8z broker at home in Eisenhower

8z Real Estate broker Erik Boye "Likes Ike." The Eisenhower neighborhood in Boulder, that is.

Erik Boye describes the Eisenhower neighborhood in a video at the end of this blog

There’s a perception that Realtors move a lot.

After all, they see a lot of homes, they are often among the first to know which neighborhoods are going to take off like a rocket, and they have opportunities to find homes that are screaming values.

But Erik Boye, a Realtor for the past 15-plus years, found his ideal Boulder neighborhood 10 years ago and has no plans to move, despite enticing homes he has seen on the market.

Eisenhower for the long haul

“I can see us being here for another 10 years,” said Boye, one of the first brokers to join Boulder-based 8z Real Estate when it was started more than a year ago. Boye, a graduate of CU, is working to establish himself as the “go-to” broker in what he is branding as the Eisenhower neighborhood – an area of about 1,200 homes bordered by the Foothills Parkway on the west, 55th Street on the east, Arapahoe Street on the north, and South Boulder Road on the south.

The big appeal of the neighborhood, and why he likes it so much, is the proximity the Eisenhower Elementary School has to many of the homes. The school is in the top 12 percent of all public elementary schools in Colorado, ranking 106 out of 878.

Highly rated school walking distance from homes

The Eisenhower neighborhood includes a number of subdivisions, most notably Arapahoe Ridge, where Boye lives. “Eisenhower Elementary is the glue that pulls all of the subdivisions together,” he said. Boye should know. He has three children attending the school and typically walks them there each morning, before heading to work. And he is not alone. Each morning there is a steady stream of kids making their way to the Elementary School, although he includes a few outlying areas in the Eisenhower market area that are a short drive from the school.

Eisenhower Elementary is the star of this neighborhood.

Boye, who has raced for the CU ski team and enjoys typical Boulder pursuits such as camping and running, has not truly focused on the neighborhood that he calls home. “Although I will sell homes in the surrounding area, I primarily focus on Boulder,” he said. He estimated about 25 percent of his sales are to investors. Many of them are to the parents whose children are attending CU, his alma mater.

Erik Boye stands in the Arapahoe Ridge "Rock Park," that is close to his home and the Eisenhower Elementary School in Boulder.

Note to parents of CU students: Boulder homes good investments

“I’ve probably sold 100 to 150 – maybe more – homes, town homes and condos to parents whose students are going to CU,” with the idea that if they wish, they can typically sell them for handsome profit after their children graduate. Boye also walks the walk, when it comes to investment real estate. He currently owns eight investment properties himself in Boulder. By at least one metric, the Broomfield-Boulder corridor is the hottest rental market in the Denver area. A recent Colorado Division of Housing study found the vacancy rate for small properties along the Broomfield-Boulder corridor is zero.

“All of my properties cash flow,” Boye said. “I won’t buy a property unless it cash flows from the start.” He attempts to find the same kind of deal for his clients, whether they are buying an owner-occupied home or an investment property. “While the “sweet spot” is going to vary from client to client, I not only want to help them find that perfect home, but get them the best value as possible,” he said.

First-time Boulder buyers take “baby steps”

And that can be a challenge for first-time home buyers with their eye on Boulder, because homes there are so expensive. “For the first-time buyer, they typically have to take “baby steps,” by buying a townhome or condo, owning it for a a few years, and then using the equity from the sale a few years down the road and move up,” he said. He said a starter home can be purchased in Boulder from about $250,000 to $350,000. Indeed, that is what he did a decade ago when he bought his home in the Eisenhower area.

Here is a home in the Eisenhower neighborhood

“Homes are still appreciating in Boulder, although not as much as six or seven years ago,” Boye said. “I call it a bit of a lull. I wouldn’t even call it a dip.”

Indeed, when he crunches the numbers in the Eisenhower neighborhood, he found that the average price of a home sold in 2010 had risen by 4.7 percent from 2009, and the days on market had dropped by 10 percent. Arapahoe Ridge did even better, with the average price of a home rising 7.9 percent and the days on market dropping by 49 percent.

Erik Boye took this fall photo of his neighborhood.

In fact, if there is any obstacle specializing in the Eisenhower area, is that not that many homes go on the market. Boye said that most people, like himself, love the area and aren’t shopping for a new home, as long as there is no reason such as a new job outside of the area or a change in their family situation that requires them to sell a home.

“And if you have a home that has been upgraded and it is a turnkey property that is ready to move into, they go very, very fast,” Boye said. “I think you get your money out of upgrading homes in this area.”

8z Real Estate is a sponsor of InsideRealEstateNews and each month IREN looks at a neighborhood through the eyes of an 8z broker. For homes for sale in the Eisenhower neighborhood, please visit this COhomefinder.com link.

Video: Erik Boye tells why he likes the Eisenhower neighborhood in Boulder