Boulder: History, Real Estate, and Links
Population: about 98,000, with projected top-out ca. 2030 of about 118,500.
Climate: semi-arid. Not too hot, not too cold, and lots of sunshine.
Altitude: 5,400'
Public Schools: the Boulder Valley School District is very, very good.
We are in a valley at the edge of the foothills of the Rockies, and if you are downtown, you are about 2.3 miles from the summit of Green Mountain (8,100') and about 23 miles from the summit of Longs Peak (14,255'), in Rocky Mountain National Park. Lots of the fun stuff is uphill.
Mining was the reason for Boulder's start in 1859, but the founding in 1874 of the University of Colorado certainly guaranteed its future. Even so, growth was slow until the late '40s (1940: 12,959; 1950: 19,999; 1960: 37,718; 1970: 66,870.
Some, but not all, of the largest local employers have contributed to the city's science/technology character:
University of Colorado, IBM, Ball Aerospace, the Department of Commerce (NIST and NOAA) and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research make up five of the top ten.
More on Boulder's history here:, and the 2010 Community Data Report there:
An aggressive open-space purchase program and some residential growth limits, combined with the very attractive setting, add up to average and median housing prices considerably above the national average.
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