Southwest Metro, Arapahoe & Jefferson Counties

Littleton

A historic Main Street, the South Platte, and the foothills at the end of the road.

Photo: Jeffrey Beall, CC BY 4.0

Littleton sits about eleven miles south of downtown Denver where the South Platte River meets the foothills. Its ten-block Main Street Historic District is lined with restored nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century buildings, around 220 mostly local businesses, and a light-rail station a six-minute walk away.

The Littleton postal area is much larger than the city itself and stretches west into Jefferson County, where Varvara represented buyers on West Friend Place in 2026. These western neighborhoods, Columbine, Columbine Knolls, Ken Caryl and the Chatfield area, are where most of the single-family inventory under $700,000 in the south metro is found.

Location: Southwest metro along Santa Fe Drive and the South Platte River
Downtown: Main Street Historic District, Littleton–Downtown station (C and D lines)
Housing: 1960s–80s ranches and two-stories west of Wadsworth; historic homes near downtown; newer construction toward Chatfield
Outdoors: Chatfield State Park, South Platte Park (880 acres), Hudson Gardens, Deer Creek Canyon
Retail: Aspen Grove, Bowles Crossing, Southwest Plaza

Downtown and the river

Downtown Littleton occupies land once owned by the Chatfield family, whose name is now attached to the dam and reservoir south of town. Today Main Street mixes bookstores, bakeries and restaurants in brick storefronts, with Arapahoe Community College and the civic buildings a few blocks away. Aspen Grove, one of the metro’s first open-air lifestyle centers, sits beside the Mineral light-rail station on Santa Fe Drive.

Main Street in downtown Littleton looking west toward the mountains, lined with trees and historic storefronts — Photo: Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0

West of Wadsworth

The Columbine and Columbine Knolls neighborhoods, along with Ken Caryl Ranch and the newer communities toward Chatfield, make up the bulk of the Littleton housing market. Homes are predominantly 1970s and 1980s ranches, split-levels and two-stories on 7,000 to 10,000-square-foot lots, with townhome communities near the Bowles Avenue corridor.

Chatfield State Park, with its 1,400-acre reservoir, marina, swim beach and trail network, is the recreational anchor, and Deer Creek Canyon and the Dakota Ridge trailheads are minutes away.

Chatfield Reservoir with a pontoon boat and the Dakota Hogback foothills beyond — Photo: Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 4.0

South Platte Park

South Platte Park is an 880-acre natural area along the river between Littleton and the reservoir. It is one of the few places in the metro where you can be on a riverside trail with herons overhead and still be a short bike ride from a light-rail platform.

Neighborhoods and subdivisions

Downtown Littleton
Columbine
Columbine Knolls
Ken Caryl Ranch
Chatfield Bluffs
Deer Creek
Powderhorn
Highlands (80121)

A note from Varvara

Littleton is where I send buyers who want a yard, a garage and the foothills in view without a Greenwood Village price. Inventory moves quickly in the sub-$600,000 range, so I like to have financing and inspection plans sorted before the first weekend of showings.

— Varvara Lytkina, Broker Associate, Compass

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