By Mark Samuelson
The limos and busses have departed, the private jets are plowing the skies back to L.A. and Chicago, and commentators and bloggers are all over the map as to who came out well and by how much. But there’s little doubt about how Denver did this week. It won big.

Larimer Square, three blocks from the Pepsi Center

While 40,000-plus convention visitors were taking in the café scene and nice weather on the Mall, the Case-Shiller Home Price Index issued by Standard & Poor’s arrived showing the Mile-High City leading the entire nation in home appreciation–up 1.5% May to June–the only major market, save for Boston, headed upward.

“The reason we’re having success is that the downward trend in inventory is already affecting prices,” Jack O’Connor, managing broker at Prestige Real Estate Group, told me. O’Connor, who authors a widely read report, is predicting price increases for 2009, particularly in the under-$300,000 range where listings are disappearing fastest. more »

$10 Starbucks card at The Hearth in Highlands Ranch by Berkeley Homes, showing three decorator show homes going on the market. Take Quebec south from C-470 into Highlands Ranch, past University/Lincoln Ave., one more mile to McArthur, right 1/3-mile to Heatherton and left.

PRICE: From mid $300s, decorator models from $399,900
PHONE: 303-470-1166 WEB: www.liveberkeley.com.

Is it a bad market or a good market? If you’re buying rather than selling, there’s not much doubt: “I wish I were a buyer, not a seller,” says Rich Laws, president of Berkeley Homes…and he’ll show you why in Colorado’s most enduringly popular community, Highlands Ranch; even give you a $10 Starbucks card for looking.

Rich Laws, president of Berkeley Homes, shows off two of three decorator show homes coming on the market in Highlands Ranch.

Highlands Ranch performs terrific in good markets, and pretty well in not-so-good ones, too. “Master-planned communities have always performed best over time,” Laws said, showing me his nearly built-out neighborhood “The Hearth”…walking distance from Highlands Ranch’s newest rec center, Southridge, and from Rock Canyon High, rated by 5280 Magazine as second best high school in the Denver-Boulder area…better than the private academies, better than Cherry Creek High. more »

Mid-summer housing data are showing favorable swings in inventory and sales that haven’t been seen in the Denver metropolitan area in five years, and that suggest a general return to rising home prices early in 2009.

Jack O’Connor
“Typically you would see an increase in inventory and a small decrease in sold data from June through September; however, this summer is already showing the opposite trend,” said Jack O’Connor, Managing Broker of Prestige Real Estate Group and author of the Prestige Monthly Report. more »