By Mark Samuelson
In the news game, “if it bleeds, it leads” …even for real estate news. Year 2008 saw so much carnage around the country that even here, where much of the really bad news happened two and three years ago, headlines headed in the direction of doom and gloom.

…But not this year. Now most ink about the Mile High City is decidedly upbeat…starting with foreclosures: down 11.8% last year over 2007, the first clear drop in metro foreclosures since the 1990s. more »

By Mark Samuelson
Last week, while a field of solar panels near Alamosa was cranking out 8.22 megawatts of power, enough to run 1,600 homes, builder John Keith was doing the same thing on a small scale…readying a new house at Stapleton that will have 8.5 kilowatts of solar on the roof. It’s a thousandth as much, but looms large for the purchaser.

Builder John Keith shows off Harvard Communities’ Architect Collection at Stapleton, where he includes energy efficient construction and a small solar system with every home built. He’s opening a “Near-Zero Energy Home” there Jan. 24-25.

With the solar, coupled with exceptional energy conservation design, Keith’s Near-Zero Energy Home will deliver nearly all of the energy the family will use…so much that they’ll likely never pay more than a few hundred dollars a year for power and gas. more »