My sister and brother in law live in Highlands Ranch CO and are visiting Irvine now. They are lived there for about 5 years. The posts here are pretty much right on. Highlands Ranch CO is a master planned community by Shea Homes with 30k houses and 60k people patterned after Mission Viejo CA. Home prices are much lower than California. Their 4 bedroom 2300 ft2 house (with a finished basement) was ~ $300 k before the housing meltdown. If you have 700+k$ of equity to spend you can get a mansion there (with 1/2+ acre of land). The community is light on diversity with lots of white people. Per capita income is pretty high there, average is >> $100 k. HR is great for families, schools are excellent, lots of children to make friends with. Young singles without kids may find it a little dull. HR residents pay a monthly association fee of ~$40. The best amenity for that fee is access to 4 indoor rec centers that have indoor and outdoor pools, gym equipment, bastketball courts, tennis courts etc. There are lots of parks and open space in HR and kids sports leagues (soccer, baseball, basketball) is very big there (starting at 4 years old).
There is all seasons there and it can be cold in the winter (recent day high of 4 F with low of -19 F). Summer is generally above 90 F but if you go up in elevation it will be cooler. The sun is very strong there and Colorado has the most incidence of skin cancer. Spring and fall are the best. Fall has changing leaf colors. Spring has the most snow and can have big snow storms (1-3 ft of snow). But there are 300+ sunny days per year so usually the snow melts off in a couple days after a storm. Several ski areas on I-70 are 1-1.5 hours away when weather/traffic permits.
