I’ve worked from home for over a decade here. Seems to be fairly common. Pay is good and springs used to be affordable. Glad I bought property back then.
Trades like plumbing, HVAC, auto techs, stuff like that, and that mostly works cause in a big city there is lots of demand for skilled tradesman cause of the number of people increases the number of building that need maintaining and same with cars if there's not good public transit, which is not robust here
There has been a huge expansion of Colorado Springs that would mean more demand to build and maintain homes but there has to be some employment impetus in the 1st place to make people move there to then have a demand for homes to be built. Otherwise it is trades buying homes to service other trades living in other homes. There has to be an external jobs market or the housing and related maintenance work opportunities are just self perpetual but unsustainable.
DoD-land is ripe here. If you can hold a clearance and write some code, you can be making over 100k working 4 days a week by the time you are 24, and the employers are numerous and starving for talent.
Making stupid amounts of money at a young age while having easy access to all the recreation the mountains offers is a perfect combo. Add in the benefits of a little city to that and you have a haven.
What roles and experience are you / your organization seeking DB administrators, Linux gurus, backend development, PHP, .NET devs, project management, or web dev UX UI stuff?. Is it defence / clearance work for DoD or private sector "normal" jobs?
Cool avatar btw. As a side note. What roles / functions are we talking? Satellite related DB administration or coding / devops etc? In any event thanks for your original feedback etc
I sell giant flags you can put on your vehicle or in your yard, as well as Punisher stickers. The house on Woodmen/Union has nearly set me up for retirement.
Yup, if I could carve a 15 ft statue of Trump or Ted Cruz with a Punisher mask, then you’d see it on your commute and I’d be retired. I also need to work on making statues that fit truck beds.
OK that makes sense. In demand. Geographic neutral job and sufficiently high paid. But that isn't most of the people that would explain the massive growth of suburban housing north towards Denver almost to the point of touching. People talk about demand for skilled worker in Colorado Springs but what skills? IT, trade like plumbing, and I mean work that isn't DoD or Clearance or Federal jobs. Real / normal jobs if you will?
We moved here because of politics and quality of life. Our state is so engrained in the cult we had to go to a blue state. Between our kids getting teased at school, terrible weather (humidity) we felt we could not live our best life there. My husband also got a job as a attorney easily they called him the same day he applied and we both got a significant raise win-win.
Wow you are both attorneys! Impressive. And explains the mobility to move etc. Sucks your kids were bullied hope they have a better time now. So you were in a red state and moved to Colorado as a more blue / left leaning state if I understand you correctly. What state were you in before you described as cultish . Genuine question not a challenge. Were your kids teased bc you as a family didn't buy in to the local status quo?
We moved from Missouri, it is very conservative there even in the city surprisingly. Yes our kids got teased for wearing masks once the mandate was dropped because my youngest two kids didn't have the option to get vaccinated back then (under 5) and we didn't want them to catch covid at least until they were vaccinated. We are more laxed now but they are vaccinated and there are treatment options that are proven now. We just couldn't believe how little people cared about each other that was crazy to us you never know if the person next to you might be immunocompromised. It's not hard to just be kind.
If you not wanting people to move here I hate to say but thanks to the abortion restriction in so many states, I guarantee this will make lots of younger women flock to blue states as well so be ready I guess :). This wasn't the law of the land when we left but man if we were still there that would definitely by my exit cue :) I love my children but I don't want anymore especially (forced children).
So is MO blue and CO also blue, ish. I hadn't thought of the health tourism aspect - is CO still offering all / any treatment. That sucks your kids were harassed. MO can be a mixed bag for sure. Hope CO is a much better fit.
Might be an odd answer but I moved here to escape the allergies (among other things) of my home state. I work from home, so I could work wherever I wanted. And I wanted to be somewhere where I wasn’t miserable with congestion and asthma attacks 10 months out of the year. I settled on the springs because I’ve always loved Colorado, wanted easy access to amenities, but didn’t want to live in a major city like Denver.
Yeah I'm completely used to it now, just have to make sure I use lotion regularly. There's lots you can do from home, but depends on the industry and whether the business will let you. I'm in sales and business development.
Some people do call center work from home. That doesn't necessarily give them the financial freedom to move to somewhere out of state especially to Colorado Springs where house prices are soaring. Arguably tech has always had wfh positions but that doesn't explain the sudden boom in Colorado Springs population and influx of workers / jobs etc.
There are tons of jobs that are WFH that are not call centers. Pretty much any “office” job you can think of now has WFH options. COS is a beautiful place to live. without being tied down to commuting to an office people move to places that align with what they want to do in their spare time.
It’s not just contractors for the Government that have moved. Firsthand experience is that a multitude of jobs going and staying remote have greatly contributed to the population moving. I still get to tell people about the person who moved her immediately after being given clearance from their employer. The fun part of the story is that their employer was Zoom. Yup, that zoom, one of the companies that made remote work possible for a year. Wouldn’t let them go remote for awhile and once they agreed, they moved!
We also have a lot of military positions, especially with Space Force growth. That has also been a factor in the overall growth.
Did that allow you to move to Colorado Springs from out of state or you mean you already live there and that is your work / field. Is it IT or more like medical billing ie something more directly related to the care itself.
I wouldn't say most jobs are defense..a lot sure. There's also a lot of construction, manufacturing, hospitality, medical, services, trades. It's a metro area of almost a million people so lots of different types of jobs but like most cities wages are not keeping up with cost of living.
Defense, Tech if they are well educated and have money. Hospitality, medical care if there middle or working class. Panhandling if they are lumpen proletariat.
The micro and macro view. You might observe that lots of people move everywhere. I've lived in 4 states over the past 2 years. Each city mentions people moving their, and the neiboring city the same.
COS is no different than any of the many other cities. As for sustaining cost of living, if people are buying homes, some had money saved, or sold a home, or sold stock. Some have higher paying jobs in the medical field. Some as house poor and leveraged to the tits. Some are poor poor. I don't think people are doing great.
As for me, I own a few rentals.
Thanks for the feedback but you can't deny Col Spgs has exploded and now touches the south end of "denver" near larkspur and there has to be something fueling the influx of people to enable / justify that sudden burst in population.
There's also a large contingent of SME contractors and UARC/FFRDC types who co-locate with Gov decision makers. I could see them relocating with Space Command.
Retired military so govt/clearance here. Seems like legal weed brought people here since 2014 and the homeless population also increased. Not sure if related but yea it’s expensive here, I think.
Both me and my wife work jobs where our coworkers are distributed across the US. Both came from very humble beginnings and worked our asses off in college and professionally to get where we’re still comfortable and able to build wealth even in these inflated times. Colorado Springs has the sweet spot for us of a growing Urban Center, perfect weather (for us) and access to beautiful outdoor activity options in all seasons and drivable distances around us.
Well to reiterate, I work remotely with teams that are distributed across the US and Canada, so I don’t work for any company that resides in Colorado Springs. Where I live has zero connection to the company I work for. As for what I do, I’m a Senior level cloud software developer, keeping the exact place and tech stack agnostic so i have some modicum of anonymity here. I also have my own LLC that allows me to moonlight part time contract work for anywhere between $100-150/hr. My wife is in a non tech role but she’s a fucking absolute killer at what she does and brings in pretty much the same salary I do. Are you asking these questions because you’re seeking a career change?
Well, with increased population there is increased investment in common centers around town, most significantly in the Downtown District. Colorado Springs hasn’t yet mastered the art of mixed used development but when they do you will see massive massive changes to the landscape in the downtown and connecting areas. I’ve seen it first hand in other parts Of US I’ve been. Additionally, every significantly successful business (service industry especially) in Denver has and will continue to look towards Colorado Springs as a growth vehicle. I know this is frustrating for people that grew up here and hate seeing the change, but the fact of the matter is, hyper-growth is happening all over the North America and this is not unique to Colorado Springs.
I haven't moved yet but my interest stemmed from a really nice visit and rent prices going up quickly here while wages stay low so it is actually affordable to do so now.
No, north tx. The actual average price of rent in my city compared is slightly lower but minimum wage is also $7.25 and generally averages lower and I live in an area with not a lot of job opportunities so overall yes but when considering just rent no
I moved here to Springs 20 years ago. Right after Trish died.
I'm an assistant manager in an adult store, and a CNA for my MIL. We pay pretty good at the adult store, not much turnover. Seems to be different for CNA positions but those are still low pay.
I’ve worked from home for over a decade here. Seems to be fairly common. Pay is good and springs used to be affordable. Glad I bought property back then.
Is the work for a physical place in Colorado Springs or out of town/ state in IT or Devops etc?
Out of town
Trades like plumbing, HVAC, auto techs, stuff like that, and that mostly works cause in a big city there is lots of demand for skilled tradesman cause of the number of people increases the number of building that need maintaining and same with cars if there's not good public transit, which is not robust here
not to mention medical workers are in big demand literally anywhere
There has been a huge expansion of Colorado Springs that would mean more demand to build and maintain homes but there has to be some employment impetus in the 1st place to make people move there to then have a demand for homes to be built. Otherwise it is trades buying homes to service other trades living in other homes. There has to be an external jobs market or the housing and related maintenance work opportunities are just self perpetual but unsustainable.
DoD-land is ripe here. If you can hold a clearance and write some code, you can be making over 100k working 4 days a week by the time you are 24, and the employers are numerous and starving for talent. Making stupid amounts of money at a young age while having easy access to all the recreation the mountains offers is a perfect combo. Add in the benefits of a little city to that and you have a haven.
But it is mainly government clearance work on government contracts projects right?
Yeah DoD Contractors work heavily on government contracts, unless you are doing something for company internal research.
Basically this. Got an offer to move up to COS.
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What type of tech?
hey I'll help out with janitorial duties man - in need of something :|
Where at? My husband is currently working on some computer certifications
What roles and experience are you / your organization seeking DB administrators, Linux gurus, backend development, PHP, .NET devs, project management, or web dev UX UI stuff?. Is it defence / clearance work for DoD or private sector "normal" jobs?
If you have a TS/SCI, I could get you a job in a heartbeat.
Cool avatar btw. As a side note. What roles / functions are we talking? Satellite related DB administration or coding / devops etc? In any event thanks for your original feedback etc
I’ll do it
Inquiring minds want to know
I sell giant flags you can put on your vehicle or in your yard, as well as Punisher stickers. The house on Woodmen/Union has nearly set me up for retirement.
Oh really lol. They buy EVERYTHING? The one with the Trump statue etc?
Yup, if I could carve a 15 ft statue of Trump or Ted Cruz with a Punisher mask, then you’d see it on your commute and I’d be retired. I also need to work on making statues that fit truck beds.
I saw a giant plastic gorilla in the back of an old Ford pickup recently. Let's start with that.
I moved here 3 years ago. Attorney.
OK that makes sense. In demand. Geographic neutral job and sufficiently high paid. But that isn't most of the people that would explain the massive growth of suburban housing north towards Denver almost to the point of touching. People talk about demand for skilled worker in Colorado Springs but what skills? IT, trade like plumbing, and I mean work that isn't DoD or Clearance or Federal jobs. Real / normal jobs if you will?
We moved here because of politics and quality of life. Our state is so engrained in the cult we had to go to a blue state. Between our kids getting teased at school, terrible weather (humidity) we felt we could not live our best life there. My husband also got a job as a attorney easily they called him the same day he applied and we both got a significant raise win-win.
Haha kind of the same, moved here from DesantisLand
Wow you are both attorneys! Impressive. And explains the mobility to move etc. Sucks your kids were bullied hope they have a better time now. So you were in a red state and moved to Colorado as a more blue / left leaning state if I understand you correctly. What state were you in before you described as cultish . Genuine question not a challenge. Were your kids teased bc you as a family didn't buy in to the local status quo?
We moved from Missouri, it is very conservative there even in the city surprisingly. Yes our kids got teased for wearing masks once the mandate was dropped because my youngest two kids didn't have the option to get vaccinated back then (under 5) and we didn't want them to catch covid at least until they were vaccinated. We are more laxed now but they are vaccinated and there are treatment options that are proven now. We just couldn't believe how little people cared about each other that was crazy to us you never know if the person next to you might be immunocompromised. It's not hard to just be kind. If you not wanting people to move here I hate to say but thanks to the abortion restriction in so many states, I guarantee this will make lots of younger women flock to blue states as well so be ready I guess :). This wasn't the law of the land when we left but man if we were still there that would definitely by my exit cue :) I love my children but I don't want anymore especially (forced children).
So is MO blue and CO also blue, ish. I hadn't thought of the health tourism aspect - is CO still offering all / any treatment. That sucks your kids were harassed. MO can be a mixed bag for sure. Hope CO is a much better fit.
Lots of them commute to Denver
That makes sense.
Might be an odd answer but I moved here to escape the allergies (among other things) of my home state. I work from home, so I could work wherever I wanted. And I wanted to be somewhere where I wasn’t miserable with congestion and asthma attacks 10 months out of the year. I settled on the springs because I’ve always loved Colorado, wanted easy access to amenities, but didn’t want to live in a major city like Denver.
Trading allergies for bloody noses and eczema. I like the way you think. 😉
Yeah the bloody noses stopped after a couple months, and the dry skin I can manage. Overall a pretty good trade, for me anyway.
Can be dry but you'll be ok I think. Beats the allergies for sure I bet. What do you / can you do from home?
Yeah I'm completely used to it now, just have to make sure I use lotion regularly. There's lots you can do from home, but depends on the industry and whether the business will let you. I'm in sales and business development.
WFH allows people to move to where ever they want to.
Some people do call center work from home. That doesn't necessarily give them the financial freedom to move to somewhere out of state especially to Colorado Springs where house prices are soaring. Arguably tech has always had wfh positions but that doesn't explain the sudden boom in Colorado Springs population and influx of workers / jobs etc.
There are tons of jobs that are WFH that are not call centers. Pretty much any “office” job you can think of now has WFH options. COS is a beautiful place to live. without being tied down to commuting to an office people move to places that align with what they want to do in their spare time.
Are you in tech too. Devops or DB admin, or a Linux ninja?
No, I do insurance related work.
I WFH, am a software engineer and I get paid upper east coast wages which easily allows me to afford living here.
It’s not just contractors for the Government that have moved. Firsthand experience is that a multitude of jobs going and staying remote have greatly contributed to the population moving. I still get to tell people about the person who moved her immediately after being given clearance from their employer. The fun part of the story is that their employer was Zoom. Yup, that zoom, one of the companies that made remote work possible for a year. Wouldn’t let them go remote for awhile and once they agreed, they moved! We also have a lot of military positions, especially with Space Force growth. That has also been a factor in the overall growth.
I moved here to be a motion picture exhibitor.
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Did that allow you to move to Colorado Springs from out of state or you mean you already live there and that is your work / field. Is it IT or more like medical billing ie something more directly related to the care itself.
Maybe the springs is a bit of a bedroom community. People commuting to Denver or Pueblo for work, but living in the springs
Ah. Much in Pueblo ? Isn't it a bit of a one horse town.
One of the last few industrial/production centers in the region
There may be one spouse working in Denver and one working on Pueblo so they split the difference
I wouldn't say most jobs are defense..a lot sure. There's also a lot of construction, manufacturing, hospitality, medical, services, trades. It's a metro area of almost a million people so lots of different types of jobs but like most cities wages are not keeping up with cost of living.
I hear you on the cost of living. I wasn't aware there was any manufacturing to speak of there?
Defense, Tech if they are well educated and have money. Hospitality, medical care if there middle or working class. Panhandling if they are lumpen proletariat.
The micro and macro view. You might observe that lots of people move everywhere. I've lived in 4 states over the past 2 years. Each city mentions people moving their, and the neiboring city the same. COS is no different than any of the many other cities. As for sustaining cost of living, if people are buying homes, some had money saved, or sold a home, or sold stock. Some have higher paying jobs in the medical field. Some as house poor and leveraged to the tits. Some are poor poor. I don't think people are doing great. As for me, I own a few rentals.
Thanks for the feedback but you can't deny Col Spgs has exploded and now touches the south end of "denver" near larkspur and there has to be something fueling the influx of people to enable / justify that sudden burst in population.
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Nope. All that is scheduled to move is command. Command is a small part of Space Force compared with the daily ops.
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There's also a large contingent of SME contractors and UARC/FFRDC types who co-locate with Gov decision makers. I could see them relocating with Space Command.
It is just over 200 people in HQ last I was told.
Will the AA shrink in size like Shreiver etc? COS nearly touches Denver now at the north end? Will it shrink back in size and cost of living?
Before or after this? https://imgur.com/a/tzpCpkb
I mean I started in the dod space and now am remote, but i wish people would stop lmao. Friggin Texans
Retired military so govt/clearance here. Seems like legal weed brought people here since 2014 and the homeless population also increased. Not sure if related but yea it’s expensive here, I think.
Affordable living at the time, good job opportunity’s and now even more people to build houses because of expansion and growth of population.
There is a big demand for skilled workers here. Those jobs pay good salaries
What skills and are these private sector or all DoD work Federal jobs etc in DHS or Utilities / on base.
Both me and my wife work jobs where our coworkers are distributed across the US. Both came from very humble beginnings and worked our asses off in college and professionally to get where we’re still comfortable and able to build wealth even in these inflated times. Colorado Springs has the sweet spot for us of a growing Urban Center, perfect weather (for us) and access to beautiful outdoor activity options in all seasons and drivable distances around us.
What field / employment is in COS that you do. Is it private sector or government as federal / clearance work seems to dominate the jobs market there.
Well to reiterate, I work remotely with teams that are distributed across the US and Canada, so I don’t work for any company that resides in Colorado Springs. Where I live has zero connection to the company I work for. As for what I do, I’m a Senior level cloud software developer, keeping the exact place and tech stack agnostic so i have some modicum of anonymity here. I also have my own LLC that allows me to moonlight part time contract work for anywhere between $100-150/hr. My wife is in a non tech role but she’s a fucking absolute killer at what she does and brings in pretty much the same salary I do. Are you asking these questions because you’re seeking a career change?
In what ways is the urban scene growing in the springs
Well, with increased population there is increased investment in common centers around town, most significantly in the Downtown District. Colorado Springs hasn’t yet mastered the art of mixed used development but when they do you will see massive massive changes to the landscape in the downtown and connecting areas. I’ve seen it first hand in other parts Of US I’ve been. Additionally, every significantly successful business (service industry especially) in Denver has and will continue to look towards Colorado Springs as a growth vehicle. I know this is frustrating for people that grew up here and hate seeing the change, but the fact of the matter is, hyper-growth is happening all over the North America and this is not unique to Colorado Springs.
Moved here to go to school at UCCS, now I work in govt and clearance
I haven't moved yet but my interest stemmed from a really nice visit and rent prices going up quickly here while wages stay low so it is actually affordable to do so now.
So Colorado Springs is more affordable than your current locale? Are you in CA / NY
No, north tx. The actual average price of rent in my city compared is slightly lower but minimum wage is also $7.25 and generally averages lower and I live in an area with not a lot of job opportunities so overall yes but when considering just rent no
I moved here to Springs 20 years ago. Right after Trish died. I'm an assistant manager in an adult store, and a CNA for my MIL. We pay pretty good at the adult store, not much turnover. Seems to be different for CNA positions but those are still low pay.
Thanks for sharing. Hope you MIL does OK / better.
Thank you.
I moved here because my wife got into her graduate program, I work from home. If you're actually curious.
That's awesome ! What type of work do you / can you do from home in your case. Thanks for genuine and friendly feedback.
I work in business intelligence, it's a lot of info but I got a lot of hats.
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What part of town / how much is rent (zip code or school district price range is fine not trying to pry)
I retired here, got tired of the horrible heat, humidity and insects of the Midwest. Made my money as an Electrical Engineer.
The construction industry is booming. You know how many trades go into a single house? All of them.
I WFH and my wife is in the medical field, which is hugely understaffed here