Colorado Dream Homes Blog

So if you like Country Music, there is a new musical centered around all different types of country music at the PACE Center in Parker.  Its a CUSTOM ORGINAL musical produced just for Parker CO and the PACE Center.  It will run for 2 weeks so make sure you get your tickets.  The premier is tonight and there will be a big gala affair called "Hot Country Nights" so it should be pretty exciting to see!  

Yeah its finally done!  Parker CO now has FOUR ways to get directly to I-25!  For those of you that have to think about it we have E-470, Lincoln, Mainstreet, and now Hess.  The road evidently opened last Tuesday according to The Parker Chronicle and it should be exciting to try it out!  For all the folks that live in Parker south of Hess Road (and there are a lot!) this will be even more convenient than currently taking Hess Road west, then right at Chambers then left at Mainstreet to Ridgegate Parkway at I-25.  This will change a lot of traffic patterns in Parker CO and may also change the way people think about Parker CO Homes, since they won't seem as remote as before.  I woudl think Linoln will definitely be much more quieter for the folks backing to it in Stonegate.  Time will tell!   

An Interesting Change of Events

The federal ban on 100W light bulbs was temporarily suspended last month as part of another deal, in Congress, to avoid another threatened government shutdown. This provision prevents the Department of Energy from spending any money to implement or enforce the energy efficiency standards for light bulbs that is set to start going into effect for 100-watt bulbs in 2012.

This delay gives consumers an additional nine months to stock up on 100W incandescent light bulbs and inform their congressman of their desire on this subject. The lighting ban will be revisited at the end of September when the government fiscal year comes to a close.

It was fascinating to think about how this simple change could change real estate deals.  Homes in Parker CO and any home in Denver would face an interesting delima.  You burn out a bulb and then you have to replace that $1 bulb with one that cost $39.  Talk about sticker shock!  You'd be pissed.  And you might have to buy more than one then too so they match.  Some homes have 30-40 lights in them, so theoretically you could have thousands of dollars in light bulbs in your home, that are supposed to last for 20 years.  Should this home be worth more than another that has only changed out a few of their bulbs?  Will sellers take their bulbs with them initially until most homes have them in them?  Will they be excluded in contracts?  It could be interesting.  

For additional information on the light bulb ban, visit CNN and Energy Savers websites.

http://www.energysavers.gov/pdfs/consumer_light_bulb_changes.pdf

http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/16/news/economy/light_bulb_ban/index.htm

Based on this data home prices are basically flat from October of last year.  

Here is the kicker though:  

"When distressed, or REO, sales are stripped out, the year-over-year price of a home in Denver increased by 1.3 % in October."

I'll take a 1.3% increase in Denver real estate vs. a 3.9% drop in the US anytime!

This was an excerpt of an e-mail from the president and CEO of NYCB Mortgage Company, a large national mortgage banker and one of the primary investors of many lenders.  Not only is this a disgraceful policy on it's face, it leaves the door open for future increases, handicapping the qualifications of buyers and homeowners.  We strongly urge everyone undertake their own organized campaign of reaching out to all of their contacts and clients to voice serious opposition to this attack on the housing finance system.

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On December 23, 2011, Congress and President Obama gave all homeowners and home buyers an ironic ‘present’ in the form of a 10 basis point increase in ‘g-fees’ for all mortgage loan products offered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in order to fund a two-month extension of a 33% payroll tax cut.  This shift in tax burden to homeowners and home buyers will remain in effect until October 2021, a period of almost 10 years.  Once fully adjusted, this will cost an already stressed group of Americans approximately .45%, almost one-half of one percent, of any amount they subsequently borrow to purchase a home, or refinance an existing home loan.

As you can imagine, we think this is an absurd and irresponsible way to finance a two-month tax cut and we encourage everyone to protest loudly to any politician within reach.  While there's little chance this law will be changed, it is nevertheless very important that we be heard, because this unprecedented use of credit guarantee fees for general Treasury purposes cannot be repeated.  If Congress somehow begins to perceive credit guarantee fees to be some sort of readily available "cookie jar" that can be used for whatever whim politicians believe appropriate, then this country's housing finance system will be in a world of real hurt.  The payroll tax extension will now expire on March 1, 2012; and you can be certain that efforts will be made to extend the tax cut through the November 2012 general election.  If it costs 10 bps to fund an extension for two months, just imagine what it would do to guarantee fees if they were used to fund a full year.

Thanks Congress!

It's an intriguing idea!  The more I think about it the more I like it.  

The more energy efficient a home is the more it should be worth, because it has savings advantages over a non-energy efficient home and is good for the planet.  It would add an incentive to anyone wanting to invest in making their home energy efficient, whether it be solar, or energy efficient appliances or whatever. 

A Bill is going through the Senate right now.  

Wouldn't it be interesting if you could list all of the energy efficient items in your home for an appraisal?  

Wouldn't it be REALLY interesting it got down to counting the LED lightbulbs in your home...those $40 lightbulbs in Home Depot that are supposed to last 22 years?  Those should certainly add value to a home over one without them.  How many lightbulbs would an average home have in Parker CO?  An average $300,000 home might have 75-100 lightbulbs.  I can see a home having thousands of dollars invested in just LIGHT BULBS.  I can see some homeowners (until they get so widespread that they are common in all homes) actually take their lightbulbs with them!!!  I can also see them getting stolen out of bank owned homes too, which would not be good of course.  

Why wouldn't an appraiser factor those in?  The problem is they wouldn't know what kind of lightbulbs the comps had, and there is no way to post them or track them in the Denver MLS.  

Cold hard reality sunk in this year for many home sellers in Parker CO, Castle Rock CO, Elizabeth CO and everywhere in the Denver metro area..  We saw listings expire every single month in 2011, and that's never happened to this degree.  In the past, it would be a rarity to see any listings expire in June, July, or August.  You'd only see them in the winter months.  

It's a rock and a hard place kind of thing. This article reinforces the fact that some sellers should just rent their homes out and become landlords rather than trying to compete in this market.  And face it, there are sellers that just CAN'T compete in todays market because they don't have the room to lower their prices.  

If you are an investor, you should be buying all of the rental properties you can while the demand is still hot and interest rates are low.

If you are a seller, we believe there is light at the end of the tunnel.  We see employment improving in Denver CO and that is huge.  There are signs the economy is coming back to life.  And the biggy is that all of the crap loans that were written in 2004, 2005, and 2006 that were resetting and coming due in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 are done with.  AND GUESS WHAT?  NO MORE JUNK LOANS resetting anymore!  So stability is at our doorstep!  You'll see that in less foreclosures and short sales.  Inventory is at an 8 year low too, so that can't hurt home sellers in Parker CO or Castle Rock CO or Elizabeth CO or anywhere in the Denver metro area.

For years Parker CO had only 2 ways to get to I-25, using either E-470 or Lincoln Avenue.  Both of those roads were extreme North Parker, so residents in the Southern boundaries of Parker were sort of trapped; for some going across Crowfoot Valley Road into Castle Rock made the most sense to get to I-25.  Otherwise you have to accept driving 7 miles of Parker Road to get out of Parker.  

For the last 2 years Hess road has been under construction, and now its being delayed a month due to lack of signage.  That is a pity, but when it opens it will certainly be a game changer!  For one thing, it will "expose" everyone driving on I-25 to where Parker is relative to Castle Pines North (pretty much directly East of it,) and also expose eveyone to the new Rueter-Hess Reservoir, which will certainly be the crown jewel of Douglas County some day and a major landmark for Parker.

It will also alter traffic patterns throughout Parker. With the Ridgegate Parkway/Mainstreet access in place now, adding Hess Road means even more people will stay off Lincoln, which I'm sure is going to please the homeowners that back to Lincoln.  I always thought Lincoln would become an Arapahoe Road and would have to be 3 lanes through Parker, but no way that is happening now.  I think its possible that more cars will travel on Mainstreet and Hess Road combined to get to I-25 than Lincoln.   

Will it change home values in Parker CO?  That remains to be seen.  BUT the homeowners in Horseshoe Ridge and Antelope Heights will certainly benefit from the double-whammy of Rueter-Hess and Hess Road being right next to them.  You think that Realtors will play this up when listing homes there?  You better believe it.  And that might drive up demand.  

The 1 year old Police Station in Parker CO has been awarded Best Public/Government Building Award for 2011 from Engineering News Record's (ENR) Mountain States Division.  This is pretty cool! 

The Parker Police Station was completed in 2010 and boasts 54,000 Square feet.  Its a LEED-Silver Building, located at 18600 Lincoln Meadows Pkwy., which is basically right next to Lowe's.  

See the whole article at Your Hub.  

Metro Denver EDC releases annual competitiveness report  

How does Colorado stack up against the rest of the nation? The report includes among Colorado's strengths the following:

* State's GDP per employee ranks in the top 15.
* Per capita personal income ranks 14th.
* The state ranks 6th best for economic outlook.
* Colorado ranks 4th for "NASA Prime Contract Awards."
* Colorado continues to post robust population growth rate - ranking as the 4th-fastest growing state in the country in 2009 and 2010.
* The state maintains high rankings for 4th grade reading proficiency and continues to rank 1st for highest ACT and SAT scores.
* Colorado has the nation's lowest rate of obesity.

Only 3 Colorado towns had median housing values over $1,000,000, and Aspen wasn't one of them????

Actually, Aspen came in 5th!  And what the heck is Columbine Valley?  That isn't even a Colorado town.  

This article in the Denver Business Journal is fascinating.  How cool would that be to say your town's median home price was over ONE MILLION DOLLARS?  Yes that would carry a certain level of prestige.

Of course, the reason Telluride, Greenwood Village, and Snowmass Village can pull this off is that they are relatively small communities, and when you are talking about averages its easier to rank high when the populations are smaller.  You'd never see Parker CO or Castle Rock CO in there.  The best you could ever say was that some individual communites within those towns had the median price over 1 million.  But even then you have to think hard about what communities to list, because even the most expensive communities have been hit by foreclosures.  

For Parker, you could list Centennial Ranch and the Colorado Golf Club only.  For Castle Rock, you would only have Castle Pines and that's it.   

Our housing supply continues to shrink, according Lawrence Yun, the Cheif Economist for the National Association of Realtors.  What that means is the "unsold inventory" of homes is trending downwards.  We are seeing that too in Douglas County and Parker CO, Castle Rock CO etc. as well.  There just aren't that many homes on the market as there used to be, and that is a good thing.  It will be even worse in December, when sellers tend to take a break for the holidays.  The other reason for the low inventory is sellers that couldn't sell their homes in 2011 aren't just relisting them.  They are giving up and waiting it out and trying it again next year.  

Don't think for a second that lower inventory will mean higher prices though.  In theory that would apply, but not in this economy.  And I bet its short lived.  I predict a flood of homes coming back on the market in the Spring!  Buyers will be in heaven with low low rates and lots os supply again.  I think 2012 is going to rock personally! 

The annual Parker CO Christmas Carriage Parade is today December 10th at 2PM!

This is a great tradition that most towns can't match, and it celebrates Parker's heritage of being a premiere horse and equestrian area.  This year the theme is "Beary Special Christmas," so it will be interesting to see how they dress up the horses and carriages accordingly.  

If you like old fashioned parades down an old fashioned Mainstreet, then this event is for you.  There are some very elaborate carriages and lots of horses of course.  Parker CO is not a boring sleepy little town...there are activities like this throughout the year, and its one of those wonderful things that help to define a community and create nice memories for kids.  Santa will be there and there is an ice scupting competition as well.  Should be fun and I'd definitely recommend you go!   

Parker is known for its equestrian past and present, and horses are the stars of the show. It was started by Parker’s first mayor Dean Salisbury in the early 1980s.  The parade will feature about 60 participants with about 75 horses, most of them pulling different types of carriages.

We have a new designation in our real estate business.  It's called a Broker Price Opinion Specialist.  And the irony is that a Broker Price Opinion is really just a Market Analysis, and every Realtor should be able to do this anyway.  So now you can be an expert at filling in blanks in a form for a bank!  Wow!   

I've always wanted to dream up some crazy stupid designation, create a course around that, then charge a Realtor $99 each year for the rest of his/her life to maintain it and advertise it.  Since Realtors have all this extra money and they are dense and don't know the difference, why not?  

My ideas so far:

Certified Deadbolt and Door Opener (CDDO)

Setting Showings for Buyers Resource (SSBR)

Certified Mapper and Router (CMR) …for routing yourself to each showing

Electronic Signature Specialist (ESS) …for coaching people how to sign contracts with their mouse

Certified Sign Placement Specialist (CSPS) …for expertise in placing a sign in a yard…using geometry and the angle of the sun as it hits the sign

Home Photography Specialist (HPS) …you get this if you never take a picture of a room without the lights on…lots of Realtors would not qualify

Real Estate Closing Specialist (RECS) …coaching Realtors etiquette at a closing…and if they should be the first to indulge in the freshly baked cookies or not

Economic Downturn and Housing Crash Resource (EDHCR) …goes without saying…we all have earned this one!

Multi-family units/duplexes in Single Family Neighborhoods

This will go down in a blaze of glory trust me.  I can understand the need to be honest, with multi-generations of families living together now due to the recession etc.  And with the population getting older it does make sense to try to accomodate Grandma and Grandpa instead of sending them to a pricey old folks home.  

Check out this meeting if you are interested in the topic.  If this passed it might only be a matter of time before other cities and towns considered modifying their zoning too.   

Parker CO was recently voted the 29th best place to live in the US according to Money Magazine.  COME ON!  That's all the better Parker ranks?  You gotta wonder how they come up with this stuff.  Supposedly SUPERIOR CO was #1.  Nothing against Superior, but that is a pretty small town and although the quality of life must be great, they can't have the amenities that Parker CO has.  They can't have the high quality luxury homes for sale that Parker CO has.  There are not a lot of things the Parker doesn't have (O.K. a bowling alley is one example of a need but we can live without it too.)  We are just about the right size town that can offer amenities most people want and need without having too many unfulfilled needs or too much of a good thing too.  Parker deserves to the be in the top 10 at least!    

WOW.  Its hard to believe really.  In the whole country?  Here is the interesting article on Douglas County CO houses.  I have to admit, its really nice when a buyer asks for a newer home (like 10 years or newer) and you can send them a lot of choices.  When you run across a home for sale from the 60's or 70's in Parker or Castle Rock Colorado, that is a VERY old home really in the scheme of things.  Buyers like new and current things, so if your home is that old you had better have remodeled it more than once!  

Housing starts edged 0.3% lower in October to an annual pace of 628k, better than expectations (it's always interesting where they get their expectations) and led by a 3.9% gain in new single-family home starts. Housing starts are now 16.5% above their VERY depressed level one year ago. New construction starts have fluctuated within a relatively narrow range for the past two years with little net change in trend.  There was a time when I hated all of the new construction because it was killing resales.  Now, its exciting to hear any hammers and see any new homes going up.  In Parker CO, there are actually 4 areas of decent new home construction activity; Horse Creek (off Hess Rd,) Meridian, Castlewood Canyon south of Pradera (although that is technically Castle Rock,) and even in Idllywilde/Canterberry to the east there is new construction.  

I saw the new Meritage homes in Canterberry on the east side of Parker CO recently, which are priced in the mid 200K's and most either back to the Black Bear golf course or back to open space, so they are prime lots.  They have this really cool construction display, where they built the model and its all furnished, but upstairs they left all the sheet rock off so you can see what's happening inside the walls and ceiling, and when you look up you see that they don't insulate the floor of the attic.  They actually spray the entire ceiling of the attic instead with very thick foam (gotta be R30 at least,) so its air tight and your attic stays warm (or warmer...it still wouldn't be heated,) which is kind of weird to think about.  But it makes sense too in that its a tighter seal and the attic air space is now more of a "buffer space" against the very cold air outside of the home...kind of like double pane glass.  I can see where this would save tons of money! 

Recently Chaparral High School (5A) and Lutheran High School (2A) In Parker won Colorado State Championships in Volleyball.  How cool is that?  This is the second year in a row that Chaparral has won, after Ponderosa High School won the State Volleyball title in 2009, making it a 3 year sweep for Parker Colorado Volleyball in 5A!  It's the first State Title EVER for Lutheran High.  

CONGRATULATIONS!

Trends are Stable but We Have a Long Way to Go

The housing market remains stable, yet at low levels with plenty of room for improvement, according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. Yun commented on the current trends, “Existing-home sales have bounced around this year, staying relatively close to the current level in most months. The irony is affordability conditions have improved to historic highs and more  creditworthy borrowers are trying to purchase homes, but the share of contract failures is double the level of September 2010. Even so, the volume of successful buyers is higher than a year ago and is remaining fairly stable – this speaks to an unfulfilled demand” (www.realtor.org).

Denver is out-performing the nation in a few categories -- check out the September housing stats for the Metro Denver area, according to the Denver Metrolist.

• Denver’s monthly supply was 4.7 at the end of September 2011, while the nation’s monthly supply was 8.5.  
• The sales volume for residential and condominium sales in the Denver Metro area increased 12.8 percent from September 2010 to September 2011. Nationally, home sales improved 11.3 percent.
• The sales volume for single-family residential home sales in the Denver Metro area increased 12.5 percent from September 2010 to September 2011. Nationally, they rose 12.2 percent.
• The sales volume for condominium sales in the Denver Metro area increased 38.7 percent from September 2010 to September 2011. Nationally, condominium sales rose 5.6 percent.

Housing in Douglas County and Parker CO is slow and steady...not setting the world on Fire.

Don't forget you can search the Denver MLS IDX through our website www.ColoradoDreamHomes.net.  Search for Parker Co Homes, Parker Co Homes For Sale, Parker Co Foreclosures, Parker Colorado Homes, Parker Colorado Real Estate, Parker Colorado Home, Parker Co Home, Homes Castle Rock, Castle Rock Foreclosures, Elizabeth Co Homes, Elizabeth Co Real Estate!

The Vienna Boys Choir performed at the PACE Center on Friday and it was wonderful.  What was interesting to me was that it wasn't a large group...only 25 boys...but man they could belt it out!  I was at the very top of the theater and it was plenty loud when they hit those high notes...a sign the acoustics are working very well.  If there were 50 of them they'd break your ear drums!  The pianist/leader of the group could really play the piano too.  Very awesome performance.    

I attended the first performance of the Parker Symphony Orchestra on Sunday at the PACE Center.  That's right!  Parker CO has their own symphony orchestra for crying out loud!  I thought it was really an awesome performance and hope that someday most of Parker gets to experience it first-hand.  I thought the conductor was first rate, and the first violin guy was exceptional.  The two even traded places for a special Four Seasons/Vivaldi performance and you'd never know the difference...either one could fit into either role!  I've never seen that before.

The Parker Symphony Orchestra has several shows planned throughout the year, each with different themes.  Next up is the Christmas show on December 7th with the Legend High School choir! I gotta see how they cram a symphony and 100 kids on the same stage!

Obama recently announced new changes to HARP (Home Affordable Refinance Program) which have been heralded as much needed help for underwater homeowners. So will this really help and how will it effect real estate investors?

The new changes to HARP aim to make it easier for underwater homeowners to refinance their homes at today’s lower mortgage rates. These changes include eliminating the limit on the amount of negative equity of a homeowner can have and the need for an appraisal in some cases. However, on the downside, in order to qualify homeowners must be current on their mortgages and cannot have had any late payments in the last 6 months and only a maximum of 1 late payment in the last 12 months.

Obviously this means that these changes are only designed to help those who aren’t really in a distressed situation and likely don’t need the help anyway. Clearly the real ambition here is not to bail out homeowners who are at risk of losing their homes or slow down the rate of foreclosures but to try and spur retail spending by putting extra money in the pockets of homeowners. Unfortunately common sense says that those who have managed to remain in good financial shape by being wise with their money won’t be running out to blow the extra money they can save by refinancing.

However, there are a few concerns that have arisen out of some of the other provisions that are a part of the new HARP changes. This includes incentives for high risk borrowers to take shorter term loans which could come with higher payments, putting them under further strain and motivating lenders to make more loans by waiving buy-back clauses. Anyone in the business knows that this will only encourage more predatory lending and mortgage fraud. Could it be that the Obama administration has become so desperate to boost the economy before the next election that they encourage this type of behavior? Isn’t that what got us in this mess in the first place?

Don't forget you can search the Denver MLS IDX through our website www.ColoradoDreamHomes.net.  Search for Parker Co Homes, Parker Co Homes For Sale, Parker Co Foreclosures, Parker Colorado Homes, Parker Colorado Real Estate, Parker Colorado Home, Parker Co Home, Homes Castle Rock, Castle Rock Foreclosures, Elizabeth Co Homes, Elizabeth Co Real Estate!