Denver Neighborhood News

Denver Real Estate Statistics - October 2011

Metrolist released Denver’s October real estate statistics, and as mentioned in previous posts – inventory is down. In fact for the greater Denver metro area, it’s down 33% compared to October 2010. At the same time closed transactions are up 12%.

Our central Denver real estate analysis that includes neighborhoods such as Cherry Creek, Wash Park, Hilltop, and Platt Park shows inventory down 28%. Considering that central Denver has a median price that is almost twice that of the greater metro area, shows that lower priced homes are in shorter supply than more expensive homes. Home under $300,000 in Denver will start to see increasing prices if they are not already.

Pending is a new field that Metrolist recently added, so the increase of 233.6% is a result of poor data capture in the past.

Statistics Denver real estate, Denver real estate statistics

Our Denver real estate market continues to disappear.  October’s numbers show a 28% decrease in available inventory compared to October last year for central Denver (Colfax to Hampden and Quebec to Broadway).  Sadly, prices remain flat at an average of $423,690 compared to $424,518 a year ago.  It appears that buyers are taking their ball and going home as well.

[Denver Business Journal] “Consumers are not putting their Denver homes on the market unless they have a pressing need to sell,” said Gary Bauer of Littleton, an analyst of Metrolist data.

The inventory of listed unsold Denver homes stood at 15,794 in October, down 8 percent from September and 28 percent from October 2010. There were 21,851 homes on the market in October 2010.

“We are moving into new territory with the current level of unsold Denver homes,” Bauer said, noting people aren’t putting homes on the market because of concerns for jobs and the economy.

Read the whole article

Uncategorized Denver real estate

Work is also under way on the Kent Place property, Denver real estate’s latest addition, as crews continue clearing and grading the site, constructing retaining walls and installing underground utilities.

Kent Place is the proposed development of the former Denver Seminary site that covers 11.4 acres of land at University and Hampden. The original proposal put forward by developer Continuum Partners was to build 270 to 300 luxury residential condominium units along with about 52,000 square feet of retail and office space.

However, the economy brought about changes to the Denver Real Estate market. The current plan calls for construction of a retail development on half the site and will include a new concept King Soopers specialty grocery and food store as the major tenant. The elevations, along with color and material samples for building that will house the grocery store received Denver city approval.

Read the whole article

Uncategorized Denver real estate, kent place, new homes

Denver’s Country Club neighborhood is among the 10 most-searched U.S. neighborhoods, based on search activity for for-sale homes in September at Zillow.com, the online real estate company reported.

Zillow estimates the median value of homes in the Country Club neighborhood at $665,600, which is 244 percent above the estimated median value of $193,500 for homes citywide.

Four of the five most-searched U.S. neighborhoods — and five of the top 10 — are in Portland and Seattle.

View the full report: Top 10 hottest neighborhoods for real estate searches.

Uncategorized denver country club, Denver real estate

The Cramer Group had their annual client appreciation party at the Denver Chop House recently.  We’ve posted pictures from the event and the Shutterbooth photo booth on our new Facebook Page, and we hope you’ll check in and click on the “like” button.  If you were at the party and would like a higher resolution photo of any of the pictures, let us know and we’ll email them to you.

Uncategorized Denver real estate, realtors, The Cramer Group

Central Denver Housing Prices

Uncategorized denver home prices, Denver real estate, denver real estate prices

Two doors from the Phipps Mansion, A Belcaro Time Capsule from 1958

Mark Cramer with Coldwell Banker Previews shows the back yard of a 1958 home built by Allen Phipps, son of Sen. Lawrence Phipps.

In 1958, steel magnate and former U.S. Sen. Lawrence C. Phipps was passing on to his reward … the same year that son Allen Phipps built a sprawling ranch on 1.15 acres carved from the oval-shaped Phipps Mansion site. Coldwell Banker agents Mark and Lisa Cramer have that house on the market at $2.3 million.

The senator’s sons, Allen and Gerald Phipps, are best known for having saved Denver from an unimaginably ignominious fate. In 1964, they bought the fledgling Denver Broncos and Bears Stadium from an owner that was ready to ship the team east following its first lamentable years in the AFL.

This house deserves that kind of break, too. It has 4,650 feet on its ranch level and another 2,200 on a split around the garage,angled about a resplendent back yard. In a year when Sputnik was in orbit and cars had fins, this was a place with a space-age kitchen and a full master suite with dressing area and plenty of built-ins. All the more remarkable, nobody seems to have changed it since; it’s a time capsule of 1958 — the cabinets, finishes, all as they were then.

Logic, says Mark Cramer, points to scraping and building, in one of a very few high-end neighborhoods that shows year-over-year price increases now. If you follow Kentucky Avenue around the Belcaro oval (street names change to Adams, then Belcaro Drive, then Madison) you’ll pass numbers of residences with comparable pricing, including some scrape-n-builds that have gone well beyond (one house, Cramer says, is at $6.3 million). At $2.3 million, a buyer could spend $300/foot for even 8,000 new feet and still come in well under $5 million.
The Cramers hope this will go another direction, though. Buy the house; put, say, $400,000 into a makeover of the main ranch level, and then totally rebuild the old garage and servants’ wing into a new bedroom wing around a pool deck ($600,000?). That would yield a period showplace in a matching neighborhood, at $3.4 million.

… One that preserves the styling and the fun details, including a wet bar that has a pass-thru to the patio outside. 3481 E. Kentucky Ave. is 5 blocks west of Colorado Boulevard on Kentucky Avenue.

Uncategorized Belcaro real estate, Denver luxury homes, Denver real estate, The Cramer Group

The Homebuyer Tax Credits expired for qualified buyers who were not under contract on a home on or before April 30th.  Looking at the MLS data for central Denver, we calculated a 47% drop in homes under contract between April and May during a time of year when the market should see a seasonal rise.

Uncategorized Cherry Hills Village, Congress Park, Country Club, Denver real estate, Home buyer Credit, Platt Park, Wash Park

DENVER POST, October 25th 2009

By Mark Samuelson

With a panorama across the 18th fairway lake at Cherry Hills Country Club of the peaks along the Divide, 4201 S. University may have the very best view in Cherry Hills Village (Realtors Mark and Lisa Cramer took down BestCherryHillsView.com for their web site).  But what sets it apart from newer, bigger houses you can see in the south metro suburbs is the character. 

Inside, there’s no sign of the two-story great room that’s centerpiece for virtually all newer homes in the multi-million price range.  Interior spaces are intimate, warm and inviting. 

Architect, Edwin Francis, who studied under Jacques Benedict, has his signature on numbers of public buildings including Mullen High School, the ape house at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, and the castle-like Crest House at 14,260 feet on Mt. Evans, once billed as the highest-elevation structure in the world.  The homes’ owners over the decades maintained the integrity of the French Norman architecture… a Wm Ohs makeover of the kitchen a while back, and tasteful updates on the master and baths (leaving the period lath-style cabinetry).  What hasn’t changed a bit is the home’s living room, inspired by a French chapel, its vault set off with prominent beam ceilings above a massive, country fireplace. 

The current owners have furnished that with period pieces picked up on various expeditions though the Continent.  Some of those, says Lisa Cramer, could be made available as part of a purchase. 

There’s a very inviting morning room beside the kitchen… joined by a rounded island bar to the kitchen.  The gallery that forms the centerline of the bedroom level has a balcony overlook to the chapel area below; and the master was oriented with a bay window to bring in the westerly view.  Two other upstairs beds are served by a Jack-n-Jill… and there’s a guest bedroom down in a finished basement area. 

One thing that was added recently is the pool… on the south side of the house, with large surrounding terrace.  Beyond that along S. University, Mark Cramer notes, are a couple of custom home lots for sale.  Somebody who really wanted to maximize this could acquire those and reroute the driveway into a protected entry from Quincy Avenue. 

Mark Cramer, who follows the market on the couples’ web site at DenverNeighborhoodNews.com, says that there are signs of a pick-up in the Cherry Hills Village market.  This home, priced at $3 million, is being held open from ten until 11am, for serious buyers only.  It’s just north of Quincy Avenue on University, west side of the street, a couple of hundred yards south of the entryway to Cherry Hills Country Club.  For information call 303-378-5618. 

Uncategorized cherry hills real estate, Denver real estate