Metropolitan’s Julia Sherman (left) and Melodie McCuaig look out over the new-urban design of Vallagio from a loft.

“These final homes are a steal,” he says. “People need to know the window is closing; you’ll never be able to build at this price.”
Vallagio is giving something else back, to anybody wondering whether this is really the right moment–a 34-month buy-back guarantee. Purchase a loft right now, and if you decide down the line it’s not a fit, developer Metropolitan Homes will take it back.
That offer covers any reason for making a change 34-months into ownership — you haven’t made enough appreciation, or you’ve been transferred out of town, or whatever. With a close-out incentive that Metropolitan is including with all of these, lofts start at only $224,000; two luxurious row homes (3-bedroom, 3-1/2 baths plus 2-car garage) are both in the $390s.
Those prices have driven 11 sales over the past three months…half of them to buyers coming to Colorado for jobs at United Launch Alliance, Comcast and other Inverness employers. “They all want to be around the energy here,” says sales manager Julia Sherman. Metropolitan’s team, she adds, is excited by the social synergy that residents express…parties, progressive dinners, nights out at Inverness’s Spotted Dog restaurant.
Today only, you’ll find a 1-bedroom loft incentive-priced at $224,000…with a granite island, hardwood floors, stainless appliances including fridge and washer-dryer, balcony with gas hookup, and a dedicated space in the underground parking. One hundred dollars will hold it to contract (an offer that applies on any of these).
And be sure to check out the larger 2-bedroom (from $284,000) and 3-bedroom corner-lofts. Vallagio’s sales gallery is just east of I-25 on Dry Creek to Inverness Drive West and right a block.
–
With tax credit set to end, final row homes and lofts “are a steal” in new-urban neighborhood beside Light Rail

If you go…

WHERE: Sixteen final 1-to-3-bed lofts, 2 final Row Homes at Vallagio, new-urban neighborhood at Inverness Golf Club, guaranteed buy-back. Take I-25 to Dry Creek Rd., head east 1 blk to Inverness Dr. West, right 1 blk to sales gallery entry.

PRICE: Lofts from $224,000, 2 Luxury Row Homes in $390s
WHEN: Daily 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
PHONE: 303-222-1370 WEB: www.Vallagio.com

“It’s remarkable; there was SO much inventory,” Coldwell Banker Devonshire agent Dawn Raymond, who is listing the home at 301 S. Cherry. “Now it’s like we’re the only game in town.”

This 2003 custom is a house that would have stood out even when there were dozens of new built ‘custom-spec’ competitors surrounding. It has an uncommon sense of space and light in its main level…lots of curves and diagonals…and a family room deep to the rear, opening through veranda doors in a large breakfast room to a very secluded backyard.

“It’s a happy place,” says seller Beth Hooper, who recounted how much her family has enjoyed the backyard retreat, and raising kids in the neighborhood.
Raymond adds that two factors have accelerated the rate of absorption in Hilltop: The first is that builders can’t get financing to build specs, even though the Hilltop market is once again looking more appealing. The other, Raymond says, is the attractiveness of the site to families: Two big parks, two popular Denver elementary schools, as well as Graland Country Day School, just three blocks from this home.

“The fact that new construction isn’t coming on line will drive our market,” Raymond adds. In like manner to the pricing on this home, houses listed in Hilltop are showing a drop in price over the peak two years ago…down around $50/foot. Meanwhile, the closeness to downtown and Cherry Creek continues to become more desirable. “This is really an urban experience,” Beth Hooper noted. “You can be to work in ten minutes.”

The Cherry Street custom has over 5,000 square feet finished…over 7,000 counting a very attractive finish on the basement level, with a functional wet bar that has fridge and dishwasher, a wine cellar, and terraced window wells for a brighter, garden level effect.

The bedroom level shows large kids rooms, each of them with en-suite baths, gabled window recesses; and a ‘hiding place’ in one. The master takes up the bright southeast corner, opening to a big sun porch and to a terrific day-lighted walk-in closet.

-
If you go…

WHERE: Four-bed, 7-bath custom home built 2003. 210 S. Cherry St., Denver; from Colorado Blvd. take Alameda east 4 blks to Cherry, north.

PRICE: $1.85 million
PHONE: 303-777-7177

Watching the kids ski at Sol Vista, homeowners gather for wine-n-cheese at Base Camp One; including Tony and Lisa Nolan, left; developer Greg Finch, center, and his daughter Amy and wife Sharon to the right.

Last week the Nolans were back with their young kids to see their place at Base Camp One, by the lifts at Sol Vista in Granby Ranch, 15 miles beyond Winter Park. “I had no idea this was here,” Lisa Nolan said, spending their first weekend skiing at Sol Vista, where the condo is set to close this week. “It just makes so much sense.”

Skiers know Sol Vista as a ‘boutique’ ski area; but they may NOT know how appealing this looks to families, after a total makeover: new terrain park with jumps and rails to keep teens advancing in the sport; a top-rated ski school; and remodeled base lodge. “If the kids are happy, everybody’s happy,” says Greg Finch, president of Dundee Resort Development, as we lunched in Seven Trails Grille…a popular spot in the evening, too, while kids gather outdoors for ‘disco tubing.’

Next door, is Base Camp One, with architecture to match anything you’ll see in Summit County; big hearth room…attractive units priced impossibly low. …Starting with a 2-bedroom/2-bath condo, a short glide from the lifts–lavish kitchen, fireplace, around 1,100 sq. ft. It was $404,000 when the project opened for pre-sales; but you can have it in time to ski this year from $242,000…16 ski day-passes included.

You can see a choice of 1-to-3 bedroom units, 40% off to the next six buyers. What you WON’T see are features that will lure you back to Granby Ranch in summer: three miles of private trout lease; and Headwaters Golf Course (with a Jack Nicklaus makeover). “You buy somewhere else, and that’s all you have, a ski-condo,” said Tony Nolan. His wife is the golfer; he prefers mountain biking…and gets a trail park here that drew the U.S. National Downhill Championship in 2009.
One-bedrooms start under $200,000. A 3-bedroom at $407,000 is $270,000 off…with 16 rounds of golf and 30% off the trout lease, plus access to a guest condo (stop in for wine-n-cheese Saturday afternoon). This is a laid-back mountain with a laid-back sales approach. “They’re low key,” said Tony Nolan. “If it’s right for your family, you’ll know it.” You can experience the entire package now…finished condos and all. Call or email sales@granbyranch.com for info or to arrange an overnight; or drop in, 15 miles past Winter Park to Village Road.
-
If you go…

WHERE: Base Camp One at Granby Ranch, 40% off next 6 purchases of 1-to-3-bed ski-in/out condos beside Sol Vista; ski/golf/fishing membership included. 300 Base Camp Cir., Granby; take U.S. 40 west from I-70 43 mi. (15 mi. past Winter Park) to Village Rd., right 2 mi. to ski area, Mountain Preview Cntr on left

PRICE: From under $200,000
WHEN: Daily 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
PHONE: 888-850-4615 toll free WEB: BaseCampLiving.com

Silvio DeBartolomeis and Cheryl Harpt in the kitchen of Pioneer Hills 3-bedroom show home. That model sold…around the corner from a 1,494-foot home on sale for $239,900.

When you have nice single-family homes, sooner or later you have kids who grow up and leave…empty nesters who want out of shoveling snow…people changing, needing newer spaces. Most of those people still want to stay in the same neighborhood, with its trails and Cherry Creek Schools; and Colonnade reaches to them with a neighborhood that has a secluded feel, big pool and cabana, parks and trails.

“People get tired of taking care of larger houses,” says Silvio DeBartolomeis, who can show you the home by appointment. It has two bedrooms and 2-1/2 baths…including a luxury 5-piece master bath, a great room with fireplace, basement and 2-car attached garage.

The price of $239,900 is a huge discount from its original list — $80,926 off. You can also see a few other homes of the same floor plan at $250,000; and some bigger 3-bedrooms with over 2,000 feet, all at huge discounts, $50,000, $60,000 or $70,000 off.
Needless to say, this will work even if you don’t live in Piney Creek, just taking advantage of the federal tax credit (it requires a contract by April 30 and closing by June 31… Any of these homes qualify, even allow you a little time to pick custom colors on some.

Buyers are already moving on the prices. All of the Phase-I ranches are gone, and Thursday the model home went under contract (it was the most expensive in the community). You can walk the trail over a footbridge to Pioneer Hills Shopping Center, with its “Grind’ coffee shop with free wi-fi; a half dozen other restaurants and taverns including Jason’s Deli, Purple Orchid, T.G.I. Friday’s and more.

“This is a new urban concept,” DeBartolomeis added…walkable to two dozen stores, Home Depot and Wal-mart beyond, with Light Rail five minutes away at Parker and I-225. To the west is Cherry Creek State Park, including its off-leash dog park and Cherry Creek Trail. The sale runs through Feb. 28, open today 10-5; take Parker Road south from I-225 or north from Arapahoe to Chambers; turn north 1/4-mile to the entryway.
-
WHERE: Pioneer Hills, 2- & 3-bedroom 2-story townhomes, Phase-I inventory close-out; pool and trails that link to Pioneer Hills Shopping Center; call for showing. 15097 E. Crestline Pl.; take Parker Road south from I-225 3.6 mi. to Chambers Rd. and turn left, quarter-mile to entryway on left.

PRICE: From $239,900
PHONE: 303-995-6363 WEB: ColonnadeCommunities.com

Bob and Erin Moser with sons Reid, 8, Jack, 6, and Chase, 3, in the backyard of their Heritage Hills home. The couple sold their first Heritage Hills home last year to move into this new one.

The Mosers, who now have three boys roaming on bikes and trikes through Heritage Hills in Lone Tree, are so ensconced in the neighborhood that last year they sold their first Heritage Hills home to buy a larger, newly completed custom home down the street.

“We’re willing to pay a premium to be in a neighborhood where people look out for each other,” says Bob Moser, a vice president at Oppenheimer Investment Management. “You don’t get that in Wash Park.” Seven of the couple’s closest friends today, Erin Moser notes, just happen to live in Heritage Hills…close enough that they’ve carried out weekenders in the mountains together, even a California getaway.
You’ll get a feel for that today when Craig Penn with Heritage Marketing (he’ll have the coffee on in his show home) points out some new custom homes…including three that have limited-time mark-downs, as much as $200,000 off. They’re priced from $999,000, all located near a footbridge to parks and a Douglas County elementary school.
You’ll see the security gate that Moser says had something to do with creating the “everybody’s friendly” atmosphere. …Also the trail system, the very popular community pools, Lone Tree Light Rail Station for heading to ballgames and performing arts, and nearby Park Meadows and its 40 restaurants, favored by residents for nights out.
All of this, Penn adds, has helped Heritage Hills buck the down market…garnering 10% of Douglas County sales in the million-plus range in 2009, 50% in the closer-in areas that are minutes from DTC and Inverness. Last year, he adds, values actually increased by 9% here; and four new custom homes have sold since Thanksgiving.
You might also find a neighbor to tell you about the social scene: guys’ golf groups, ‘Women Who Wine’ evening get-togethers, and lots of kids’ events. How tough is it to move down I-25 after living in a hip area like Wash Park? “It was like a bridge for us,” Moser recalls. “I wasn’t willing to shut down and live at ChuckE Cheese; but we needed a better lifestyle fit.”
From Lincoln Avenue west of I-25 take a right on Heritage Hills Circle.
-

WHERE: Heritage Hills, 4-and 5-bedroom custom homes, some price-reduced as much as $200,000, coffee today. 9680 S. Shadow Hills Circ., Lone Tree; take I-25 south past 470 to Lincoln Ave. exit, west 1/3-mile to Heritage Hills Circ., right turn to Heritage Hills Pkwy thru gate, follow signs

PRICE: From the high $900s
WHEN: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily
PHONE: 303-706-0466 WEB: HeritageHillsColorado.com

Gene and Lutie Fischer enjoy continental breakfast in their clubhouse at The Cottages at Dayton Place, a few doors from their home. Dayton Place’s Jennifer Davidson (left) and sales associate Bonnie Baker meet visitors to the project.

You can come see what they ended up doing…and get a Starbucks card and refreshments today, as well. The Fischers were the first residents to move into The Cottages at Dayton Place, a Southeast Denver enclave that has the advantages of a retirement community, but looks and feels like single-family homes…even down to the 2-car garage.

The Cottages are fee based…a one-time entry fee and a monthly (currently $2,900 for a couple) that covers not only the lease, but trimming the lawn, shoveling snow, twice-a-month housekeeping, interior maintenance on fixtures/appliances, and a clubhouse with spa and indoor pool. The Fischers were having a continental breakfast there when I stopped in——part of the package, with more meal options available. “We had a family reunion here at Christmas,” Lutie Fischer told me, pointing out the gathering areas where they hosted kids and grandkids.
In today’s market, The Cottages make the move to that sort of lifestyle easier still, says Ken Jaeger, president of MorningStar Senior Living, which launched The Cottages last year on the campus of its very successful Dayton Place Retirement Residences. In the range around $250,000 older homes are selling faster now…but for couples who are worried about whether the old place will sell, The Cottages will take a 10% down and wave the additional fee until the house sells.
The fee is entirely refundable when the resident leaves (including the possibility of a move into Dayton Place, for assisted living or memory care). What residents get in return is the size and privacy they’re used to. All homes are single-level, up to 1,750 feet, either 2-bedroom or 2-plus-den, plus the 2-car garage that can supplement storage space. Bonnie Baker and Jennifer Davidson (they’ll be on hand today) have explored all of the competition around town, and say they can’t find anything of the sort offering the size and value.
…Particularly on the entry fee, which The Cottages have reduced to levels starting at $245,000, just under where single-family re-sales are selling pretty briskly now. You can tour daily, just north of Parker Road on Dayton. Adds Lutie Fischer, “It’s like your own house.”
-
Mark Samuelson is president of Samuelson & Associates, a homebuilding/real estate communications firm.

-END-

WHERE: The Cottages at Dayton Place, senior living ranch-patio models, full services, 2-car attached garage, clubhouse; refreshments & Starbucks card today. 2000 S. Dayton St.; From Aurora take Parker Rd. north from Iliff 2 blks to Dayton, right 1 blk. From Denver take Parker Rd. south to Dayton, left.

PRICE: From $2,400/mo., refundable entrance fee from $245,000
WHEN: 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. daily
PHONE: 303-338-4338 WEB: MorningStarSeniorLiving.com

So, what does the year ahead look like for our refrigerated town on the High Plains? After 12 months of tough sledding real-estate-wise, don’t expect a thaw anytime soon…but don’t pack your bags, either. People who make a living predicting the market are saying, all things considered, you’re better off here.

Jack O’Connor, author of a market report for RE/MAX Professionals, sees chilly weather ahead for the highest price ranges, and solid appreciation for people who own homes under $250,000.

“I’m still very bullish on Denver,” economist Patty Silverstein told me this week. She’s president of Research Development Partners, consulting chief economist for the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. and for the Chamber.

The big factor impacting residential real estate is employment, and Silverstein sees slightly brighter prospects there. “Year 2010 will see a glimmer of hope,” she said, adding that we’re likely to continue losing some jobs early on…firming up later, with the odds favoring a slight increase for the year
That kind of late growth, however, will do little to jump-start the high-end housing market, says Jack O’Connor, who authors a monthly report for RE/MAX Professionals that was surprisingly accurate in predicting lower-end appreciation this past year. At the highest end, the Denver area still has way too much inventory and way too few buyers. If you own a house below $250,000, the forecast is much warmer…some price increases…maybe even multiple offers, once you put the sign up.
“If you have a nice home (priced below $250,000), you’re going to see 4 to 6
percent appreciation in 2010,” O’Connor adds.
In the million-dollar range, prospects are still glacial. Current inventory of 1,100 single-family homes at a million-plus (only 240 closed during the year as of Dec. 30) will take years to absorb. For million-dollar condos, says O’Connor, the temperature drops even more.
Meanwhile, you’re living in a place with a future in aerospace, bioscience, software, and energy…industries hit by the recession, but with temperate long-term prospects.
“You need to look beyond to what the opportunities can be,” Silverstein said.
Colorado, she adds, is perceived by the nation as a very attractive place to live…one that appeals to entrepreneurial types. “That will help us,” she adds.
If you’re selling in the high end, don’t expect improvement in 2010…and,
O’Connor adds, figure that interest rates, which have stayed low for a long time,
could likely climb late in the year. At the low end, watch for the continuing federal tax credit to play an abnormally large role in motivating sales. And remember…it only applies to contracts written by April 30.
-

Mayor Andrew Moore of Erie, left, joins builder-owners Cat and Kirk Velarde and their Kentwood Cherry Creek agent Paula King, in front of a 5-bedroom ranch on the re-sale market at $597,000.

And don’t forget new Erie High School, on the Weld side of town on the way out to I-25. A few years back Erie was losing students, due to open enrollment. Now ACT scores, Moore notes, are way up…and the school is actually drawing enrollments from other towns. “This is so much closer to downtown,” says Kentwood Cherry Creek agent Paula King, who lives in Erie Village, where she’ll show you the 2,699-foot, 5-bedroom ranch that has another 3,000 down in the basement, with movie screening room and other goodies. It’s at $597,000…a “steal” King says…all the more so if you live in Boulder proper, where, she adds, it would be priced well over a million.

Builder Kirk Velarde did it in 2003 as his personal home in Erie Village, where he’s built five of the surrounding homes. Velarde and King both note that the buyer profile is heavily ‘California’–relocating families taking advantage of lower prices and a 12–minute commute into the high-tech Gunbarrel corridor. King was headed to an afternoon get-together the Erie Village locals refer to as “FACs”——Friday afternoon cocktails——saying goodbye to a neighbor moving BACK to California. But that, says Mayor Moore, is not the trend.
“ConocoPhillips is still expecting 7,000 employees (at its campus on the Boulder Turnpike),” said Moore, who in his other life is an exec at Sun Microsystems. “Even if they end up with 3,500, that’s still larger than Sun.” Erie already has commuter “Jump” bus service into Boulder…and is close to a site for a multimodal station that would be part of a future expansion of FasTracks.
“We didn’t get hit as high in foreclosures here,” Moore adds, noting that Erie’s 100 home starts for 2009 is up from last year, and ranks as some of the largest construction underway in Boulder County.

WHERE: Custom ranch plan in Erie Village, 5 bedrooms. 1306 Allen Ave., Erie

PRICE: $597,000
PHONE: 303-601-2880

Keller Williams agent Lindsey Wiseman (left) joins her father, San Rafael restoration pioneer Jim Wiseman, and Coldwell Banker agent Soledad Tobar, in front of Wiseman’s historic home at 22nd and Emerson Street.

“It was pretty marginal back then,” says Wiseman, who went on to help establish national historical recognition for San Rafael, and to fix up no less than 80 homes in the four or five blocks surrounding his address at 22nd and Emerson.

There was nothing in the way of historic protection when Wiseman laid eyes on the marvelous home at 2096 Emerson. The house, with one of the city’s most magnificent Victorian facades, had been occupied during the 1970s by Russell Means’ militant American Indian Movement, and had later been slated for a mandated city tear-down. “The doors were swinging in the wind,” Wiseman recalls. “I moved in with a kerosene heater.” Within a day Wiseman had installed 60 new panes of glass into broken windows. Two houses next door had already been lost to the bulldozer, and Wiseman estimates that 25% of San Rafael’s total housing stock was sitting vacant.
“When you looked at downtown from here, you knew (that the neighborhood) had all kinds of potential,” Wiseman added. “When it comes to period stock, this and City Park West (the neighborhood to the east of San Rafael bordering City Park) are probably the nicest in the city.”
“Nobody has heard of San Rafael, and the homes are so spectacular,” adds Coldwell Banker agent Soledad Tobar, who coordinated a holiday tour of the area, with Lindsey Wiseman and other agents. Right up the street from Wiseman’s home, Tobar has a 1,900 foot Victorian listed at 2226 Emerson, totally remodeled with new kitchen, new master suite with luxury bath and dressing-area style walk-in closet, second bedroom suite, plus third bedroom down. It’s historic formal rooms have been tastefully updated, and it’s priced at $499,000.
There are also new homes in the neighborhood by Wiseman and other builders, some of them showcasing remarkable views of downtown’s office towers a mile southwest. “It’s four or five blocks to Uptown’s Restaurant Row,” Wiseman said, adding that unlike some other areas of the city with historic homes, San Rafael has no mixed commercial use areas and no one-way streets.
For more information call Soledad Tobar at 303-887-5120.

Keller Williams agent Larry Champine (left) joins his client, Hungarian-born architect Bence Kovacs, beside the passive solar home Kovacs created in old Englewood, between Swedish Medical Center and the University of Denver.

Sure enough, at 3 p.m. the low winter sun was still peeking over the top of the 2-story house next door, filling a family room that has massive concrete floors (with radiant back-up heat) to absorb the solar gain. Kovacs, who works for Fentress Architects on projects surrounding the new airport for San Jose, Calif., and the new city hall for North Las Vegas, took a totally ‘green’ approach indoors: engineered ‘paralam’ beams, OSB-type flooring, and Xeriscaped yard for low water use.

He’s also added something that would have been very, very expensive to have done 30 years ago, when passive solar was the hot trend in Colorado architecture. The home’s roof has 2.4-kilowatts of photovoltaic panels, enough according to the manufacturer to provide around 50-75% of Kovacs’ electric needs. That was a $23,000 add-on, but after credits and rebates, Kovacs says the final bill was $8,000 -– a sum that should pay back in five or six years.
Kovacs, trained at the Hungarian University of Arts and Crafts with a follow-up degree from DU, discovered the neighborhood after having lived a mile closer to the campus. “What I like about it is literally no traffic, much quieter,” he told me. He moved into an old, 650-foot house on site…had intentions of preserving more of it than he did…but ended substantially scraping it for the 2,600-foot new structure. You can still see a hint of its original roof angle beside the large solar windows on the south side.
The new home, priced at $699,000, also shows a very contemporary fireplace (“I didn’t want gas logs, I’m not trying to look like something else,” Kovacs said), bedrooms that have Japanese-style sliders that throw open to join the interior spaces below, and plenty of ‘green’ design accents to match the energy package: a bright green column and moss shades in the finishes of kitchen and family room.
His Xcel bill, by the way, ran $20 for a mid-summer month, $120 last month. The home is west ofS. University on Dartmouth one mile, two blocks past Downing, to Ogden, then right.
-
WHERE: Passive solar home with solar electric system, 3-bed, 2,600-sq. ft. 3055 S. Ogden St., Englewood; from S. University, take Dartmouth west, 1.2 mi., past Downing, 2 blks to Ogden, turn right.
PRICE: From $699,000
PHONE: 720-291-4227