Olde Stage

If I could cherry pick where to live in Boulder, and I could afford it, I would buy a mountain home on the slopes within the Olde Stage neighborhood. Old Stage is a road just "in the mountains" from the city area of North Boulder. The homes are on big lots for the most part, with a lot of great classic Colorado stone and wood architectural style with large decks and steep driveways. There is a nice sense of isolation because of the Dakota Ridge rock formations that acts as a natural boundary for the neighborhood, but the city it is super close literally right around the corner, only 10 minutes away.

Snowy roads are not really a problem here, if you can get out of those steep driveways you can probably get into town without problems. This area is also a great place to go on up the canyons or up into Nederland or even Rocky Mountain National Park (on a day trip).

I image the homes are expensive as well as the property tax for those large lots, to rent a typical home in the neighborhood costs between 1500-3000/month.