Southeast Aurora

Pricing trends

Southeast Aurora prices above the rest of Aurora and near the metro median for detached homes, with the reservoir and golf-course sections at the top and 1980s homes near Parker Road offering the entry points. Aurora's city-level table below carries the current numbers for the whole city.

Citywide figures for Aurora. Source: Local Market Update, August 2026, REcolorado data compiled by the Colorado Association of REALTORS®. Neighborhood-level figures vary; ask me for comparables on any specific home. See all area tables.

About SE Aurora

Southeast Aurora is the part of the city south of Interstate 70's airport corridor and east of Interstate 225, where most of Aurora's growth since 1990 has happened. It is a landscape of 1990s to current subdivisions, the Southlands outdoor mall, the Aurora Reservoir and the Cherry Creek School District's eastern schools. Buyers come for newer and larger homes at prices below the Douglas County towns to the south.

Location

Southeast Aurora runs from Parker Road east past E-470 to the Aurora Reservoir and from Quincy and Hampden avenues south to the Arapahoe County line, with Centennial and Foxfield to the west, Parker to the south and Cherry Creek State Park at its western edge. E-470, Parker Road and Smoky Hill Road are the main routes, and the airport is twenty minutes north on E-470.

History and background

Aurora began in 1891 as the town of Fletcher, a speculative suburb on the plains east of Denver that nearly failed in the silver crash of 1893 and renamed itself Aurora in 1907. For its first half century it was a small farm and military town, growing around Fitzsimons Army Hospital and Lowry Field and spreading slowly east along Colfax Avenue.

The southeast part of the city is almost entirely a product of the decades after 1970. As Interstate 225 opened and Cherry Creek State Park was completed, builders pushed south and east across former farmland, and the Cherry Creek School District's growth drew families to subdivisions like Meadow Hills, Piney Creek and Saddle Rock. The E-470 tollway in the 1990s and the Southlands shopping center in 2006 turned the prairie east of the reservoir into the city's newest neighborhoods.

Today southeast Aurora holds a large share of the city's 400,000 residents and most of its newest housing, with construction still moving east toward the Aurora Reservoir and the county line.

Housing and architecture

The housing is almost entirely detached homes from production builders: 1980s and 1990s two-stories in Meadow Hills, Piney Creek and Saddle Rock, 2000s homes in Tallyn's Reach, Sorrel Ranch and Southshore on the reservoir, and current construction in the Painted Prairie, Harmony and Wheatlands areas. Golf communities like Saddle Rock, Heritage Eagle Bend (a 55-plus community) and Blackstone add larger homes, and townhomes are concentrated near Southlands.

Parks and recreation

The Aurora Reservoir offers swimming, paddling and a loop trail, and Cherry Creek State Park is on the west edge. Saddle Rock and Murphy Creek golf courses, the Southeast Recreation Center, Southlands' events lawn and the Plains Conservation Center's prairie trails serve the area.

Dining, shopping and daily life

Southlands is the retail and dining center, with a theater, a farmers market and seasonal events, and Smoky Hill Road and Parker Road carry the grocery stores and services. The Cherry Creek School District, including Grandview, Cherokee Trail and Eaglecrest high schools, is a major reason families choose the area.