I wouldn't rule out the city! Check out some of the neighborhoods... it's definitely different from Chicago.

For suburbs here I'd check out Arvada and Westminster... both pretty nice spots and right between downtown and the mountains!! Golden is also really nice but maybe expensive. I don't really know much about housing prices, but those are nice areas. I think Lakewood is nice. I tend to like the west side of Denver because it's closer to the mountains, but there's nice areas over on the east side too.