Colorado Springs at a Glance
In the shadow of Pikes Peak, where megaliths, hoodoos and painted rocks erupt out of the ground like stony divinities, lies one of the most beloved mountain cities in America — Colorado Springs. This Gold Rush town has an ancient history, evidenced by its rich fossil beds and otherworldly landscape. But the contemporary culture of Colorado Springs is what’s luring new residents by the thousands. Truly, nature-lovers, adventure-seekers and enterprising entrepreneurs will all find their niche in the Springs.
The mountain that inspired “America the Beautiful” gave the Pikes Peak Region its name, but the Springs is also known as a military town, a college town, an aerospace hub and as Olympic City U.S.A. Whether the city is training the world’s next athletic champions or engineering a new system of defense, the Springs is firmly grounded in its landscape, and the adventuresome drive is ever-present here.
With close to half a million residents, Colorado Springs is the second-largest city in the state of Colorado, and the population has grown by nearly 25% since 2010. This astonishing growth has been spurred, perhaps in equal measure, by the robust and diverse job market and the comparably affordable cost of living. While it may cost more to live in the Springs than, say, St. Louis or Detroit, real estate costs in Denver and Boulder make Colorado Springs feel like a bargain, and you’ll still have access to excellent mountain terrain. But the Springs does have a different vibe, and there aren’t as many cosmopolitan amenities as you’ll find in the sprawling Front Range region to the north, so you’ll want to weigh the pros and cons of moving here carefully.
In our moving guide to Colorado Springs below, we’ll give you an inside look at life in this family-friendly Rocky Mountain town, from the top companies in the area to housing, neighborhoods and fun things to do.
You’ll Get Stunning Nature at Your Doorstep
With ample, year-round sunshine and modest snowfall, Colorado Springs’ climate is almost as idyllic as its surroundings. Here are a few of our top outdoor destinations in the Springs.
In-town favorites like the Garden of the Gods never fail to inspire. These famous sandstone megaliths rising out of the ground like a divinely sculpted henge are easy to admire from a leisurely hike around the base, but they’re also a fun challenge for rock climbers.
But it’s Pikes Peak that lends its namesake to this Front Range region. To reach the 14,115-foot summit, hikers must rely on their grit and gusto to get them through the 13-mile, one-way journey. Along the way you can make a pit stop at Barr Camp, either to use the privy out back or to grab a few winks — and a hearty dinner and breakfast — before continuing your ascent. Two footpaths will take you to the top, but there are easier paths to take in the view if you’re not up for that kind of trek. You can drive along the road or ride the rails! Summiting hikers can book a ride back down the mountain with the Rocky Mountain Rail, or you can book a round-trip ticket on the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. Snow or shine, the Cog Railway is a super-fun, only slightly terrifying trip to the top of America’s Mountain.
Railways are all the rage for Springs residents, so if your family has gotten bitten by the locomotive bug, treat them to a trip on the Royal Gorge Route Railroad. It costs a royal penny to ride through this riverine region, but oh, the views are spectacular. Any child who has wanted to board Chris Van Allsburg’s Polar Express will be enchanted with the Santa Express Train experience here — the jolly, bearded man makes an appearance on every ride, and the landscape is magically bedecked with shimmering lights along the route.
The Manitou Incline — you might find out the hard way — is no longer an operating railway. RIP cable cars of yore! This now deceptively named steep shlep is a challenging, human-powered climb up 2,744 “steps”— the original railroad ties. Bragging rights entice hundreds of thousands to haul themselves up the incline every year, so many that you must book a reservation to exert yourself on this hellish stairway to heaven. But your quads will be happy to know that this is a one-way journey — you’ll descend on the less-steep Barr Trail, hopefully still in a vertical position.
Once you’re back on level land, you can quench your thirst with some of Manitou’s finest mineral water. Each natural spring bubbles with its own distinctive taste and mineral content — some are sweet, all are fizzy, and some contain questionable amounts of certain compounds (including lithium!), so you wouldn’t want to switch to an all-Manitou-H20 diet. Locals love to tart up the soda water with flavors — you might even find someone to mix your cocktail if you’re lucky.
If you take yourself on a hike through Paint Mines Park, you might think you’ve had one too many Manitou mojitos. The swirling, otherworldly boulders here are striped with clay pigment in pumpkin and boysenberry hues that the area’s first inhabitants extracted to make paint. We could certainly see Paint Mine Pink as Pantone’s next color of the year.
Like many Colorado cities, the Springs is a favorite among cyclists. The Black Forest has a serene path for beginners, but advanced mountain bikers will want to try out the Bear Creek Canyon loop or the Pancake Rocks, which will live up to their name and flatten you if you’re not on your toes. The Free Ride Bike Park at Red Rock Canyon Open Space is built for daredevils. Teeter-totters, bridges and berms give rough riders a rush, but you can also just enjoy the action from a distance — it’s hard to injure yourself while picnicking.
Okay, but what do the locals do when it snows? Well, if skiing is your jam, you’ll want to check out Monarch Mountain. Far from the madding crowds of Breckenridge and Beaver Creek, your family can be whizzing down the slopes on skis, boards or tubes in just two and a half hours, refueling at the Flyby Burritos truck in between runs. When you don’t want to brave slick roads, take the kids to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center — one of the best sledding hills in town. (P.S. You could even go in and see the art!)
The City’s Job Market is Stable
With great access to education and a robust job market, Colorado Springs is a smart place to call home. Public schools in the area are highly regarded — more than 20 make the U.S. News & World Report’s Best High Schools list. Colorado Springs is also a hotspot for higher education. Colorado College, UCCS (the University of Colorado Colorado Springs) and the U.S. Air Force Academy, along with institutions in nearby Denver and Boulder, make it easy to keep your kids local for the next phase of their academic career.
In addition to the Air Force Academy, three military installations create a formidable infrastructure for Colorado Springs’ economy and culture: Fort Carson, Peterson Space Force Base and Schriever Space Force Base. They’re one of the main reasons why the aerospace and defense industry is so powerful in the region and why the government is the single biggest employer in the city, supplying 61,600 jobs and counting.
Colorado Springs’s non-farm civilian workforce is highly diversified, with greater distributions across industries than many mid-size American cities. The largest commercial sector is professional and business services, which employed 54,700 individuals as of October 2024. Behind it is a three-way tie for second between trade, transportation and utilities (49,500 employees); education and health services (49,400 employees); and leisure and hospitality (44,000 employees).
Between October of 2023 and October of 2024, most industries saw modest growth, but employment in education and healthcare saw a 6% uptick, and the tourism sector expanded by 3%. Information — which employs fewer than 5,000 people in Colorado Springs — contracted by 5.8%, mirroring national trends. Overall, the unemployment rate hovered just above the national average, growing to 4.5% by October of 2024.
If you’re hoping to make a career move to Colorado Springs, you’ll find plenty of heavy hitters in this region. Boeing, Philips Healthcare, Progressive, Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, BAE, Trisco Foods and Lockheed Martin all have operations in the area.
It’s More Affordable Than Denver
One of the biggest reasons why people are moving to Colorado Springs is its cost of living. Higher than the national average but lower than costs statewide and in the Denver metro area, Colorado Springs residents will find they get more for their money in the Pikes Peak region.
Comparable to prices in Aurora, the median home value in Colorado Springs has now risen to $420,700 — that’s $120K above the U.S. average but $160K lower than prices in Denver and less than half the cost of pricey Boulder. At $1,562/month, rent is also a bit more than what the average American spends, but renters will likely save hundreds each month by staying out of the Denver-Aurora-Boulder market.
Colorado Springs residents also earn more than their national counterparts. The median household income is $83,198, and the homeownership rate is 61.3% — more than 10 points above those in Denver and Boulder.
It Has Nice Neighborhoods to Call Home
Named the #1 most desirable city in America and the #3 best place to live in the U.S. by the U.S. News & World Report, Colorado Springs has never suffered the bridesmaid complex — this city is always the bride. And if you’re wedded to the idea of living in the Springs, you’ll have your pick of fun areas to live. Here are three of the most popular neighborhoods to hang out in or put down roots.
Downtown Colorado Springs is the epicenter of culture — this is no sleepy, workaday district but a lively center for shopping, dining and people-watching. See a show at the Pikes Peak Center for Performing Arts. Grab brunch at the Omelette Parlor. Rev your engine at the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Museum. Dig into the history of this historic mining town at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. You’ll find an eclectic mix of housing in this central region, from funky, sprawling Victorian homes to condos with a view.
West of I-25, the district of Old Colorado City has all the appeal of a small town with the perks of modern life. Brick sidewalks usher you into ice cream parlors and art galleries, many located in converted clapboard houses or turn-of-the-last-century commercial buildings. There’s the tie-dying shop, the Honey Cottage and the Oddball Store, where you can get all the vintage vinyl your turntable can spin. But the quaintest of the quaint in this twee quarter of the Springs is the Michael Garman Museum & Gallery. In this repository of the magician of the miniature, street corners and coffee shops brim with tiny, sculpted life. Full-scale housing in Old Colorado City is dominated by single families, but those range from teeny-tiny cottages to palatial extravagances, with nearly everything in between.
If you’re looking for a retreat from the masses, Manitou Springs may offer the respite you need. This far-western area famous for its mineral springs (see outdoor section above) is closest to the base of Pikes Peak, and you’ll find houses along the main drag that have great walkability and rambling spreads that offering a lot of acreage between you and your neighbors. In town, you can grab coffee and sweets at Rocky Mountain Beignets (which are a lot more appealing than the “oysters” of the region) or small plates at Tapateria. Hell’s Kitchen Pizza can hook you up with an NYC-style pie, and the margaritas at Crystal Park Cantina — particularly the “Fighting Sue” — will cure whatever ails you. Wherever you are in Manitou Springs, you’ll never be far from a trailhead, so feel free to hike, eat and repeat.
Beyond Colorado Springs’ Outdoorsy Nature
Pikes Peak casts a long shadow in the Front Range, and with all the amazing, self-guided outdoor activities here, you might not even be aware of the curated fun that awaits you in Colorado Springs.
If the Springs is a master of anything it is ceremonies — this is a city that knows how to put on a great event. From Pikes Peak Pride Fest to the Commonwheel Artist Festival — now in its 51st year — residents here love a party. Pikes Peak APEX tests the mettle of the pedals of mountain bikers from around the country. If you prefer bipedal action, check out the Pikes Peak Marathon & Ascent. Runners who find competition on flat, urban terrain pedestrian can enlist themselves in this grueling uphill battle, where participants race to the 14,115-foot summit of America’s Mountain and back down again. But if you want to experience something truly unique, head to Cripple Creek for their annual Donkey Derby Days. For 93 years and counting, the city’s band of donkeys competes for bragging rights as the fastest ass in town, though the stubbornest also holds a lot of street cred among the herd.
It was the Gold Rush that made Colorado Springs the city it is today, and you can get a feel for that treasure-hunting, gun-slinging, frontier-conquering swagger at the Ghost Town Museum. Inside this historic building, the spirit of the Wild West lives on in tamer, family-friendly fashion — through butter-churning demos, panning for gold and wetting your whistle in the sarsaparilla-slinging saloon.
But Colorado Springs’ original ghost town wasn’t created by the flight of greedy prospectors; it was caused by an asteroid — a big one — putting a dramatic end to the reign of the Tylosaurus, the Pteranodon and the big-headed Pachycephalosaurus that once ruled this mountain roost. At the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center, you can meet some of these prehistoric, giant residents of the Mountain West, who left behind a trove of fossils following their mass extinction.
But modern times have made the Springs a hub of human athletic achievement, and when you live in Olympic City U.S.A., it’s easy to celebrate these physical feats at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum. Their collection spans from ancient times to the 2024 games in Paris, and the interactive exhibits make this no mere walk-through history but a sprint, jump and tumble through time. Team USA also trains in Colorado Springs, so you just might bump into a future Olympic champion when you’re out at brunch sometime. They’ll be the ones ordering the eight-egg omelet.
It might sound odd to recommend that you take your kids to the U.S. Air Force Academy, but you don’t have to enlist them to enjoy the offerings of this institution. The campus is best known for its Cadet Chapel, which receives more visitors each year than any other built destination in the state. Both space-age and mountainesque in its design, the 15-story-tall spires look launch-ready but are still outfitted with elegant, inspiring stained glass. The non-denominational sanctuary contains multiple spaces of worship within, welcoming devotees of religions from around the world. You’ll have to wait a while to set foot in the chapel yourself, though — a major restoration project has shuttered the space until 2027. In the meantime, take your young recruits to the campus Planetarium, where they can dream of far-off galaxies and learn more about the realm we currently live in.
The original residents of Glen Eyrie Castle certainly occupied a different kind of existence than ordinary Coloradans. This expansive mansion nestled into the mountainside was once home to a railroad baron and a Union brigadier general but has since been procured by a religious organization known as the Navigators, who maintain the space as their headquarters and a hotel and conference center. The historic castle rooms are regally appointed with their four-poster beds and dramatic drapes, but there is standard lodging available, too, for all us plebes.
Drawbacks of Colorado Springs Living
There are a couple of downsides to living in Colorado Springs, though. The rapid population growth has brought increased traffic to the city, particularly along the I-25 corridor. So, while the average Colorado Springs commute — 23 minutes — is still several minutes faster than commuting in the greater Denver area or the average American city, travel times to work are likely to increase unless more people make the switch to public transportation or biking.
The city’s other downside is having a smaller cultural scene. With fewer than 500,000 city residents, Colorado Springs may be the state’s second-most populous city, but it’s hard to compete with Denver’s ever-expanding metro area, which is expected to hit 3.6 million by 2030. But we’re seeing new and ever-more exciting restaurants, breweries and live music venues popping up in Colorado Springs every day, so don’t expect the Springs to stay small for long.
Is Colorado Springs Right for You?
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