something [music] really special about
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this neighborhood is how easy it is to make friends, [music] you know. So
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there's the little Caesar Chavez Park that's right off of Tennyson Street. Um,
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you can hit Tennis and Street from a rock standing in this park. It's like [music] the local spot to meet other
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parent friends. Um, and you know, I'm I'm generalizing here cuz there's a a playground there.
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So, it's, you know, you meet [music] you meet young people on Tennis Street. You meet your friends with kids at Caesar
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Chavez Park. And, uh, I have a whole block that is like all the same friends
23:52
on Steuart Street. And they all live right there. And they all met at Caesar Chavez Park. And then there's another one across on Udica [music] Street. And
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that's where they all met because there's this beautiful park and super friendly, inviting people. [music] All
24:04
right, the moment we've all been waiting for at long last, by viewer request, we're diving into schools of Berkeley.
Berkeley Denver Schools, DPS, Private and Charter Options
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Uh, so a little background. Uh, everything here is going to be a [music] Denver public school. Um, if it's a
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private, we'll mention that. If it's a charter school, we'll mention that. But this is the Denver public schools
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district [music] and we're starting off with Centennial School which is prek
24:28
through fifth [music] grade uh public school just not a chartered regular public school. It is very walkable
24:35
within Berkeley from just about anywhere. Um [music] the niche grade is not currently posted as a letter grade,
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but it's published as above average. Great schools give it a rating of 8 out of 10. Um, [music] it outperforms DPS
24:49
district average generally and the curriculum is expeditionary learning which is a hands-on uh projectbased and
24:56
character focused learning. Um, I actually have friends who send their kids there and they've been really happy
25:02
so far. Yeah. Then we have another elementary school, Rocky Mountain Prep. [music] This is another charter school and they
25:08
start with early childhood education starting at 3 and they go into fifth grade. This school is right off of
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Tennyson Street. It has a student teacher ratio of 15 to1 and a niche [music] grade of B.
25:19
And you know, when we were driving ourselves cowering from the snow and just calling it quits on the outside for
25:24
the day, we drove by that school in Tennyson felt a little busy. It's a little busy. So, if that's a con
25:30
for you, something you should know. Next one I want to touch on is the Highlands Micro School. [music] Like the
25:35
name is, this is in the Highlands. It's not directly in Berkeley, but it's a really easy trip to [music] the Highlands. It's like a less than a
25:42
10-minute drive and this one might be worth it for you. You have several clients who have kids that [music] go to school there, right? Oh my gosh. And they love it. So, uh the
25:48
the it's a private school, so this one is a tuition of about $16,000 per year,
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but the ratio of student to kids is 9:1. So, it's really a fantastic atmosphere.
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Um they've [music] got it's a progressive non-religious independent school, mixed age classrooms, uh no
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traditional grades, no homework, low tech, uh very student centered and inquirybased learning. So [music]
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um they've even got like overnight adventure experiences for team building. Uh they've got summer camps available
26:19
from June through [music] August. Um but there is a wait list on this school most
26:24
years. [music] So if you're trying to get in this one, you're going to have to start thinking about it in advance. Yeah, really most any schools you're
26:30
looking into that are these private type schools, [music] you're going to be need to be checking that out pretty far ahead of time. Getting into middle schools, we've got
26:36
Skinner Middle School, which is [music] just east of the Berkeley neighborhood. So, you do have to cross federal to go into the Highland Sunnyside area. Uh,
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but that's not too bad. Pretty [music] close. You got grades 6 through 8. Enrollment recently was about 660
26:50
students. Uh, niche grades the school at a B+ school bigger [music] ranks it in the top 30% of Colorado middle schools.
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Um, pretty good school. Yeah. And this is the one that has the no homework policy, right? Oh my gosh. Everybody's up on this no
27:03
homework policy in Berkeley. Where was that when we were kids? Oh my gosh. But they also have additional support
27:09
including like Saturday office hours, career development support. [music] Um, they're really focused on giving you the
27:14
extra outside of the office hours kind of stuff. Yeah. So far, I'm feeling pretty stoked about this area. [music]
27:20
Okay, let's move to the older kids. Where are we going to high school? We're going to North High School, the Vikings. Uh, we've [music] got a
27:27
emphasis on career and technical education and a well-known drama program. Niche grades this high school a
27:34
B. [music] And it's over in the Highlands neighborhood. So, we're down off of
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Spear, not terribly far. Like I said, all these areas are really close together. So, if you're living in Berkeley, you're probably like [music]
27:44
an 8 to 10 minute drive away from North. And for high school, if you're not into the public school thing, we've got Arupe
27:51
Jesuit High School. Yep. This one has a little bit more of a, you know, I would [music] say average
27:56
uh ratio for the teacher to students. So, this one is about 18 to1. It [music] does of course have the tuition that's
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about 3,550 a year and that is insanely cheap for a private school. Whereas like Valor High
28:08
School down the street from us is like $25,000 a year, 3500 a year. Uh they've
28:14
got something special going which is this [music] work uh this like sort of kids corporate work program. corporate work
28:20
program where the students work one day a week in order to help offset the cost and [music] work get those kids working.
28:27
Get them some ethic. Absolutely. It's got some strength in its soccer, basketball, volleyball,
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baseball, cross country, and cheer programs. They compete at the 3A level and they're three Pete state champions
28:38
in their co-ed cheer as of a couple years ago, plus 19 consecutive years of 100%
28:45
college acceptance from the school. A great option for the littles from all
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[music] the way from 8 weeks old to sixth grade is Midtown Monasuri. Uh Monasuri education [music] is more of a
28:56
childled education program where you have mixed ages throughout the grades. The idea being that the older kids sort
29:02
of mentor the younger kids. Really cool location on this one within the uh Berkeley neighborhood is in [music] the
29:09
historic Berkeley Chapel on 46th. Uh so we've got self-directed learning. This [music] specific campus is beautiful and
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light-filled and just a really cool environment. No niche grade on this one cuz they don't really grade little
29:21
monastery schools like this, but we've got a teacher [music] student ratio of about four students per one teacher.
29:28
That would probably look like a classroom of like 12 to 20 students with the appropriate amount of teachers.
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[music] Uh, no publicly posted tuition on this one. Ooh, Jake, does that mean it could be
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negotiable? Ooh, Megan, I love your enthusiasm for saving our folks money, but let's save it for the houses. I
29:44
don't think it's negotiable. Option for middle school is going to be Strive Prep, the Lake Campus, which is down by
29:50
Sloans Lake, so you got a little bit of a trip there, but uh this is a tuitionfree public charter [music]
29:55
school. Uh it's pretty small with under 200 students. This is for grades 6 through 8. You are going to have to
30:01
apply to [music] get into this one, and I would imagine it might be a little difficult to get into. Um but you have
30:07
[music] an 8:1 student teacher ratio. So you get tons of face-toface time. Um a
30:12
beautiful area right there by the lake. Teaching [music] philosophy is missiondriven.
30:17
College preparatory charter model focused on [music] rigorous academics. Uh emphasis on strong teacher student
30:23
relationships, small classes. [music] Um I definitely recommend diving into this one a little more and seeing if that's
30:28
the right place for you and getting on the uh application early.
30:34
Before we dive into our last school here, let me just tell you that Denver Public Schools has a sort of unique uh
30:40
system [music] for a school of choice where you're not guaranteed the school closest to you. You are guaranteed
Denver School Choice, Thomas Edison and Nearby Neighborhoods
30:45
[music] one of the schools within a certain radius. Um, but there's a whole school of choice application process.
30:51
We'll dive into this at another date on a full video because there's quite a lot going on here. So, make sure you
30:57
subscribe and you can get notified when we drop that one. Uh, but next one is Thomas Edison Elementary School. It's a
31:04
public school, so it's tuition free, but it is a gifted and talented magnet school. Uh, [music] the entire identity
31:10
is kind of, you know, circled around the spirit of Thomas Edison. They focus on invention, inspiration, creativity.
31:17
[music] You've got hands-on learning in science, literature, and art. They have themed gardens on the grounds. There's a
31:23
[music] Shakespearean amphitheater and performance area, which is pretty sweet. You don't see that too often. Uh, they
31:30
serve prek through fifth grade. They have about 550 [music] students 17 to1
31:35
teacher student ratio that is foury olds um [music] not no further than that just one year of prek there uh niche has not
31:43
given a specific letter grade they listed as highly rated school [music] digger school digger gives it five out
31:49
of five stars five years in a row which is phenomenal and the cherry on top here
31:55
for you parents of neurode divergent kiddos [music] uh Edison has a multi-intensive autism
32:01
centerbased program. Uh, and it is it's a great place. You know, I know for us
32:07
finding the right place for our kiddo, [music] uh, with, you know, ASD, we it's
32:13
a lot of work. So, [music] definitely hone in and check out this one a little deeper. And that is it on the [music]
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schools. We're back outside. How did that happen? Well, that's a wrap for our Berkeley
32:25
tour today. If you're considering Berkeley, you're probably also [music] wise to consider some other
32:30
neighborhoods near here like Sloans Lake, West Highland, Low High, Sunnyside. And don't worry, we have
32:37
videos for those, too. So, check out our other videos. Subscribe to the channel for all the latest tours. But you know
32:43
that no video is a true replacement for an actual conversation with a real
32:49
estate human being. That's what we are. We are your real estate human being. So, reach out in any of the ways in
32:55
description below. Let's get a conversation started and figure out which area is best for you and how we can help you get there.
33:01
Thanks so much and we'll see you next time.
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Q: Where is the Berkeley neighborhood located?
A: Berkeley is located in the northwest section of Denver, just a bit north of Sloan's Lake and the West Highland area. It is perfectly boxed in by 38th Avenue to the south, I-70 to the north, and Sheridan and Federal Boulevards on the west and east [01:31].
Q: What is the commute like from Berkeley? A: Because it sits on the west side of Denver, commutes are highly favorable. In normal traffic, it takes about 11 minutes to drive downtown, 22 minutes to the airport, and 25 minutes to the Denver Tech Center. It is also a strategic location for mountain lovers, taking only 19 minutes to reach Golden and making it much easier to skip city traffic when heading west to ski resorts like Winter Park or Breckenridge [02:17].
Q: What are the main attractions and defining features?
A: Berkeley's defining feature is its high walkability, centered around its "Main Street" on Tennyson Street. Tennyson is packed with restaurants, sweet spots like the award-winning Bakery 4, and local coffee shops, giving it a strong community feel without feeling like a tourist trap. The neighborhood also features two scenic lakes—Berkeley Lake Park and Rocky Mountain Lake—which are great for running and biking [04:48].
Q: Is Berkeley a walkable and bikeable neighborhood?
A: Yes, the area is very walkable and has dedicated bike lanes. However, while it is easy to walk to local neighborhood amenities, Denver as a whole is still relatively car-dependent, meaning most households will still want at least one car for longer commutes. The area's transit score is currently low but is expected to improve significantly with upcoming Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) additions to Federal Boulevard [08:08].
Q: Is it a family-friendly area?
A: Absolutely. Berkeley boasts a strong "front porch culture," making it incredibly easy to meet people. Families frequently socialize at Cesar Chavez Park, on Tennyson Street, or during events like First Fridays, and neighbors tend to be very close-knit [10:08].
Q: What does the real estate market look like?
A: It is a competitive market with an average home closing price of just over $1 million. The neighborhood features smaller, city-sized lots (averaging around 5,550 square feet). A major draw to Berkeley is its architectural diversity—you will find everything from Craftsman bungalows and brick Tudors to Victorian homes, Denver Squares, and large modern three-story duplexes [16:19].
Q: What school options are available in the area?
A: Berkeley falls under the Denver Public Schools district and has a wide variety of public, charter, and private options, including:
Public/Charter: Centennial School (Expeditionary learning), Rocky Mountain Prep (Charter), Skinner Middle School (known for its no-homework policy), North High School, and Thomas Edison Elementary (a gifted and talented magnet school that also features a specialized autism center).
Private: Highlands Micro School, Midtown Montessori, and Arrupe Jesuit High School (which utilizes a unique corporate work program where students work one day a week to offset tuition costs) [24:13].
