Red Oak Park

Red Oak Park has won the 2012 Affordable Housing Project award presented by the Colorado chapter of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials.

The affordable housing community  was developed by Boulder Housing Partners. The award recognizes a Colorado project that was completed in an innovative manner, incorporating such things as creative financing, public/private partnerships, mixed-use developments, adaptive reuses and special-needs housing.

The 59-home Red Oak Park is BHP’s most recent affordable-housing development. It is considered a model for future redevelopment projects for its environmental features and inclusive neighborhood-style design, as well as its innovative development approach.

Energy-efficient project replace trailer park

The north Boulder development was built on the  site of a mid-century mobile home park. It replaces scores of deteriorated mobile homes. In the year since the new development was completed it has been fully occupied including some residents of the former trailer park.

Homes were built to meet Boulder’s strict community standards for design and energy efficiency while remaining affordable to families earning up to 50 percent of the area median income. Red Oak Park includes a community center that provides after-school and community education opportunities.

Red Oak Park replaced this mobile home park in Boulder.

The homes were designed with the health of residents in mind.  All of the units were completed with green, energy efficient features to help reduce utility costs for the residents, as well as improve air emissions and reduce water use compared with standard developments. Many of the homes generate a surplus of clean electricity with rooftop solar panels. Red Oak Park’s central location at 2637 Valmont Road is within walking distance of shopping, public transit and bike paths, which combine to reduce residents’ car trips.

$13 million project

BHP’s financing tapped multiple sources to raise the $13 million required to make it a 100 percent affordable community. The City of Boulder provided critical early financial support, allowing it to qualify for a low-income tax credits. The tax credit award was the catalyst that enabled BHP to complete the financing in spite of difficult economic conditions. Other financial sources included BHP’s contribution of the land, permanent debt, solar energy tax credits and private grants.

The affordable housing award was presented to BHP executive director Betsey Martens earlier this month at the CoNAHRO annual conference in Fort Collins.

Demand for affordable housing to grow

Martens, who also serves as the president of the national NAHRO Board of Governors, told the Colorado conference that the affordable housing and community development industry is poised to transform over the next decade as demand for affordable housing increases due to a combination of the slow economic recovery,  persistent unemployment, the collapse of the housing market and tightening government budgets.

“The key question in these challenging times is whether we will be transformed, or will we transform ourselves?” Martens said in a speech to the CoNAHRO audience. “The Red Oak Park development contains ingredients that will be essential to successful infill affordable housing projects in the next decade.”

The CoNAHRO Awards of Excellence give recognition to innovative new housing and community development projects, programs and services provided by NAHRO agency members statewide. The awards recognize best practices among housing, redevelopment and community agencies and provide a resource bank of information for NAHRO members.

Have a story idea or real estate news tip? Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com. InsideRealEstateNews.com is sponsored by Universal Lending, Land Title Guarantee Co. and 8z Real Estate.

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Marsha Badger

Many Boulder residents could not imagine living anywhere else.

Marsha Badger moved to Boulder, north Boulder, to be exact, when she was just celebrating her first birthday – and is still there.

She did go through a period, though, when she wasn’t sure Boulder would be her permanent home.

“When you grow up in a small town, you always think there is some place else you would rather livr,” said Badger, a broker with 8z Real Estate.

But working for Continental Airlines for 10 years, before she entered the world of real estate, she did a lot of traveling and saw a lot of places, and came to the conclusion so many non-natives have drawn: “Boulder is a fabulous place. A college town with great weather, lots of restaurants, great trails and great amenities.”

Badger, who received a business degree with an emphasis in marketing from, where else, CU-Boulder, traded life with an airline for real estate, after Continental has one too many bankruptcies.

“You know, after the company went through a number of bankruptcies  I decided it was time to get a new career and chose real estate.”

She started selling new homes in Boulder in 1985.

“I worked for McStain and Richmond Homes and Lifestyle Homes,” Badger said. “I  love new construction. I enjoy the building process and helping people find and create the right home from plans to finishes. It was a perfect match for me. I still have clients who I help build new homes and remodel homes. I’m still very connected to the construction industry.”

In fact, she and her husband “knocked down our house in Newlands over 15 years ago and rebuilt it.”

Newlands, bordered by Broadway, Alpine and Juniper avenues and the foothills, is her neighborhood for 8z.

Before joining 8z about a year ago, she had previously worked for RE/MAX Alliance in Boulder, where she met Lane Hornung, the co-founder of 8z and COhomefinder.com.

She spent 10 years at RE/MAX. While there, she was inducted into the RE/MAX International Hall of Fame, the Platinum Club and the 100% Club.

She was also part of the CoHomefinder team, when it was still part of RE/MAX, and was ranked No. 1 in Colorado and heralded as one of the Top 10 RE/MAX teams in the U.S.

As a broker, she has earned a number of industry designations, including:

• Certified Sales Professional
• Accredited Buyers Representative
• Eco Broker
• Certified Negotiation Expert

Having all of those designations places her in the top 10 percent of all real estate brokers, she says.

She switched to being a residential broker from an onsite person selling new homes, because the construction activity had migrated east of Boulder and she started a family.

While she only joined 8z about a year ago, she has been involved wtih COhomefinder since Hornung and a partner started it about a half-dozen years ago.

And she has been a big fan of Hornung since she met him, which is what drew her to 8z.

“I think Lane is a great person and I have great respect for him as a business person. Plus, all of the people at 8z are committed to success. Lane has created a great team of people. They are all very authentic – there is just not any other way to say it. And the technology is state of the art.”

And while she loves all of Boulder, Newlands is the ultimate neighborhood, in her estimation.

“Newlands is what beachfront property is to California; with a mountainside landscape and a hub of businesses centrally located, Newlands offer the best from  Mount Sanitas’ trails and North Boulder Park plus Ideal Market and the many local shops.” She added it is easy walk or bike ride to the Pearl Street Mall.

“A lot of people aspire to live in Newlands,” she said. “I have a number of clients who would love to live there.”

The most expensive home in Newlands last year sold for $2.5 million, although smaller, older homes can be found in the $500,000s and $900,000s.  COhomefinder.com puts the median asking price in Newlands at $850,000 and the median sold price at $1.125 million.

this 4,292-square-foot home in the Newlands is on the market for $1.499 million.

“Because of its price point, it is a little quieter than some parts of Boulder right now,” Badger said. “But I’ve noticed that for a lot of people moving to Boulder from out of town, Newlands is their top choice, which it has been for many years. Boulder is popular with start ups and high-tech companies. ’ve seen people come to the area from all parts of the country.”

One of the charms of Newlands is its history. The Newlands family started cultivating orchards on the property in 1871. The orchards began to be replaced by homes in the 1940s and 1950s.

“There are still some great apple trees in the neighborhood,” she said.

Marsha Badger with Sophie

When she isn’t selling homes, Badger and her husband enjoy their new Golden Retriever named Sophie. It is her fifth Golden Retriever and replaces a 10-year old that died in 201.

During the interim, she fostered rescue puppies at different times through a Brighton-based non-profit, Lifelinepuppy.org.

“It was great to help puppies get ready for new homes,” Badger said. “But I’m very glad to have my own dog again.”

And she is glad that Boulder is her home, and she can help so many others find the right home in Boulder.

An Insider’s Guide to a Neighborhood is a monthly feature of InsideRealEstatenews. 8z Real Estate is a sponsor of InsideRealEstateNews.

To contact or learn more about Marsha, please visit this link. To learn more about the Newlands, please visit these links.

• http://8z.com/neighborhoods/newlands
• http://www.cohomefinder.com/browse-ci-Boulder-sub-Newlands-homes.htm

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Boulder ranked No. 8 and the Denver-Aurora area was 17th, on the new index, which examined 360 metropolitan statistical areas across the country.

Of the top 20, 15 of them were on either the West or East coasts. In other words, Colorado claimed two of the five spots between the coasts.

Florida, a senior editor at The Atlantic and director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, as well as the founder of hte Creative Class Group, ranked the MSAs on three measures of regional productivity and wealth: median household income, per capita income and average wages and salaries. Washington, D.C. and Silicon Valley topped the list.

Tom Clark, CEO of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. and Executive Vice President of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, said not everyone is a fan of Florida’s and plenty of people have taken shots at him over the years.

But he seems to be on target when it comes to the Boulder-Denver area, especially in light of current and prospective economic development coups, he said.

For example, Clark, Hickenlooper and others recently launched an effort to bring a futuristic “spaceport” to the area, probably at the Front Range Airport in Adams County. General Electric this year announced plans for a cutting-edge solar manufacturing facility in Aurora and Arrow Electronics moved its world headquarters to the Denver area.

“I will tell you that one thing we watch are art and technology coming together,” Clark said. “By this I mean things that we once only dreamed about, which seemed like science fiction, are coming true. The mix of creativity and intellectual power are powerful combinations.”

Florida, in an Atlantic Cites Place Matters article titled, U.S. Metros That Can Most Afford to Buy Gifts This Year,”  said that metro areas that rank high on the Economic Advantage Index share a number of traits.

They tend to have “more highly educated and more highly skilled populations – or what economists refer to as higher levels of human capital…The same is true of metros with a larger share of knowledge-based, professional and creative jobs.”

He goes on to say that metro economic advantage is associated with the concentration of high-tech industry, a high level of technological innovation measured by patents per capita. Also,  MSAs that rank highly on the index have “higher levels of openness and diversity – whether in terms of the share of new immigrants or of gays and lesbians. More economically advantaged metros, not surprisingly, are also happier.”

Clark noted that he predicted that 2011 would be better than 2010 for the Front Range economy, and he expects 2012 to be another good year, with 50,000 new jobs coming to the area.

Some of the most prized jobs will be found in business  “clusters” that his group has targeted for the past nine years, such as aerospace and clean energy.

“Our goal is to make the Denver area the most economically diverse area of the country,” Clark said. “2012 is going to be another solid year. It will be really solid, but not great.”

However, while the Denver-area housing market will benefit a bit from jobs coming to the metro area, Clark predicted the local housing market will not shoot the lights out next year.

“Housing is not going to really stage a comeback until 2013 and 2014,” Clark said. “The problem is we have a whole generation coming up that does not see houses as a wealth-building asset. They’ve seen what has happened in recent years, so that is a completely foreign concept to them. They are going to be more slow to buy real estate than previous generations. But their parents will help them buy homes and they will start to come around. We have to work on that.”

Rank	Metro Area	Economic Advantage Index
1	Washington, D.C., Arlington, Alexamdria	0.995
2	San Jose, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara	0.994
3	Bridgeport, Stamford, Norwalk	0.993
4	San Francisco, Oakland, Fremont	0.991
5	Boston, Cambridge, Quincy	0.981
6	Trenton, Ewing	0.981
7	Anchorage	0.973
8	BOULDER	0.969
9	New York, Northern New Jersey, Long Island	0.965
10	Hartford, West Hartford, East Hartford	0.964
11	Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue	0.962
12	Baltimore, Towson	0.96
13	Napa	0.956
14	Manchester-Nashua, NH	0.951
15	Oxnard, Thousand Oaks, Ventura	0.948
16	New Haven, Milford	0.947
17	DENVER-AURORA	0.933
18	New Haven-Milford	0.932
19	Rochester, MN	0.931
20	Philadelphia, Camden, Wilmington	0.926

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com

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The WSJ analyzed activity from the 10 largest lenders and found they denied 26.8 percent of loan applications in 2010, compared with 23.5 percent in 2009. One reason lending is to tight because Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration, which account for 9 out of every 10 loans made, are under pressure to avoid any losses, the paper notes. Denver had a 22.8 percent denial rate, 14.9 percent better than the national average.

Realtor suffers

Barnes told the paper that Fannie and Freddie are “behaving like a hurricane insurance company that won’t write any policies within 200 mile of an ocean.” Barnes goes on to tell the story  of Amy Menell, a Realtor with a credit score above 800, no debt and is willing to put 50 percent down on an $800,000 Boulder home  a divorce settlement, in order to take advantage of today’s low interest rates and depressed housing prices. However, because she didn’t sell many homes in 2009, she doesn’t have sufficient two years of documented income that the bank requires, and she can’t get the loan, even though business has picked up for her.

“Going back as far as there has been banking, if somebody walked in the door with a 50 percent down payment, good credit, cash in reserve, they’d walk out with a loan,” Barnes said.

To read the entire WSJ article, please visit this link: Tighter Lending Crimps Housing

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com

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This Evergreen home, priced at $924,900, is near the average price of a home in Evergreen, the most expensive market in Colorado, according to Coldwell Banker.

Coldwell Banker provided a snapshot of listing prices in 2,319 markets of homes with the same number of bedrooms and baths. However, it does not take into consideration the square footage of a home. For example, a home in Evergreen, with an average price of $924,900 – near the average price of typical home in Evergreen – has 7,131 square feet, according to COhomefinder.com. But one would be hard-pressed to find a home of that size for sale in Pueblo.

The average price of a home in Pueblo was $141,160, while Evergreen topped the state with an average price of $922,183. Boulder was the next most expensive market in Colorado at $880,671.  Evergreen ranked 22^nd in the report and Boulder was 29^th. In order to be considered in the report, markets were at least 10 properties of the uniform size that were listed for sale between September 2010 and March 2011.

The survey found that Newport Beach, Calif. is the country’s most expensive market, where the average home listed at  $2.54 million.  Niagra Falls, N.Y. had the least expensive average-priced homes at $61,000.

Most in-depth report yet

“This year’s home listing report is by far the most in-depth local market source of data that Coldwell Banker has ever released,” said Chris Mygatt, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. “We’ve included nearly 10 times more markets than ever before, which gives us unmatched real estate insight into thousands of North American cities.  We know that home buying remains a deeply personal lifestyle decision, and we believe that reports like this, along with trusted real estate agents, will help to today’s buyers make smart decisions.”

Chris Mygatt, president of Coldwell Banker Colorado, said his company's ranking of market areas is a valuable resource for prospective buyers.

Highlights of Colorado and the report include:

• A total of 28 real estate markets in Colorado made the list.  The five most expensive markets in the state included: Evergreen, Boulder, Durango, Broomfield and Golden.
• Compared to the national average of $293,251, the average four-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Colorado overall was $357,556.
• A $200,000 30-year-fixed mortgage at a 4.5% rate could cost a buyer a relatively low monthly mortgage payment of just above $1,000.
• In total, there are 775 U.S. markets in the HLR with average reported listing prices less than $200,000.

To see what is available for sale in Evergreen, please visit this COhomefinder.com link.

To see what is available for sale in Pueblo, please visit this COhomefinder.com link.

Market	Average Price	Home Listing Report Rank
Pueblo	$141,160	168
Alamosa	$186,890	632
Montrose	$208,875	877
Colorado Springs	$222,938	1019
Thornton	$234,856	1110
Lakewood	$241,481	1170
Commerce City	$242,976	1183
Aurora	$264,228	1356
Firestone	$269,123	1391
Brighton	$285,534	1484
Grand Junction	$292,104	1510
Arvada	$299,364	1541
Westminster	$299,603	1543
Longmont	$301,562	1556
Erie	$338,909	1687
Parker	$342,933	1699
Loveland	$347,511	1713
Castle Rock	$347,775	1714
Centennial	$361,188	1767
Denver	$361,650	1768
Fort Collins	$381,188	1826
Highlands Ranch	$392,742	1860
Littleton	$451,362	1993
Golden	$470,147	2022
Broomfield	$470,345	2023
Durango	$472,147	2025
Boulder	$860,671	2290
Evergreen	$922,183	2297

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Brad Klein, a broker with 8z Real Estate, is selling this home in Rock Creek for $425,000.

The Colorado Rockies, one might say, sealed the deal for Brad Klein

Klein, now a broker with 8z Real Estate, was a globetrotter as a young man. He was a one-man United Nations, travelling to about two dozen countries, from Belize to Portugal, Canada to Vietnam, and just about every where in between.

In 1991, he was ready to settle down. After seeing much of what the world had to offer, the Los Angeles native chose Colorado. He also decided to plant roots in real estate at the same time.

“I kind of picked Colorado in a crazy way,” Klein recalled recently in a Starbucks in Rock Creek, the community along the U.S. 36 corridor where he has been “farming” from its early days.

Two decades ago, Klein felt the Denver area had a lot of potential.

Prescient Klein

“Denver was still a pretty depressed market in the early ‘90s, and I decided if I wanted to sell real estate, I should do it in a place that had a lot of upside potential,” Klein said.

What he liked about Denver are exactly things that economic development gurus and political leaders pointed to during that era, such as plans for Denver International Airport and the Colorado Convention Center.

Maybe even more importantly, there was talk that Denver would get a major league baseball team.

“I’m a big baseball fan and I knew if Denver got a baseball team, it would be in the news every single day and there was going to be a lot of focus on Denver,” Klein said. “I was at the airport and I saw an article in the Rocky Mountain News that said in an effort to try to attract a major league baseball team, they were trying to create a season-ticket base, even though they didn’t have a team yet.”

You could get on the season-ticket list for $50 a seat, and he immediately ordered two seats. “I’ve been going to games ever since,” Klein said. “I’m going on opening day .”

Although he’s a regular at Coors Field, Denver itself didn’t speak to him at first. Friends in the area told him he should check out Golden, Boulder and Evergreen. He went to Golden the next day, and struck out as far as making a connection.

But Boulder was an instant home run for him.

“I loved it,” said Klein, who now lives in Niwot with his family. “Sitting in a coffee shop, with the Flatirons in the background, and surrounded by all of these young, athletic people with all of this energy, I knew this was the place for me. To this day, I still haven’t set foot in Evergreen.”

Klein got his Colorado real estate license and joined Century 21 in Boulder, a company he notes, which is no longer around.

Rock Creek, Klein grew together

Klein, an avid runner, hit real estate running, scoring as “Rookie of the Year,” in 1992. About the same time, Denver-based MDC Holdings Inc., parent of Richmond American Homes, was launching Rock Creek, just 10 minutes or so southeast of Boulder.

“I had a mentor, early on, who was very helpful,” Klein said. “He said if you are going to sustain a career over the long-term, you should have a geographic area you will specialize in. I decided my “farm” area would be Rock Creek,” as it didn’t have veteran, established brokers there, like you might find in Boulder.

And farming took on an almost literal definition, at least once a year for Klein. His mentor delivered pumpkins around Halloween to the area he farmed, so Klein did the same at Rock Creek. He now delivers about 1,500 pumpkins each fall to homeowners in Rock Creek.

In 2010, home sales were down slightly in Rock Creek compared with 2009. The average and median prices, however, rose in 2010 from 2009, although the average price per square foot dipped last year. Overall, Klein thinks Rock Creek weathered the economic downturn as good or better than anyplace else along the Boulder corridor.

Rock Creek still a big part of Klein’s business

Klein estimates that typically 30 percent to 40 percent of his business is in Rock Creek. The balance is in Boulder, Niwot and the surrounding communities.

Brad Klein has been selling homes at Rock Creek in Superior, almost since its inception.

He recently listed a 3,354-square-foot home in Rock Creek with four bedrooms and three bedrooms, for $425,000. The home backs up to a pond and open space, something that Rock Creek has a lot of – 594 acres of open space, to be exact. The community of about 2,800 homes also has 27 miles of trails, 12 playgrounds and four major parks, as well as two neighborhood schools.

Klein knows the owner of the $425,000 home so well, that after planting a “For Sale” sign in the front lawn, he introduced me to the owner, Mick Pahl, and took me for a tour.

Mick Pahl and Brad Klein stand on the deck in Pahl's Rock Creek house in Rock Creek.

Pahl bought the 80^th home in Rock Creek in 1992. He and his wife are only selling it, because they are both in their 70s and they want a ranch home. In fact, they’ve bought a ranch-style home in Arvada that “is only 7.7 miles away, as the crow flies,” Pahl said.

When it came to choose a Realtor, the choice was easy for Pahl.

“Brad knows every house in Rock Creek,” Pahl said. “No one knows more about Rock Creek than Brad.”

Pahl, like Klein, pointed to the strengths of Rock Creek such as its excellent schools, proximity to Boulder at a fraction of the cost of housing, at the same time being a short drive from the FlatIron Crossing mall and surrounding retail. Both of them also praised Rock Creek as a smartly laid out, master-planned community.

Klein and Pahl also share a love of something else.

“I can be out my front door and at Coors Field less than 30 minutes,” Pahl said.

Rock Creek Snapshot	2009	2010
Homes Sold	125	115
Average Price	$427,083	$440,715
Median Price	$410,000	$424,950
Average Price Per Total Square Foot	$145.68	$134.34

To see homes for sale in Rock Creek, please visit this COhomefinder.com link.

Brad Klein discusses Rock Creek in this video

For more information on Rock Creek, check this 8z Real Estate link.

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Experts today said that while housing rents have not kept pace with the dropping vacancy rates, they expect that will change next year. Also, they think that vacancy rate could fall even lower.

“I think vacancy rates could fall another percentage point,” said Gordon Von Stroh, a University of Denver business professor, and the author of the report for the Colorado Division of Housing. (For an earlier blog on the report please visit Rental home market hits low.)  He also said that he expects to see the cost of renting a house, condo, town home or other small home to rise.

Lose a home, rent a home

Demand for rental homes continues to come from people who have lost their homes to foreclosures or in short sales, in which the lender agrees to take less for the home than the amount of the mortgage. “What we have found is that people with a family who lose their homes want to stay in a home, and will turn to a rental single-family home,” especially if that means their children can stay in the same school, he said. “I think that is a significant number of the renters, but not an overwhelming number.”

In addition, a number of renters who have out-grown their apartments – perhaps because they have had a second child – are now renting a house, instead of buying one, as they would have done four or five years ago.

“While home ownership is an ideal, some people are just not ready for it,” Von Stroh said. “A fact of life is that there is a group of people out there who realize at the present time that they should not be buying. They have gotten the wake-up call.”

Boulder rentals rock

The Boulder/Broomfield area had the lowest vacancy rate at 1.4 percent. It also showed the biggest percentage drop from a year ago, when it stood at 5.7 percent. Overall, the Boulder/Broomfield’s year-over-year percentage drop of 75 percent, was more than twice the Denver area’s drop of about 36 percent.

Lane Hornung, co-founder and president of 8z Real Estate, (a sponsor of InsideRealEstateNews.com), said part of that might because of the Boulder fires earlier this year that displaced homeowners.

“In the Broomfield area, that is less of a factor,” Hornung said. “A lot of people are relocating to the area, and they are not buying. ” He said people taking high-tech, high-paying jobs, typically are renting homes near the U.S. 36 corridor.”

He said he finds it hard to believe that overall rents are going down. Indeed, while the monthly average rent is down from the third quarter of 2009, the overall median rent rose to $995 from $975.

“The trend is, anecdotally, that rents are going up. And with vacancy rates these low, rents are sure to rise,” Hornung said. He said he has heard that some landlords are willing to cut deals in order to retain or land financially strong tenants. Also, he said that macro-trends support rising rates. “Some people think the homeownership rate is going to fall from about 68 percent to 63 percent, which will mean more renters. And there are some people out there who are still waiting to buy homes until they are absolutely sure the market is at the bottom – of course, when they reach it, it will be too late,” to get the combination of low home prices and near historic low financing available in today’s market.

Both he and Von Stroh said that many landlords may not realize that there is enough demand in the market to raise rates and still fill houses. “And landlords and property managers are human,” Von Stroh said, and do not want to gouge tenants at a time when the economy is still fragile. Also, there is a fear that if rents are raised too quickly, many people will choose to move in with families and friends, he said.

Still, that bodes well for buying rental properties, he said. “If you have the capital to invest, it is a good time to be a landlord,” Hornung said.

Not so rosy

Susan Melton, principal of Assured Management, a property management company, said that while it is great that overall vacancy rates have dropped, “it’s not as rosy as you might think, given how low the vacancy rates are. The rental rates have not come back as high as we would have liked.”

To a certain extent, she said that homeowners now renting their homes may be “buying” lower vacancy rates, by lowering rents. “Some of that is going on,” Melton said. “We had high vacancies and so investors began lowering rental prices. People who call still want bargains. On the other hand, we have renters. A couple of years ago, we would lower rents weren’t drawing people in.”

The average rent for the metro area was $1,041.05 in the third quarter, down slightly from the $1,059.66 in the third quarter of 209. The average rent per square foot was 83 cents at the end of the third quarter, compared with 85 cents a year earlier.

“I think the economy is affecting the market,” Melton said. “Another thing is that we are seeing a lot of early lease terminations. People who have signed leases may later suffer a job loss or find a job out of state and have to relocate.”

Reluctant landlords abound

She said an increasing number of people who can’t sell their homes in this market are renting them. “I think as the jobless rate improves – and we are starting to see little flickers of hope – I think people will be able to sell their homes and the resale housing market will pick up. But I would hope some people decide they like the rental income and will still want to keep their homes in the rental pool.”

She said almost all of the new homes she is managing fall into the category of people whose first choice would be to sell their homes for a profit.

Robert Alldredge, principal of Jericho Properties, is experiencing the same trend of “reluctant landlords.”

Sometimes, however, it is just a perceived loss that is convincing them to rent their homes, rather than sell, he said.

“The other day I was talking to this lady who bought her home 30 years ago, and she will not sell it today because she does not want to sell it for a loss, so she is renting it until the market improves,” Alldredge said. “The  truth is, whatever she sells it for will be a profit. She might have been able to sell it for $300,000 four years ago, and now she can sell it for $250,000. She perceives that as a $50,000 loss.”

He also recently met with a couple in their 30′s who are engaged, and unable to sell their respective homes. Instead, they are going to rent out both of their homes and buy another one together, to take advantage of near historic interest rates and low home prices.

Alldredge estimated that 90 percent of his new accounts are either people who can’t sell their home for a profit, or aren’t willing to settle for the price they could get into today’s market. “They are willing to ride out the market for a few years and rent their homes,” he said. “I think rents are heading on an upward trend. But you really have to break the market into different categories. No. 1, there are the investors who bought homes at low prices and with extremely low interest rates, expect to be able to rent their homes for a profit right out of the gate. And I do think that people who have owned their homes for a while, 10 years or longer, can probably rent their homes with positive cash flow. But if someone bought three or four years ago, they are under water.” Still, that might mean they are suffering a loss of $200 or $400 a month, instead of $2,000 or more per month, if they have no rental income.

Von Stroh, the report’s author, said he has heard of homes being put on the market and immediately receiving several offers to rent them. Alldredge said that property managers try not to move people into the homes that quickly, as it is too stressful for everyone involved  and it doesn’t give time to clean or paint homes. Overall, the report shows it takes an average of 36 days to rent a home, the lowest since the report started in the third quarter of 2004.

Still, that probably under-estimates the speed in which homes are leased in today’s market, Alldredge said. He noted that his company agreed to lease a four-bedroom home in Arvada on Nov. 1, but the current person owner could not leave until the beginning of this month. A tenant signed a lease on Nov. 30, did a a final walk through in early December and moves in the home today.

“You could look at the days on the market as starting on Nov. 1, but actually, it was only vacant for seven days,” Alldredge said. “There was only a loss of income for seven days.”

Year	Vacancy Rate	Average Rent	Median Rent
2004	8.5%	$922.64	$893
2005	9.2%	$912.47	$875
2006	6.4%	$957.28	$900
2007	3.9%	$957.29	$900
2008	3.4%	$998.37	$950
2009	4.6%	$1,059.77	$975
2010	2.9%	$1,027.28	$995

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“Homebuyers in this area have always been willing to pay a premium on properties compared to other parts of the country because of our outstanding university, beautiful scenery, exciting outdoor activities and incomparable quality of life,” said Chris Mygatt, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Colorado, who was raised in Boulder

Mygatt said the housing market in the Denver metro area suffered along with the rest of the country during the recession, but has shown improvement over the past year or two. “We have a strong economic base here in the Denver area,” Mygatt  said. “That’s helped keep unemployment lower than other areas in nation and helped the local market to bounce back faster than many regions.”

Stanford No. 1 in home prices

The most expensive market is Palo Alto, home to Stanford University, where the same size home averages at $1.38 million, while Muncie, Ind., home to Ball State University, is the No. 1 most affordable market with an average price of $105,115, according to Coldwell Banker’s in its  College Home Listing Report.  From April to September, Coldwell Banker looked at the listing price of homes it had for sale in communities home to 120 schools in Football Bowl Subdivision. Of course, listing prices can differ greatly from sale prices. It found that 78 of the markets the average home price was less than $250,000. In other words, an average Boulder home is more than three times the cost of a home in most college towns.

Special vibe

“Towns that are home to major universities have a special vibe you just don’t find anywhere else,” said Jim Gillespie, chief executive officer, Coldwell Banker Real Estate. “It’s about more than just great sports and local flavor. College towns offer rich culture and most have steady economic bases oftentimes highlighted by outstanding medical and research facilities. While not all college towns are affordable, even the more expensive markets make great places to live.”

Coldwell Banker Real Estate also found that college towns have continued to be a hot spot for real estate investing, regardless of the downturn in the economy. Seventy-three percent of Coldwell Banker real estate brokers surveyed said they see a significant number of investors buying homes near campus and renting them to people in the community, with only 21 percent seeing a decrease in this trend over the past five years. And 64 percent of the agents polled said they find significant interest from “parent investors,” who are considering buying a home in the community where their children attending college.

The survey of Coldwell Banker real estate professionals uncovered that a college sports team’s performance affects more than just a football ranking; nearly one quarter, 24 percent,  of the respondents indicated that the success of a college’s sports teams can have an impact on the local real estate market. Of course, that may not be the best news for Boulder home owners, considering the recent history of the Buffs.

School	Location	Average Listing Price
Stanford University	Palo Alto, Calif.	$1.38 million
University of Hawaii	Honolulu	$833,439
University of California, LA	Los Angeles	$833,087
University of Southern California	Los Angeles	$833,087
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO	BOULDER	$791,877
Boston College	Chestnut Hill, Mass.	$791,408
U.S. Naval Academy	Annapolis, Md.	$671,151
San Jose State	San Jose, Calif.	$650,111
University of California, Berkeley	Berkeley, Calif.	$636,958
University of Washington	Seattle	$624,338
Northwestern	Evanston, Ill.	$559,855

School	Location	Average listing price
Ball State	Muncie, Ind.	$105,115
University of Buffalo	Buffalo, NY	$117,223
University of Memphis	Memphis, Tenn.	$135,090
University of South Carolina	Columbia, S.C.	$137,707
University of Akron	Akron, Ohio	$139,711
Eastern Michigan	Ypsilanti, Mich.	$141,629
Ohio University	Athens, Ohio	$141,964
Kent State	Kent, Ohio	$153,662
University of Toledo	Toledo, Ohio	$155,286
Louisiana Tech University	Ruston, La.	$157,110

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