Suddenly, it’s the good news that’s dominating headlines around Denver
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.
Fast on the heels of that story last week was a report by a national mortgage insurer predicting that Denver area homes have less than a 1% chance of falling in value this year. Investors, the story went on, are rumored to be looking at the Big D as a low-risk area for planting some of that national capital that’s been in limbo since the stock market took its big dive.
And there’s plenty to invest in. A report by the American Solar Energy Society released Friday says that Colorado’s growing “green” sector of solar, wind power and other energy-efficiency-related industries are already contributing 91,000 jobs to the economy, about 4 percent of gross state product. Big renewable energy projects…both working and on the drawing board…have been popping into the headlines every week.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press ran a story Monday about Californians bailing out of the Golden state, headed for Colorado and other Rocky Mountain destinations. The implication wasn’t so much about the numbers of people involved (net loss, about 144,000), but rather that California was in danger of losing its image as a “Promised Land” for creative, talented workers.
What’s the next Promised Land? Part of it could lie along the Boulder Turnpike corridor…named in a year-end business story as the destination for the only spec office building that one prominent Boston developer is launching anywhere in the entire country this year. Nothing nearby will lose any luster as Interlocken and the Turnpike get a planned FasTracks light rail line…the same magic that is proving such a boon for the south I-25 corridor.
Will national economic problems throw cold water on our warmer outlook? There are bound to be consequences…but even the New York Times was betting in a Jan. 6 story that “Denver Aims to Ride Out the Recession.”
