Erie

Is Erie the right fit for you?

To explain Erie I have to go back to my childhood. Growing up, Erie meant one thing: the Colorado National Speedway, just across I-25 at Erie's exit. I've been going since elementary school, when it was a dirt track and my father and I would watch the World of Outlaws throw dirt around the oval. It's paved now and still running. Back then there genuinely wasn't much more to Erie: dirt roads, farmland and a racetrack. So a town of 40,000 that has doubled in 15 years is both cool and a little stunning to me.

Erie sits 25 to 30 minutes north of Denver up I-25 and about 20 minutes from Boulder and Longmont. It's a home-rule town in two counties: in the 2020 census, 58% of residents lived on the Weld side and 42% on the Boulder side. The Census Bureau's 2024 estimates ranked it 15th in the nation for growth, up 9.2% in a year, and the town's own count passed 40,000 at the end of 2024.

Most of what's been built is master-planned, with pools, parks and trails designed in and a metro district paying for them. What makes Erie different from other new towns is the thing it didn't have to build: a real coal-town downtown on Briggs Street. People choose it for three reasons I hear over and over: location, how much house you get on a similar budget, and the Colorado lifestyle they picture.

Why people choose Erie

• Between Boulder, Longmont and I-25 without Boulder prices or Boulder's vibe
• More house and lot than Lafayette, Superior, Louisville or Longmont on a similar budget
• Newer master-planned neighborhoods with pools, clubhouses, parks and trails built in
• A real coal-mining downtown on Briggs Street, something most new towns can't buy
• A big community center, a free mountain bike park, a 14-mile regional trail and two reservoirs, plus new schools built as the town grew

What gives people pause

• Denver is not close: 25 to 30 minutes off-peak, 40 to 45 or more with traffic, and the Tech Center can be well over an hour
• Nearly every newer neighborhood sits in a metro district, an added mill levy on the property tax bill
• Oil and gas drilling is active nearby. The Draco pad, 26 horizontal wells next to Erie's eastern neighborhoods, was approved by the state in March 2025 over the town's objection.
• Erie Municipal Airport, a general aviation field mid-town, has flight training, helicopters and, as of 2011, about 100 homes on airport grounds
• Wind. Erie is out on the plains, flat and open.
• Buy early in a new phase and you may live in a construction zone for years

Where is Erie, and how do you get around?

Erie fills the southwest corner of Weld County and spills west into Boulder County, with Broomfield to the south and Lafayette to the southwest. I-25 is the eastern edge at Exit 232, Erie Parkway the east-west spine, US 287 and Highway 7 the west and south frame.

• Into Denver: Erie Parkway to I-25, then south; CDOT signalized the ramps in 2020 after a 2017 study found signals would improve safety, operations and traffic flow at peak hours. Downtown is 25 to 30 minutes with no traffic, 40 to 45 or more at rush hour; the Tech Center can exceed an hour.
• Into Boulder and Longmont: Arapahoe Road or Highway 7 west, US 287 north. About 20 minutes each, off-peak.
• Transit: No rail. RTD's JUMP route between Downtown Boulder and the Lafayette Park-n-Ride serves the Erie Community Center on selected trips. The nearest train is the N Line at Eastlake/124th in Thornton. Realistically, Erie is a drive-to-work town.
• The airport: Denver International is about 35 minutes via E-470, for a toll.
• The mountains: Not quick. Boulder Canyon is the scenic route; I-70 means driving south first.

What are Erie's neighborhoods like?

Erie is Old Town plus a ring of planned communities. The ones buyers ask about most:

Old Town

The original grid around Briggs Street: the oldest homes, smallest lots and most character, and the only part of Erie where you walk to dinner, so you trade square footage for that. The town has run an urban renewal area here since 2013, and in September 2026 its Urban Renewal Authority board approved an agreement for a 13,000-square-foot restaurant and retail building at Briggs and Maxwell, with construction expected to begin in 2027.

Colliers Hill

Big and family-heavy, with mountain views to the west and an amenity center with a pool. When people picture Erie, this is what they picture, and it has its own social life, events and pools, a town within the town. There's no elementary school in the neighborhood yet: Colliers Hill Elementary (working name Elementary 29) began construction in August 2026 and is scheduled to open in fall 2027. Metro districts approved in 2007 fund the streets, utilities and parks.

Erie Highlands

I spent a recent afternoon here. Clubhouse, pool, zip lines, climbing towers, kids outside until they're worn out, and a big park you can walk to. One of Erie's more popular neighborhoods, with Highlands Elementary inside it. Two metro districts formed in 2013 run the pool and clubhouse and enforce covenants.

Westerly

On the eastern edge, closest to I-25, the pick for people who commute to Denver or fly often, with views west. It's a nearly 800-acre Southern Land Company master plan with about 3,000 homes at buildout. It's also closest to the Draco well pad, and an area about 1,500 feet north of the pad was deeded to the St. Vrain Valley School District. Under the town's conditions of approval from March 2025, well completions must finish by Oct. 15, 2027, after which Erie can no longer withhold certificates of occupancy for Westerly Creek homes within 2,000 feet of the pad. Ask before you fall for a lot.

Flatiron Meadows

The westernmost neighborhood, closest to Boulder, with the Flatirons filling the view. A 340-acre Hines development of about 690 homes, on the Boulder County side and in Boulder Valley schools, with Meadowlark PK-8 inside the community.

Vista Ridge

The golf neighborhood, built around Colorado National Golf Club, which opened in 2003 as Vista Ridge Golf Club and is the University of Colorado's home course. My golfers tend to look here, and the Coal Creek Trail ends at Vista Parkway.

Morgan Hill and the east side

Morgan Hill is another metro-district community, with districts dating to 2008. At Erie Parkway and County Line Road, the town bought a 19-acre Town Center parcel in 2022 and in October 2024 approved an agreement setting terms to sell it to developer Evergreen for a planned grocer, hotel, civic space and housing; Erie Four Corners and Erie Commons next door were under construction as of late 2024. Treat the Town Center as a plan, not an amenity.

What does it cost to own a home in Erie?

Same rule as the rest of the metro: know the whole monthly payment, not just the price.

• Property tax, two counties — Erie homes are assessed and billed by Boulder County or Weld County depending on the side of the line. Either assessor's property search shows every taxing district for a parcel. Confirm the parcel, not the neighborhood.
• Metro district — How does a town that was mostly empty 20 years ago end up with pools, clubhouses and pump tracks that towns three times its age can't touch? Metro districts. Most newer neighborhoods sit inside one: the district borrowed to build roads, utilities, parks and pools, and a mill levy on your property tax repays it. It's on the tax bill, not the HOA statement. Get the number before you offer.
• HOA — Some communities run covenants through the metro district (Erie Highlands does); others have an HOA as well. Ask which.
• Insurance — Hail, as everywhere on the Front Range, plus wind on this open ground. Erie is grassland, not forest, but ask about wildfire scoring anyway.
• Oil and gas — Ask about mineral rights, wells, pipelines and the Draco project relative to any home on the east side, and read every disclosure.
• Sales tax — Erie became a home-rule town in 2023 and sets its own rate. Check the Town of Erie's finance pages for the current combined rate.

What kinds of homes are in Erie?

Overwhelmingly single-family and new: the town's end-of-2024 count put about 95% of residents in single-family homes, and 1,195 housing units were added in 2024 alone. Expect two-story and ranch homes from the 2000s through today in the master plans, bigger lots than the US 36 towns, and new construction in phases that are still building out; ask builders what's available. Apartments cluster at Nine Mile Corner; Old Town has the coal-era cottages and infill, and Erie Air Park has hangar homes with taxiway access.

How do schools work in Erie?

Two districts, and this trips people up. St. Vrain Valley Schools serves most of Erie, including all of the Weld County side: Erie High School (opened 2005, expanded 2018), Erie Middle School downtown, Soaring Heights PK-8, four elementaries with Erie addresses (Black Rock, Erie Elementary, Highlands and Red Hawk) with Colliers Hill Elementary opening in fall 2027, and the Aspen Ridge Preparatory charter.

Boulder Valley School District serves part of the Boulder County side, including Flatiron Meadows, where Meadowlark PK-8 sits inside the neighborhood. People move here counting on Boulder Valley and end up in St. Vrain, which is well regarded; I get good reviews from Erie families. But if a specific school matters, run the exact address through St. Vrain's address lookup or BVSD's School Finder before you write an offer. Colorado has open enrollment, and in St. Vrain it's a space-available decision. And from the people I talk to, Erie has kept pace on schools and facilities better than most towns growing this fast.

What is there to do in Erie?

Parks, trails and open space

The town's 2019 profile counted 58 miles of trails, 17 parks, two reservoirs, a golf course, a velodrome and two singletrack systems. Erie Community Park is the hub: pump track, skate park, ball fields, playgrounds and a sledding hill, if we get snow, with the 63,000-square-foot Community Center beside it. Thomas Reservoir, at 119th and Austin, is a gravel loop of about two-thirds of a mile with the Front Range sitting on the water; it's Colorado, so don't get too excited about the size, but it's a perfect morning with a coffee and the dog. Erie Singletrack is a free mountain bike park on town open space with a view of the whole Front Range. Volunteers built its Sunset West trails; Sunset East, home to the Green, Blue and Black flow lines, was built by hired trail contractors and paid for with community donations. The Coal Creek Trail runs 14 soft-surface miles from Superior through Louisville and Lafayette to Erie.

Events

The Erie Balloon Festival in July, run by the Chamber, hit its 28th year in 2025, and on the right summer morning you'll see balloons lifting off over Thomas Reservoir. I've only managed it once with my daughter, but if you have little kids, giant balloons rising off a lake with mountains behind them means they never want to leave. Good or bad. Erie Biscuit Day in the fall dates to the 1800s, when it marked miners returning to work, and downtown runs a Thursday farmers market in summer.

Food and beer

Briggs Street is a couple of walkable blocks with six or seven good restaurants. 24 Carrot Bistro is where my family goes. The Old Mine is a cidery in an old mercantile, Echo Brewing and Cellar West pour local beer, and there are coffee shops. On a Saturday evening you see families and dogs on the sidewalk and kids playing. New towns can't build that.

Three places I'd send you first

• Briggs Street on a Saturday evening — walk the two blocks, eat at 24 Carrot. You'll know whether this downtown is enough for you.
• Thomas Reservoir in the morning — the loop, the mountains, a coffee. Go early in summer and you may catch balloons.
• Erie Highlands' park or Colliers Hill's amenity center — see what a metro district buys and whether you want to pay for it.

Who are the big employers in and near Erie?

Erie is a bedroom community. The town's 2019 profile listed its largest in-town employers as the Town of Erie, King Soopers, Safeway, Lazy Dog and Aspen Ridge Preparatory School, and the average commute was around 26 minutes as of 2024.

The jobs are in the triangle around it. Boulder's largest employers as of 2022 included the University of Colorado, Boulder Community Health and the federal labs, NCAR and NOAA among them. Longmont's as of 2020 included St. Vrain Valley Schools, Seagate, Intrado, two hospitals and the FAA. Broomfield's largest employers as of 2023 included Oracle, Intermountain Health, BAE Systems, Hunter Douglas, Vail Resorts, Crocs and Broadcom. Denver is the long one.

How does Erie compare with nearby areas?

• Erie vs. Louisville, Superior and Lafayette — The US 36 towns are closer to Boulder. Louisville and Superior have Boulder Valley schools, while Lafayette is split between Boulder Valley and St. Vrain, so check the address. Louisville and Lafayette have bigger downtowns than Briggs Street, and Superior's downtown is still being built. Louisville and Superior sit on the Flatiron Flyer's US 36 route; Lafayette has no Flyer station. Erie gives you more house and lot, traded for an I-25 commute and a smaller main street.
• Erie vs. Broomfield — Broomfield has Interlocken, a shorter Denver commute and the Flyer, but no downtown and six school districts. Erie is farther out, newer still, with a real Old Town.
• Erie vs. Longmont — Longmont is a full city with more jobs and more housing variety, including older homes. Erie is newer and more uniformly suburban.
• Erie vs. Firestone, Frederick and Dacono — The Carbon Valley towns east of I-25 are more affordable; Erie is closer to Boulder and has the downtown they lack.

A lender's take on Erie

Two myths. First, "Erie is a Boulder suburb." Pretty mythy. Most of Erie is in Weld County, and you're far enough away that if Boulder isn't your vibe, Erie won't feel Boulder-y. Good or bad. Second, "you get more house for your money in Erie." Undoubtedly true, and not just against Boulder: against Lafayette, Superior or Longmont, Erie still gives you a lot more room on a similar budget.

The honest trade is the drive, the metro district and the drilling. If Denver is a daily destination, test the commute. If a pool and a clubhouse matter, the metro district paid for them and you'll pay it back on the tax bill. If active oil and gas nearby is a dealbreaker, say so early; on the east side it's part of the landscape.

My verdict is the one I gave on camera: Erie is space and newness. Don't be scared off by the growth; it's attracting good people and good neighborhoods. I've been fond of this place since I was a kid waiting for the figure-eight cars to wreck into each other, and I look forward to bringing my family up there. Happy to show you around. Maybe we'll catch a race.

Buying in Erie: what to do first

1. Get pre-approved before you tour. Builders move on their own timeline.
2. Price the whole payment: county property tax for the exact parcel, the metro district levy, any HOA dues and insurance.
3. Confirm the county and school district for the exact address. Not the neighborhood.
4. Ask about oil and gas: wells, pipelines and the Draco pad relative to the lot.
5. Drive the commute at rush hour from the actual neighborhood, and near the airport, stand in the backyard on a Saturday morning: road noise or planes?
6. Veterans: a VA loan works on new construction, including builder contracts, and on metro district properties. Ask before you sign a builder's purchase agreement.