Home builders in the metro area – from Boulder to Castle Rock, Erie to Englewood – pulled 2,959 permits in the first 10 months of the year for single-family detached houses, 2 percent more than the 2,896 during the same period in 2010, according to the report by the HBA of Metro Denver.

On a month-over-month basis, permit activity rose by 9.7 percent to 261 in October from 238 in October 2010.

Single-family attached homes, such as condos and townhomes, saw even greater  improvements. In the first 10 months of the year, permit activity – a signal of future construction, or starts – rose by 11 percent to 724 in the first 10 months from 652 in the same period last year. On a month-over-month basis, permit activity soared by 111 percent, but the numbers were small, rising to 95 in October from 45 in October 2010.

Apartment permit activity rose by 25.7 percent on a year-to-date basis, and were up 100 percent when October is compared with October 2010.

Moving in the right direction

“The numbers are encouraging,” said Jeff Whiton, President and CEO of the HBA of Metro Denver. “We have seen month-over-month improvements every month since April. The numbers aren’t big. We are still at the bottom of the cycle and it is too early to call an upswing. The buzz going around the industry is that builders are having a brighter outlook, are seeing more traffic and are finally being able to hit their projected sales numbers. That has not been the case for the past few years. Builders are much more optimistic than they were a year ago.”

That is certainly true about Gene Myers, the President and CEO of New Town Builders.

“I think customers are calling the bottom,” Myers said. “We sold around 30 homes in Stapleton until the beginning of October. Since then, we have sold 15. The numbers in the last 30 days have been amazing. It’s not just us. I was at a Vectra Bank dinner last night and I was talking to the guys at Wonderland, and they were seeing the same thing. And we are carrying more backlog of unsold homes into 2012 than we have in years.”

The HBA report includes the counties of Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, Elbert and Jefferson, as well as all of the individual communities in those counties.

Myers said he didn’t know if the pick-up in activity is only occurring at places such as Stapleton, or is market-wise.

“I think a lot of time the recovery starts in the most attractive communities, like Stapleton, and moves outward from there,” Myers said. The HBA report showed that permit activity in Denver rose by 11.7 percent to 525 in the first 10 months of 2011 when compared with the same period in 2010.

In any case, he said there are several reasons driving the increased demand:

1. “There’s a penting-up of demand. Families continue to grow and households are forming even in these tough economic times. Grown kids are tired of living in their parent’s basements.”
2. “The affordability factor. People are starting to realize that home prices are not going to get any lower. And it’s crazy to think that interest rates are getting any lower.”
3. “The resale market is very tight. There isn’t much inventory of resale homes, creating more demand for new homes.”
4. “Rising apartment rates. In many parts of the country, it is cheaper to buy than to rent. I think that is true in Denver, especially if you are renting in downtown or near downtown Denver.”

The report shows that 1,259 permits were pulled for apartment units in the first 10 months of the year, compared with 1,002 during the same period in 2010. Developers in October pulled permits for 176 apartment units, compared with 88 in October 2010.

All of that apartment construction is good for the economy, and ultimately will be good for housing, said Peter Niederman, CEO of Kentwood Real Estate.

“Nationally, there is an incredible amount of construction moving forward for apartments,” Niederman said. “It may not be for new homes, but at least it is construction activity. Think of all the concrete being purchased, all of the steel, lumber, fixtures, roofing material, copper pipes and glass for windows. That creates jobs. Ultimately, some of those people working in the trades, building apartments, will buy homes. And some of those renters, especially as rents continue to rise, will eventually buy, when they are secure enough in their jobs.”

“Cautiously optimistic”

Denver housing consultant S. Robert August said that he, and most builders, are “cautiously optimistic.”

August, who has weathered many economic downturns during the past four decades or so, said that in the past, when the inventory falls and the population increases, “we see a tremendous direction with pent-up demand taking place.”

The pent-up demand hasn’t yet manifested itself as strongly as it has in the past, because consumers are reluctant to make the big economic commitment of buying a home, the unemployment rate is still high, and consumer confidence remains low.

“Denver, unfortunately, has been in this economic malaise for such a long-time, people are afraid to call the bottom,” August said. “But I really believe the worst is over.”

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com

Related Posts:

• $100 downpayments for HUD homes
• Home inventory nosedives; sales up 13%
• MDC cuts losses
• Drop in Denver building activity welcomed
• RedPeak concessions could include 4-story building

This HUD home in Denver is listed at $73,800. Homes like this can now be purchased for only $100 down.

Take a poll at the bottom of this blog.

It only takes a $100 downpayment for an owner-occupant to buy a HUD foreclosure in the Denver area.

Previously, it required a 3.5 percent downpayment. The $100 downpayment policy kicked off last Friday.

The new rule should boost the sale of homes owned by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, local experts said.

“I think it is going to have a huge impact,” said Jason Peck, of Coldwell Banker. He said the $100 downpayment had been previously offered, but HUD took it away about a year ago in the Denver area. The new program is in effect for the next 12 months, according to Denver’s HUD Homeownership Center.

Peck said he suspects one reason the $100 down payment is back is because nationally, HUD is bracing for another 40,000 homes to come on the market. A portion of those homes are distressed properties that were taken over by Bank of America when it purchased Countrywide Mortgage, he said. While he didn’t know how many more HUD homes will be available in the Denver area, one rule of thumb is that the Denver area has about 2 percent of the overall housing market. In that case, it could mean another 800 HUD homes could hit the market locally.

Not only will the new program be good for buyers who are cash-strapped, or don’t want to spend the money, but it also will help HUD liquidate its portfolio quicker, he said.

The program is available to owner-occupants only, not investors. Buyers using this program must get FHA-insured loans and must pay the full asking price for the home.

Peck said he also suspects that HUD felt it was selling too many of its foreclosures to investors, and this will help it return to its core mission of selling to owner-occupants.

“I think this is going to be a win-win for HUD and for buyers,” said Steve Scheer of Denver Realty Partners. “It’s going to help people who are short on cash and it is going to be good for HUD.This is really going to help first-time home buyers. I’ve been in a lot of HUD homes, while they often need some work, a lot of them are pretty nice.”

Katherine Jolliffe, a broker with 8z Real Estate, said most of the HUD foreclosures she sell are priced from about $60,000 to about $240,000.

“I’ve been doing HUD homes forever,” Jolliffe said. “I love selling HUD homes. I do a lot of them. It’s funny, we’ve been hearing for the past couple of years that we are going to see this huge increase in inventory. But our biggest problem right now is the lack of inventory.”

Lender Jocelyn Predovich believes $100 downpayments for HUD homes will open the door for a lot of buyers.

Janet Frederick, of Aspen Real Estate, also sells a lot of HUD homes. She typically is working on 15 to 20 HUD deals each months.  The $100 downpayment already is sparking more interest from buyers, she said.

“I’ve had about 10 phone calls today,” Frederick said. “I suspect this is going to help quite a bit.”

Jocelyn Predovich, president and CEO of Limetree Lending Group, also said that she is seeing interest in the program, and it will only grow as more people become aware of it.

“Already today, I’ve had a number of Realtors call me and send me emails about the program,” she said. “I’ve also had another five or six consumers contact me today. I think people are going to start to look at their data bases and contact people who might have had problems coming up with a 3.5 percent downpayment. I do think it is going to stimulate activity with buyers. Who can’t come up with $100, right?”

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com

Related Posts:

• New home market picking up
• Home inventory nosedives; sales up 13%
• Risk retention threatens lenders, consumers
• Where, oh where, are all the HUD foreclosures?
• HUD foreclosures drop by 15%

Home closings in September were up almost 13 percent from September 2010, but showed a 16 percent drop from August.

Home prices were flat to down slightly on both a year-over-year and month-over-month basis.

Denver-area home sales in September fell to an 11-year-low

In the first nine months of the year, closings were only 1 percent below where they were in the first three quarters of 2010.

In short, September was a mixed-bag for the Denver resale housing market, and depending on your perspective, some of the metrics could be viewed as either positive or negative.

Not “stellar”

“September was not a stellar month,” said David Simonson, a broker with RE/MAX Professionals. “But I do not want to define 2011 by one month. The market this year has been primarily stable or slightly up, and September was really the first month that trended the other way.”

Simonson was less than bullish on September’s housing activity because there were 3,847 homes placed under contract last month, down 15.2 percent from the 4,537 in August.  And there were 3,337 closing in September, down 16 percent from the 3,973 in August, shows a report based on Metrolist data released today by independent broker Gary Bauer.

Bauer said that much of the month-over-month declines were for seasonal reasons.

“It was a little higher than normal, but when you consider seasonality and the state of the economy, it wasn’t that much of a concern for me,” Bauer said.

And on a year-over-year basis, contracts were 5.5 percent and closings were up 12.8 percent, respectively. In September 2010, there were 2,958 closings.

Almost a 13 percent year-over-year increase in closings is especially significant, said Mike Rinner of the Genesis Group, which tracks new and resale housing across the Front Range.

“I think that is promising because now we are comparing months to 2010 that were not helped by the federal tax credits in place during the first few months of last year,” Rinner said. The tax credits of $8,000 for first-time home buyers required that a home be placed under contract by April 2010 and close by the end of September last year.

In the first nine months of the year, there have been 29,980 closings,  only 1 percent below the  30,286 during the same period of 2010. Some 37,332 homes were placed under contract from January through January, down 6.2 percent from the 39,814 during the same period last year.

But it was the number of unsold homes on the market – or perhaps the dearth of homes on the market in September – which showed the biggest year-over-year decline.

Inventory shows huge decline

There were only 17,139 unsold homes on the market last month, a whopping 26.5 percent drop from the 23,332 in September 2010. The inventory was also down 5.6 percent from August, when there were 18,164 homes on the market. The last September there were fewer homes on the market was in 2000, when the inventory stood at 10,998.

“The inventory – or the lack of inventory – is a real concern,” Bauer said. “It’s a continuation of what we have been seeing for a number of months. More and more people are delaying putting their homes on the market. Part of it is they don’t want to compete with distressed properties. The other part is they don’t have a really good feeling of taking home ownership to the next level whether than it up-sizing, right-sizing,  or down-sizing. That means there are fewer and fewer options out their for buyers.”

He said if buyers can’t find the appropriate home for their income and aspirations, they, like many sellers, may throw in the towel.

“Nobody wants to sell at these prices,” Rinner said.

However, he said that a lack of resale opportunity may open an opportunity for new homes to fill the void.

The good news is that the market has moved from a big over-supply to one that is more in equilibrium, when supply and demand are balanced, said Rinner, of the Genesis Group.

“We still have an excess of supply,” Rinner said. “But when homes were appreciating much faster than incomes, we basically had a 30-day supply of unsold homes and that was too low.”

David Binkowski, owner of Prudential Real Estate of the Rockies, said the problem is that many people have mortgages that are worth more than their home, precluding them from selling for a profit.

“A lot of homes are under water,” Binkowski said. “They would sell their homes if they could and take advantage of these incredible interest rates below 4 percent. But they can’t sell their homes, unless they want to bring money to the closing table and very few do.”

Peter Niederman, CEO of the Kentwood Co., said that the low inventory in itself is neither a positive nor a negative.

“To me, it is a rational response to market conditions,” Niederman said. “Prices have softened a bit, and what it tells me that people who don’t have to sell are waiting.”

But today’s situation is far better than what was being predicted by many a year or two ago, he said.

“The biggest fear was that we were going to be flooded by a “shadow” market of REO and foreclosed homes,” Niederman said. “It was going to greatly increase the number of homes on the market and was going to drive down the value of all homes. It didn’t happen. Instead, home prices have been stable or are up slightly. We’re trending in the right direction.”

Prices not showing a lot of movement

The average price of a single-family homes sold last month was $280,289 down 1.3 percent from $284,065 in August, and down 3.4 percent from $29,025 in September 2010.

Year-to-date the average price of a single-family home was virtually unchanged at $281,782, compared with $282,416 at the end of September 2010.

The median price of a single-family home closed in September was $229,804, down 2.2 percent from $235,000 in August, but virtually unchanged from $230,000 in September 2010.

Niederman noted that the Denver-area economy and its housing market are not only buffeted by local events, such as the employment picture and national forces, such as interest rates, but world-wide forces.

“There are global concerns such as what will happen to the economies of Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece, all of which can impact the market,” he noted.

Dramatic events across the pond could reverberate all the way to the Denver housing market.

“Still, I think we can still end the year with my earlier prediction of being up about 3 percent from 2010,” Niederman said. “I really think everyone would like to see my prediction come true. I’m cautiously optimistic.”

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com

Related Posts:

• Metrolist unveils updated search engine
• Home market improves in 2011
• Home inventory plunges 30%
• Home market holding up
• Home inventory hits low for year

This home sold for $13.8 million.

The Texan, who developed a number of properties on Red Mountain in Aspen, approached broker Steven Shane in mid-December with a deal on a tight timeframe.

The Texan, whom Shane declined to identify by name, told Shane that he was willing to sell a 10,398-square-foot home at 1375 Red Mountain Road with six-bedrooms, six full bathrooms, an infinity pool and even a solar-powered snow-heater on the driveway, for far less than the  $19.995 million asking price.

However, the home, owned by a Fort Worth-based LLC, according to public records, had to close by the end of the year for tax purposes.

Willing to take a hit

“His primary business is not real estate development,” said Shane, owner of SDS Real Estate in Aspen. “He is actually in the oil and gas business. He told me he was willing to sell it even below the current market value, because he had enjoyed such a great level of success in his other business he could afford to take a loss.”

The catch, of course, is that Shane had about two weeks to close the deal during the Christmas holiday season. Because the home is a spec, investment property, and not a primary residence, the seller would be eligible for a tax loss.

So what did Shane do?

Doing the hustle

“I hustled,” he said.

He called a broker, Dale Hower of Frias Properties, whom he knew had a client that had expressed an interest in buying 1375 Red Mountain Road. “I asked for permission to speak to her buyer and connect to the buyer,” Shane said. She granted the permission.

He laid out the deal, but stressed it needed to close by the end of the year.

The buyer agreed and closed on the home for $14 million on Dec. 30. “The buyer was an out-of-state guy who is in the world of finance,” Shane said. He paid almost 30 percent below the asking price.

While that would be a great way to close out a year for any broker, Shane wasn’t done yet.

$49 million in closings in one day

There were two more homes in the mix. And like 1375 Red Mountain, they all closed on Dec. 30. Together, they sold for about $35 million, but because Shane handled both sides of one deal, his total transaction “sides” equated to about $49 million in closings on the same day.

Earlier in the year, Shane represented a buyer who paid $31.5 million for an estate in Aspen, the biggest residential deal of 2010.

“That brings my total sales volume in 2010 to approximately  $100 million,” Shane said, marking his best single year, despite the tough market.

Here is a snapshot of the other two deals that closed on Dec. 30.

Shane also was listing a home at 310 West Francis St, in the  West End of Aspen. The home has 6,385-square-feet of space, six bedrooms, seven full bathrooms and a caretakers unit.

This Aspen home sold for $7.1 million.

The home was listed for $9.95 million.

“I had an offer, but it was too low for my seller,” Shane said. “So I called the broker and asked her if the buyer would come up in price.”

The buyer did and paid $7.1 million, 29 percent below the listing price. Amy Doherty of Amy Doherty Properties represented the buyer.

Meanwhile, the Texas oil-and-gas guy owned a home at 355 Ridge Road on Red Mountain that was not officially on the market.

But Shane approached him and asked if he would be willing to sell.

The seller of 310 W. Francis used the proceeds of that deal and came out of pocket an additional $7 million to buy the home at 355 Ridge Road for $13.8 million. Shane handled both side of the transaction, giving him almost $28 million in “sides,” in Realtor-speak. The 8,463-square-foot home is valued for tax purposes at $20 million by the Pitkin County Assessor.

Team work pays off

Closing three big deals on one day was no easy task.

“It is very important to understand how unbelievably hard everybody worked,” Shane said. “There are many moving parts in transactions like these. Sacrifices were made by title companies, surveyors, attorneys, building inspectors, the entire SDS support staff and many other individuals who took time away from their families during the holidays.”

That three deals of that magnitude could come together in such a short period of time, also speaks volumes regarding how the super-rich are looking at Aspen real estate, Shane said.

Tired of the sidelines

“People are tired of being on the sidelines,” Shane said. “People have adjusted their business and personal lives. They understand the economic realities of their situations, and feel comfortable making a move. It took a while to get there. But the adjustments have been made. At some point people want to enjoy life and the fruits of their success. They don’t want to wait forever.”

What that means, he said, is that 2011 is likely to see much more buying activity in Aspen than in 2010.

“I think we are going to see a heck of a lot more high-end properties sell,” Shane said. “I really do.”

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOOK@gmail.com

Related Posts:

• New home market picking up
• $100 downpayments for HUD homes
• Home inventory nosedives; sales up 13%
• WSJ: Aspen Blue Chip, Vail Depressed
• Aspen ranch tops list

It is a given that when you buy a home, you hope it increases in value.

Indeed, falling home prices in the Denver area and the nation, have caused a great deal of stress to the economy and homeowners. Surprisingly few people are taking advantage of record-low interest rates and reasonably priced homes, while the number of “strategic defaults,” in which people can afford to pay their mortgages, are walking away because they don’t want to want to pay a mortgage on a home that has declined in value. As they say during times of declining stock prices, “no one wants to catch a falling knife.”

But in today’s Wall Street Journal, George Posada, a CPA in Los Gatos, Calif., argues that we are better off if our homes lose value, instead of appreciating.

His case for this counter-intuitive stance is that appreciation results in increased property taxes and insurance costs. “For every other item that we consume – such as cars, shoes and rent – we want the price to decline,” he writes. He notes that homes generate no income, but plenty of costs. “I know no other “asset,” which has to be fed every month,” he writes.

Benefits of falling home values

Indeed, he goes on to say that he welcomes further declines in the value of his home, as that will bring reductions in property taxes and insurance. Of course, he is in better shape than most homeowners. Not only does he not have a mortgage, but he is not counting on his house for retirement, and perhaps most importantly, he has never used his home as an ATM.

He also writes that he is not a “parasite feasting on the beast (of rising home prices) as are home builders, real estate agents and state and local governments. Bottoming out would be beneficial for us all. It will allow activity to return which would benefit home builders and real estate agents.” He also said that a reduction in property tax collections would force local governments to go on a “diet,” and he can “live with that.”

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com

Related Posts:

• WSJ: Good time to buy
• Not all underwater homes drowning
• WSJ: Boulder finds it's not easy going green
• Luxury home inventory plunged 35%
• Metrolist unveils updated search engine

Today, some experts said that the record low, although bad news for those who make their living building homes and apartments and the overall economy, is good news for anyone trying to sell their own home, and for landlords of apartments who won’t face competition from new communities anytime soon.

“It is so important that we are getting control of the supply,” said Byron Koste, director of the Colorado Real Estate Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder. “It is very good news for the Denver area and the whole region that we are getting the excess out of the supply.”

That said, anytime an industry takes it on the chin, especially one with the huge multiplier effect of the construction industry, it hurts.

“The industry does not like it,” Koste said. “We like to go out and build things. That is what the industry is designed to do. Developers and builders look at what is happening, and say “What is good about it?’

Housing slump hits economy

As far the toll on the entire economy, much is not good about it. The economic fall-out far exceeds those directly involved in construction, because building touches so many other parts of the economy. As Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. said earlier, some person working in a factory making dishwashers may be laid off because of a slump in home building. It also means that out-of-work framers, plumbers and electricians are not frequenting the area 7-11 store to buy a Slurpee. The list goes on and on.

Still, building beyond demand makes no sense, Koste said.

“Continuing to build things that we don’t need, yes, would  help job- creation for a short while, and jobs are very important,” Koste said. “But it  is more important to come down on the side of getting rid of the excess supply. It is time to come down on the side of balance.”

There were only 2,378 permits pulled in the Denver area last year for single-family homes, the lowest on record. That is a 35 percent drop from the 3,686 permits issued in 2008, the second lowest on record. Permits signal future home starts.

That is good news for people who already are homeowners, as they do not have to compete with many new homes on the market.  That, combined with the $8,000 tax credits for first-time home buyers and the $6,500 tax credit for qualified existing home buyers, should help the home sales market this year. Buyers must put the home under contract by April 30 and close by the end of June to take advantage of the credits.

“That should help the market,” Koste said. “But I don’t want people to read this and think, “Wow, the market is really going to soar now and prices will dramatically improve,” because that ain’t going to happen. We still have all this crap on the market that we need to burn off. That is what created the problem in the first place.”

Tougher to get loans

In addition, it is more difficult to qualify for loans than it was in the past, so not as many people will be able to take advantage of the confluence of super-low interest rates, tax credits and home prices that are at a much lower level than in recent years. Only lower-end home values have been rising from their lows in the Denver area.

Apartment hit hard

The biggest drop in permit activity was for apartments. Permits were only issued for 438 apartment units last year, a 90 percent drop from the 4,413 issued in 2008. That was the lowest number of apartment permits issued since 1991, when developers only pulled 208 permits for apartment unit.

Steve Rahe, an apartment broker with Grubb & Ellis, was glad only 438 permits were pulled last year.

“I like that number,” Rahe said. “I think that is fantastic!”

Rahe said that the drop in permits is a sign of what happened in the economy last year.

“I think that it shows just how bad off the economy was in 2009,” Rahe said. “We just had to many apartments on the market. The excesses in supply had to be dealt with and I think it is great that so few units were added to the supply. What that will mean is that today’s apartment vacancy rate in the 7.9 or 8 percent range will come down to 5 percent or 6 percent in the coming years. If you believe in supply and demand, it will mean that building owners will finally be able to raise rental rates.”

He said that the Torto Wheaton Research Group recently predicted that Denver’s apartment market will likely be one of the five top performers during the next three years, along with Boston, Austin, Atlanta and Minneapolis.

“I have to think a lot of that is because the number of our permits are so low that we are not increasing the supply,” Rahe said.

If “organic” growth such as people graduating high school and pent-up demand from people living with their parents who are eager to strike out on their own occurs and there appears to be a looming shortage of apartments to rent, Rahe “I suspect the development community will look at the demographics and will address that. I think we could see some people looking at building something at the end of 2010 or in 2111. Time will tell.”

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865

Related Posts:

• Denver-area apartment permits down 85 percent
• Vacancies down, rents up
• New home market picking up
• Down-zoning unlikely to spark taking
• Retail demand in apartment high-rise near DU

An article about Boulder’s struggle to go green  was on the front page of today’s Wall Street Journal. This is what Roger Pilke Jr., who studies political response to climate change at the University of Colorado at Boulder had to say about the city’s efforts to go green: “If a place like Boulder that regards itself as being in the forefront has such a tough time, these type of efforts are not going to work as a core policy,” for the nation.

The story is an interesting read. For the entire story, please go to this link.

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com or 303-945-6865.

Related Posts:

• Barnes quoted in WSJ
• Boulder going to the dogs, in a good way
• Praying for falling home prices?
• Denver No. 7 as youth magnet
• Foreclosures fall 10.5 percent

“I really do not understand where they are coming from on that,” Silverstein told me this afternoon.  “It sounds crazy. I don’t believe it whatsoever. It  almost seems like they are looking at the wrong data. I say that kind of in jest, but I really do not understand where they came up with this.’

Silverstein said that all of the evidence she has seen indicates that the Denver-area real estate market is on the mend, and one of best-poised metropolitan statistical areas in the country. According to Money only Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia and Phoenix will lose more ground than Denver before recovering. While that part may be true, is Denver really in worse shape in terms of real estate than Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, St. Louis, and many others? Are prices going to drop twice as much than in San Francisco, as Money predicts.

Silverstein said that while the Denver-area economy has suffered some recent hits, and may continue to have some issues such as increased unemployed, relative to most of the rest of the country, Denver is in good shape. Indeed, she told me she believes that Denver will help lead the nation out of this economic stupor.

And that bodes well for home prices.

“Our expectations that we are seeing from a lot of indicators – sales activity, interest in the markets, falling inventory, little new construction – is that why we are really not expecting this year to be a great year by any stretch of the imagination, we expect to see some firming up by the end of the year,” Silverstein said. “For them to think that we are going to work through some huge downward-price issues until first quarter 2011, really does seem crazy.”

Related Posts:

• Case-Shiller: Denver market falls little from peak
• Denver area's building slump hits new low
• Colorado no longer foreclosure poster boy
• Denver home prices up 29% since 2000
• Denver top city on S&P/Case-Shiller list