John Rebchook is a former Rocky Mountain News reporter with more than 30 years of experience in writing and communications... 
CF West Construction is building one of the few spec projects in the Denver area.
Denver-area single-family home building in the Denver-area is down by 44 percent in the first nine months of this year, and townhome and condo activity has dropped a whopping 58.88 percent in the first nine months of the year, as I blogged yesterday.
But even as the year spirals to the worst on record for building permit activity, the pain is not evenly spread.
In Denver, for example, in the first nine months of the year, builders pulled only 292 permits for single-family homes, a 56.8 percent decline from the 676 in the first three quarters of 2008. Townhome and condo activity in Denver, however, fared relatively well. Builders pulled 147 single-family attached permits through September, only 17 percent fewer than the 177 issued in the first nine months of 2008.
Condo construction in Boulder, by contrast, nose-dived. Only 22 permits were issued for single-family attached units in Boulder, a 94.4 percent drop from the 394 issued in the first
Builders pulled 308 permits in Aurora, the most of any community, but still down 30.9 percent from the first nine months of last year. Together, Denver and Aurora accounted for a third of all the single-family permits in the Denver area.
Of the communities that had at least 100 permits issued last year, Parker saw the biggest decline. Last year, builders filed for 134 single-family homes in Parker, but this year only 33 through September, a 75.4 percent drop. A big part of that reason for the drop in Parker is likely last year’s bankruptcy filing by Village Homes of Colorado, which builds homes in its Idyllwilde community in Parker.
Lone Tree showed an even bigger percentage drop, but the numbers were small. Only two single-family home permits were issued in Lone Tree through September, an 88.2 percent drop fromt eh 17 during the same period if 2009.
Mike Mathieson, principal of Denver-based CF West Construction, is one of the few builders moving forward. He has a number of projects underway, or planned, in the Highland area.
“It is very difficult to get a construction loan right now,” said Mathieson.
He said banks don’t want to lend in today’s environment, becuase federal regulators are requiring them to have higher reserves than in the past.
In addition, most homes that are selling are priced below $417,000, the maximum amount for most Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, he said. Mathieson noted that because there are no buyers for jumbo loans, few people have the huge downpayments needed to buy expensive homes, and the second-loan market has just about disappeared, most of the inventory languishing on the market are higher-priced homes.
Still, Mathieson said he thinks the future is bright for downtown properties and near by neighborhoods.
“Homes in areas like West Highland, LoHi, LoDo, Washington Park, and other close-in neighborhoods are still selling, if they are priced right.”
Housing activity is at the lowest level on record, but a few projects are moving forward.
