This is the main home that David Duval and his wife have listed for $9 million in Cherry Hills Village.

Professional golfer David Duval, and his, wife, Susie, are selling homes in Cherry Hills Village for less than they paid for them.

Together, they are asking $14 million, about 29 percent less than the $19.8 million they had paid for the homes.

“You get to a point in your life where you try to simplify,” Susie Duval was quoted in today’s Wall Street Journal in today’s paper. She said that her husband travels frequently on the PGA tour and they are looking for a home with less land in the area.

Duval, once ranked as the No. 1 golfer in the world, and Susie paid $12.4 million for the larger home at 1000 E. Oxford Lane. The home, on 7.5 acres, includes 14,200 square feet of living space, including the 8,000-square-foot main home. It is now listed at $9 million, down from the previous asking price of $15.8 million. They paid $12.4 million in 2005.

This is how Rollie Jordan, who is listing it with fellow Kentwood Co. broker Darrell Hamilton described the home, on her website.

“Mediterranean masterpiece with a classic Italian villa exterior & opulent interior. This estate is an exquisite home for those who appreciate it all & want one-of-kind historic villa with the splendor of the 20’s, gated, circle drive, fountains, great equestrian property-barn/horse. Deep well!”

The estate also includes a his-and-her-pool, cabanas, two guest apartments, a  lodge and conference center.

This is the smaller of the Duva's two homes in Cherry Hills Village. Contact Rolllie Jordan if you want to buy it.

The Duvals paid $7.4 million in 2005 for the other home, a 7,600-square-foot home on 4.4 acres at 135 Meade Lane. It includes a 2.25-acre putting green. The putting green parcel can serve as a building site that can be sold separately for $1.1 million, according to Kentwood broker Jordan’s website.

What PGA champ wouldn't have a putting green in his backyard?

Jordan described the home as a “rare gem hidden in the pines with a spectacular lake view and hold putting green, salt-water pool, and separate guest apartment.”

It also includes a wine cellar that can hold more than 1,500 bottle, a patio with an outdoor fireplace and a media room.

The Duvals has been living in this home, while renovating the larger one. The homes are 1.6 miles from each other – a four-minute drive.

To contact Rollie Jordan, please visit her website at this link.

To learn more about homes that are available in Cherry Hills Village, please visit this COhomefinder.com link.

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com

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Peter Niederman thinks the time has come to create a statewide MLS in Colorado.

Peter Niederman, CEO of the Kentwood Co., is a staunch supporter of the overwhelming vote on Tuesday to merge three Realtor groups – the Denver Board of Realtors, the Jefferson County Association of Realtors, and the North Metro Denver Realtors Association – into a 5,000 member new group called the Denver Regional Association of Realtors.

“It is a positive thing and long overdue,” Niederman said. “I would hope other boards would kind of take notice and jump on board.”

But while combining boards and associations is a good thing and should continue, Niederman said the next big step should be to have one Multiple Listing Service, or MLS, for all of Colorado.

“We need a statewide MLS initiative,” Niederman told InsideRealEstateNews today. “Years ago, the technology didn’t exist. There wasn’t a platform around that could handle all of our data. But it does today. When you look at Trulia, and Zillow and Yahoo!, none of these real estate search engines have any geographic boundaries. They are basically national real estate data bases.”

In Colorado, Metrolist has the MLS for the Denver area, IRES (Information and Real Estate Services LLC) provides the MLS for Boulder and northern Colorado communities, and there is the Pikes Peak MLS for the Colorado Springs area, as well as other MLS services, Niederman pointed out.

While some states have recently moved to one MLS, “it’s been reported there are something like 900 MLS’s around the country. Why do we need 900 MLS’s?”

Much like merging Realtor boards, having one MLS would save Realtors money,  he said. “The overall costs would go down and the cost per user would drop,” Niederman said.

And while consumers may not take much notice to the merging of Realtor boards, having one statewide MLS would help those hunting for homes, or hoping to sell a house. “Some MLS’s have some proprietary search functions, but almost all of them also have a public interphase component. What this would do is consolidate all of the Colorado real estate information into one source. That would be great for the consumer, as well as for brokers.”

Niederman said he hopes the idea of gains momentum with fellow Realtors.

“Jumping on board with a statewide MLS and moving forward on all of its technology and benefits, is really the next logical step after consolidating boards,” Niederman said. “The technology exists, so we should be taking advantage of it.”

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com

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Peter Niederman has purchased Boulder.com

Peter Niederman, CEO of Kentwood Real Estate and a Denver-area businessman, has purchased the Boulder.com domain name.

The Boulder.com website provides comprehensive information about the diverse city and its people, including details on community events, arts and culture, businesses, nightlife and  more.

Visitors to Boulder.com can search available real estate, featured homes with convenient maps, and view nearly 50,000 properties currently for sale from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs by using the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) search feature.

“I viewed the purchase of Boulder.com as an excellent opportunity because the ability to acquire city.com domain names is very rare,” said Niederman. “Boulder.com is a community site that serves as a voice for the City and County of Boulder.  It’s an online venue where people can learn about the city’s history, culture, growing business community, nightlife, recreation, entertainment, and much more.  The site also has a blog that serves as a forum for opinions, the latest news and events, and as a place where people can interact online.  The website is a free service and there is no advertising.”

Everything from CU to Colorado Shakespeare Festival

Website visitors will also find a directory with information on hotels, businesses, and the University of Colorado.  A community calendar provides details on sporting events, nightlife, family events, music, green and alternative energy companies, outdoor recreation, entrepreneurs, and events such as the farmer’s market, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and theater and dance.

“We have designed Boulder.com with the hope of creating an excellent user experience,” said Fred Mercaldo, founder of Scottsdale.com LLC and CitiesPlanet.com.  “Boulder.com will be the No. 1 resource for all of the local community, with an emphasis on things to do, business services, blogs, and anything and everything having to do with Boulder.  For visitors, we hope to promote the city of Boulder in a positive and productive way.  Most important, we plan on listening to what the people of Boulder want, and we encourage feedback and participation.  Boulder is a special city, and Boulder.com will be a special site.”

Boulder is a progressive city where the citizens are passionate about preserving the beautiful environment around the city, helping make Boulder a great place to live, according to Niederman. He notes there  are numerous start-up businesses in the city, including companies that are on the leading edge of renewable energy research.  Boulder was named one of America’s top 25 cities to “Live Well” by Forbes.com, and named the number one place to live in the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.

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There were only 3,706 single-family homes and condos placed under contract in the Denver-area last month, a 24.5 percent drop from the 4,910 placed under contract in October 2009, shows data released today by the Kentwood Co.

Meanwhile, only 2,842 single-family homes and condos closed last month, a 28.2 percent drop from the 3,846 closings in October 2009. The data is based on information supplied by Metrolist, which tracks homes sold by members of local Realtor boards. That was the lowest number of closings since 1991, when only 2,364 homes closed.

There were 2,280 single-family home closings last month, a 25.3 percent drop from the 3,052 single-family home closings in October 2009. And closed sales volume fell 18 percent to $144.45 million from a year earlier.

“The numbers speak for themselves,” said Pete Niederman, CEO of the Kentwood Co. “The numbers are showing the general market is showing some weakness. But it is nothing to panic about.”

Falling off a cliff

“I’m used to dips, but this is going off a cliff,” said Ed Tomlinson, a broker with RE/MAX Alliance. He described the drops in under contracts, which reflect the current month’s activity, and closings, which reflect activity from previous months, as “enormous.”

In addition, the number of unsold homes on the market rose 12.7 percent to 21,360 from 18,945 in October 2009. However, that is still not a huge inventory number by historic standards. In October 2008, for example, there were 23,120 unsold homes on the market. Single-family listings were up 14.6 percent from October 2009.

While the number of unsold homes on the market is down substantially from September that is largely due to a normal seasonal month-to-month drop as the year draws to a close.

In addition, the supply of unsold single-family  homes on the market rose to 7.3 months in October, a 55 percent increase from the 4.7-month supply in October 2009. “That is significant,” Niederman said. “That is a bigger increase in the supply than I would have expected.”

Bright spot: Prices up

Despite the growing inventory and gloomy sales activity, the price of a single-family home sold last month rose by 9.6 percent to $287,048 from $261,771, a year earlier. And the price of all homes sold and closed in October showed a similar increase, rising to $261,750 from $238,807.

Tomlinson said the increase in sale prices is a bit of a head-scratcher.

“I’m certainly not seeing it,” Tomlinson said. Part of it, may be that high-end homes are now selling for bigger discounts than they have, changing the mix of homes being sold.

“Also, at the beginning of the year, because of the tax-credits, a lot of lower-priced homes were being sold,” Tomlinson said. “Maybe a lot of that demand has gone away, and is shifting more to the move-up buyer.”

Tomlinson said in the Arvada area, and other nearby suburbs where he specializes, the market appears to be dormant.

Last weekend, he manned the floor in his office, and “I didn’t get one inquiry over eight hours. And we do a lot of volume in the north end of town, so that is stunning.”

Tomlinson said there is “nothing to suggest” that the market will improve for the rest of the year.

Amy Terry, a broker with 8z Real Estate, a sponsor of this site, which recently celebrated its one-year anniversary, said on a personal level, she had a pretty good October.

“My own personal business did not reflect what the overall statistics are showing,” Terry said.

That said, she said she is surprised by how much sellers are willing to cut their prices in order to unload their homes.

“I’m working with one client right now that started off listing a home at $320,000, and we have it under contract at $265,000,” Terry said. “They are taking a big hit. They are going to be bringing quite a bit of money to the closing. Sellers, who are serious, are very motivated about price. I’ve been surprised how motivated sellers have been.”

Serious sellers motivated

Her client who slashed the home price is only selling because he is being transferred to Philadelphia. Otherwise, he would have held on to his home, which he bought in 2007, for more than $330,000.

“This year, I’ve probably talked more people out of selling their homes than taking a listing,” Terry said. “I would say the only people selling their homes right now are people who need to be selling.”

Independent broker Gary Bauer couldn’t agree more.

“My personal experience is that nobody is selling their home in this market, unless they have to be selling,” Bauer said.

Terry, of 8z, said the tax credits that fueled sales to mostly first-time home buyers at the beginning of the year, created a market with artificially low prices, which is now why the average and median prices are jumping

“Realistic market”

“It’s so hard to compare our market now to what it was six, seven or eight or nine months ago, because it was a false market because of  the tax credits,” Terry said. “Today is a realistic market. I don’t see anything changing the market. We might be bumping around the bottom for a while.”

Bauer said the end of the elections also is a positive for the market.

“No matter how you feel about the outcome, you are glad the elections are over,” Bauer said. “No one was focusing on long-term investments like buying a house during the elections.”

The end of the mid-term elections does more get than get rid of the distracting political TV commercials that everyone quickly learned to despise.

Elections end may boost market

“I think a lot of employers were holding out on hiring anybody, until the elections were over,” Terry said. “I have a number of clients who work for the government and they said there was pretty much of a hiring freeze during the elections. Hopefully, now some more jobs will be created in the private sector and maybe the public sector, too.”

Gretchen Faber, managing broker at Kentwood Co. Cherry Creek, agreed that there is likely been a shift to the move-up market, in the wake of the tax credit buying that ended on April 30.

Despite the overall data, she said that her office had a strong October.

“Summer was really slow and then it really picked up from us in September and October,” Faber said. “We wrote a lot of contracts last month. Talking to brokers, they see a lot of pent-up demand building. Also, people are starting to realize that these super-low interest rates, and these prices, are not going to be around forever. Prices are not going to keep falling. They’re going to stabilize and then start to rise.”

Faber said she is seeing not only activity in the central Denver neighborhoods, but also in some suburban locations. In other words, it’s not just Highland, but Highlands Ranch.

“We’ve had some multiple offers on homes in Highlands Ranch,” Faber said. “There are a lot of homes for sale there, because there are a lot of homes in Highlands Ranch. But there also is quite a bit of interest from buyers for homes there, too.”

Still, she said it is unlikely that the overall market will see much change, as the year draws to a close, she said.

“We’ll probably keep bumping around where we are,” Faber said. “But I think we are going to have a strong spring.”

Consumer confidence key

Niederman agreed, adding that until consumer confidence returns, many people will not be willing take advantage of the historic low rates and the prices.

“If we see the overall unemployment rate fall from 9.6 percent to 9 percent, for example, we might see some pick up in sales,” Niederman said. “Even people who have jobs, are unwilling to take advantage of these prices and unbelievably low mortgage rates, if they are not secure in their jobs. And it is the buyers who determine the market, not the sellers.”

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com

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Jim Nussbaum of the Kentwood Co. sits in front of one of the eight fireplaces in the penthouse at 25 Downing St.

Scott L. Palmer stood on one of the balconies of the penthouse, soaking in the view from the 12th floor overlooking the Denver Country Club on a recent beautiful fall day.

“I grew up in southeast Denver and I have never seen this view of Cherry Creek before,” said Palmer, a Private Mortgage Banker with Wells Fargo.

“There can’t be too many places, where you truly have a 360-degree view like you do from this home,” added Palmer. “You can see from Pike’s Peak to Long’s Peak.”

Inside, the view isn’t too shabby, either, especially if you are a fan of a French Country motif. Palmer and about 35 Realtors – each who have current listings of at least $2 million, or have sold homes in that lofty price range – last week attended an open house for the penthouse unit of 25 Downing St.

The 9,854-square-foot home, just west of the Denver Country Club, remains the most expensive condo on the market, even though the price has been slashed by about 25 percent, said the listing broker, Jim Nussbaum, of the Kentwood Co.

The home, owned by a low-profile investor, is currently on the market for $10.5 million. When Nussbaum first started listing it about three years ago, it was priced at $13.9 million, and it was then lowered to $11.9 million, before the latest price cut.

$10.5 million asking price

But even at $10.5 million, it is the equivalent of purchasing almost 70 average-priced condos in the Denver area. The asking price also remains north of $1,000 per square foot.

“The latest price cut helps,” Nussbaum said, between leading tours of the home. “One of the problems we haven’t had many comparables. It has been kind of in a class by itself.”

Nussbaum noted that a condo priced around $10 million is under contract in the new Four Seasons in downtown Denver, and could close before the end of the year.

NorthCreek comparable psf

Public records show that several condos in the nearby NorthCreek development in Cherry Creek North sold for more than $1,000 per square foot. One unit in NorthCreek sold for just under $6.5 million in October 2007, according to records.

The main appeal of NorthCreek, where no expense was spared on finishes, is that it is walking distance from the Cherry Creek shopping center and dozens of restaurants.

At 25 Downing, it is the killer views that set it apart. In addition to views of the Denver Country Club to the east and the mountains from the west, one can gaze at Denver’s skyline from the floor-to-ceiling windows in the kitchen.

You're sure to enjoy a killer view from any balcony in this penthouse.

Inside, you will find 12-foot high ceilings; a 1,000-bottle wine cellar; eight 17-century fireplaces with either stone or marble mantles from France; an exercise room with a sunken hot tub and views of Pike’s Peak; walnut floors; and a 12-foot high bookcase with a sliding library ladder.

Castle in the sky

The penthouse reminds Erin Trujillo of the fairy tale-styled Schloss Neuschwanstein (New Swan Stone Castle) in Germany, which was ordered built by King Ludwig II.

“I had just been in that castle a few week ago, so it was in the forefront of my mind,” said Trujillo, a broker with Colorado Dream Home Properties/Metro Brokers.

Trujillo said there is an “incredible amount of detail,” in the penthouse, even down to what appears to be gold foil on crown molding on the ceiling of a bathroom.

“There is so many rich colors and vibrant colors, that every room made me think of Europe,” she said.

Eight-figure homes never easy to sell

Still, at $10.5 million, she said it is “going to be hard to sell. Especially when there are other units in the building in the $300,000 and up price range. But there is no doubt they have done a beautiful job.”

Trujillo added it doesn’t make much difference of what kind of market it is, “there are just not a lot of people who can afford $10 million. It doesn’t really matter whether it is a buyer’s market or a seller’s market – or hey, even if we went back to stated-income loans – I still think a $10 million unit is going to be hard to sell.”

About four years ago, Jan Nelsen, a broker-owner at Kentwood City Properties, sold a condo in the nearby One Polo Creek for $4.1 million, or $911 per square foot. That still appears to be the highest condo price listed in Metrolist, although some of the even more expensive NorthCreek sales apparently were not put in the MLS.

“I like it,” Nelsen said about the penthouse at 25 Downing. “I think it is a difficult sell in Denver. Now, if it were in New York City, they would be selling it for much, much more.”

Pamela Freeman, a broker with Coldwell Banker Residential in Evergreen, toured the penthouse last week and was wowed.

“Truly, gorgeous views,” Freeman said. “If you really liked French Country, it would fit you to a tee.”

Denver's skyline from the kitchen of the penthouse at 25 Downing.

Here is one of the views of the Denver Country Club from the penthouse at 25 Downing. This view can be yours for $10.5 million.

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com

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Mike Shanahan's former Cherry Hills home sold for $7 million.

Mike Shanahan’s former home in Cherry Hills has sold for $7 million, the most expensive home sale in the Denver area in about two years.

The mansion, with 6 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms and 17,850 square had sold for $16 million in 2007, 56 percent more than the price it fetched last Thursday, according to public record obtained by InsideRealEstateNews. The home had recently been listed by Sandy Weigand of the Kentwood Co. for $10 million, or 30 percent more than than the selling price. Previously, she had listed it at $17 million.

Spectacular house

“This is perhaps the most spectacular estate, not only in Cherry Hills Village, but in all of Denver,” Weigand wrote in her marketing material for the home. “This Grand Dame was designed and meticulously executed by multiple award-winning Mesa Properties. It is situated at the top of a 2.5 site in the prestigious, gated community of Cherry Hills Park. A carriage house and magnificent ground complete this estate.”

According to the warranty deed, the manager of the 20 Cherry Hills LLC, which sold the home, was Steven Mooney. Mooney is Shanahan’s partner at the wildly popular Shanahan’s steakhouse, which opened earlier this year at 5085 S. Syracuse St., in the Denver Tech Center. Shanahan, the former coach for the Denver Broncos, is now the coach for the Washington Redskins. Shanahan’s current salary is $7 million a year, the same as it was in Denver. Mooney, the former CEO of the Thompson Creek Metals Co., which owned and operated molybdenum mines, did not return calls. Observers have speculated that 20 Cherry Hills LLC may be eligible for a tax-loss on the sale, something that an individual owner could not take. Shanahan was not part of the group that sold the home, Weigand said.

Sandy Weigand of the Kentwood Co. sold the mansion that Mike and Peggy Shanahan formerly owned, before building a much bigger home in Cherry Hills. Their former home sold for a $9 million loss.

Weigand, of the Kentwood Co., declined to name the new owners of the home at 20 Cherry Hills Park Drive, as she signed a confidentiality agreement. Records list the buyer as 20 CHP LLC. The limited liability company was only formed on Sept. 2, a week before the closing.

However, Weigand confirmed the new owners are local and are planning an extensive renovation.

REALLY big house not for sale

When asked by InsideRealEstateNews if Shanahan, and his wife Peggy, plan to sell their even bigger home in Cherry Hills that they built, she said they are not. “Mike and Peggy are definitely not going to sell that home,” Weigand said Sunday evening. ‘They are fully ensconced in the Washington, D.C., area – they also have a home there – but they have absolutely no intention of selling their home here.” She said the Shanahan’s have been extremely generous in allowing their home to be used for a variety of charitable fund-raisers.

The Shanahan’s other home has about 35,000 square feet and is decked out with cutting edge energy saving features, including a geo-thermal heating and cooling system and over-sized photovoltaic solar system.

Loss bigger in other cities

Patrick Finney, of 8Z Real Estate, is not surprised that the price sold for more than half of what it fetched in 2007.

“I thought it might have even gone for a little less than that,” Finney said. “If this home had been in a different market – Phoenix, for example – a home like this might have been down to $4 million or $5 million.”

He said that at the high-end of the market has been hammered the hardest by price reductions, and he doesn’t see that turning around anytime soon. “I think this is kind of typical about what is going on,” Finney said about the former Shanahan home sale. “Anything over $1 million in today’s market is really being attacked by what is going on in the global economy. You can call it the trickle-down effect, or maybe the trickle-up effect. I think what we need to say is more sustainable economy for a period of two quarters – six months of sold growth in the GDP, before there is more confidence in the economy, which will help the luxury market. And right now, there are no signs of that yet happening. Until that happens, we will not see the high-end prices rise. People are just too skittish.” (For a snapshot of homes that sold for $800,000 or more, please check this Cohomefinder.com link.)

That said, Finney thinks that the buyer of the former Shanahan estate got an excellent deal and are likely very happy. “I think they bought pretty much at the bottom,” Finney said. “I do not think that prices would drop much more. It is just a wonderful place that they bought. Still, I think that they are looking at a seven-year to 10-year hold, before they make real money on that home.

More execs needed

Local housing consultant S. Robert August said the drop in the house from its peak is endemic of a local economy that is not attracting  companies that hires executives that can afford homes priced in the stratosphere.

“We do have lower unemployment than the nation, but a lot of those are for service-jobs or lower- and mid-level management jobs,” August said. “Still, a $7 million sale in this environment is a great testament to the broker and the seller in this trying upper-end market.”

Jack O’Connor, a principal of RE/MAX Professionals, said that there have only been 14 homes sales of homes $3 million or above in the Denver area through Aug. 31.

“Looking at the market in general in that price range, there are very few buyers, so it does not surprise me there was some discount given,” he said.

He said you could probably build a home of that size, “without the bells and whistles,” typically found in the most upscale neighborhood of Cherry Hills for about $3.5 million.

“But building costs and interest rates are at very, very low levels,” O’Connor said. “Those costs are only going to go up, so I would say over the long-term, the buyer got a great deal.”

Low-ball, luxury home offers

But Jason Miller of Milan Realty takes a grimmer view of what the sale represents for high-end home sales.

“This shows how weak the high end market is and how little conviction there is for a recovery anytime soon,” Miller said.

Miller also said that low-ball offers are not verboten for homes prices in the seven and eight figures. “Buyers have no issue coming in with what may seem to be an insulting offer at $7 million, on a $10 million home reduced from $17 million. Every buyer going forward will not be satisfied until they get a deal. This will keep downward pressure on prices. It looks to me like this will go on for years to come.”

It will be good for homeowners in the most expensive homes, as far as comparables used for tax purposes, he said. However, that is not good news for Cherry Hills, which can expect to collect less in property taxes, he said.

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com

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In four decades as a Realtor, Jim Nussbaum has never listed a more fantastic home than this estate, which is on the market for $18.9 million.

In 40 years in selling houses, Jim Nussbaum has never seen one like the home he is listing in Cherry Hills Village.

“This is the best,” Nussbaum, a broker and co-founder of the Kentwood Co., said last week, during a broker-open house of the home on 5000 East Quincy Ave.

“An appraiser looked at this house, and he said he had never seen anything like it,” added Nussbaum.

The home that Crowe built

The home – or rather estate – is owned by Jim Crowe, the CEO of the struggling Level 3 Communications in Broomfield. Level 3 is a diversified communications company that provides Internet and network broadband services.

“Jim has never told me why he is selling it,” Nussbaum said.

Nussbaum has priced the 21,335-square-foot home on almost 8.7 acre at $18.9 million, down from $22.9 million, when he first started to list it about a year ago. That equates to about a 17.5 percent drop in the asking price. Another way to look at it: You could buy 17 average priced homes in the Denver metro area for the $4 million price reduction.

Taking in the fountain area, one may wonder if this is a resort or a home.

“This isn’t the biggest home in the Denver area, but I think it may be the most expensive home on the market right now,” Nussbaum said. According to Cohomefinder.com, only two homes on the market carry higher price tags -one in Parker for $22 million and another in Sedalia for $19.995 million. However, both of those homes are part of ranches, so the are not directly comparable to Crowe’s home.

Replacement cost $40 million

Even at the original price, it may have been a bargain by one metric – replacement cost. Nussbaum estimated it would cost north of $40 million to replace it, if you were starting from scratch to build it, a process that took four years.

The home was one of six luxury homes being presented at open houses last week by Kentwood Co. agents. In total, the six homes carry a total value of about $61 million, with Crowe’s home topping the list. About 15 people toured the Crowe home.

“I love this home,” said Lyn Drake, of RE/MAX Masters, and one of the brokers who toured it. “Just walking around the grounds gives me such a sense of joy.”

Simply Incredible

This is Jim Nussbaum's favorite room in the home priced at $18.9 million.

Nussbaum has created a brochure – titled, “Simply Incredible – with 20 pages of glossy photos and dozens of single-spaced lines highlighting features including:

* A 912,000-gallon pond with a giant fountain that cost more than $900,000.

Another view of the fountain.

* A four-boiler heating system.

One of the water features of Jim Crowe's home.

* Copper downspouts.

* French ‘Benouvile” limestone on the lower wall.

* Solid mahogany trim work and crown moldings.

* Roman walnut Travertine marble floors.

* A living room custom mahogany paneling and two second-story balconies, and a Great Room with Travertine tile floors, a wet bar and access to a covered patio with bar and grill an another wet bar. (This is Nussbaum’s personal favorite room.)

* A gourmet kitchen with Travertine tile floors, slab granite countertops, cherry cabinets, skylight, speakers, TV cabinet, and Thermador double ovens, warming drawer, 6-burner gas stove, five sinks, three dishwashers, and two sets of pocket doors to close off the kitchen from the Great Room.

The sink a downstair's bathroom is more regal than the sinks in many master baths.

The kitchen in this $18.9 million home has five sinks, three dishwashers, a skylight, and a TV cabinet.

No need to join a health club, with this room in your walk-out basement.

* A 2,531-square-foot gym with more than 30 athletic-club caliber pieces of fitness equipment. One of the few unfinished spaces is near the exercise room, which would be perfect for a self-contained theater room.

In the library, Nussbaum demonstrated how one of the giant bookshelves swings out, to reveal a hidden entry into the master suite area. Another hidden door is behind the second-level bookshelves, which leads to the balconies in the living room.

Jim Nussbaum shows a hidden passegeway behind a bookshelf in Jim Crowe's mansion.

Few buyers can afford a home like this

And while Nussbaum thinks the overall luxury housing market is still pretty slow, he notes that even in a red-hot market, a home in this price category really is a market on to itself, and it would not be snapped up quickly. Indeed, they would need to find a buyer who would not blink at the $90,396 annual property tax bill. Whoever buys it likely will be able to write a check for it, and would only put a mortgage on it for tax reasons and to keep cash available for other opportunities.

“That’s absolutely right,” Nussbaum said. “When you look at the traditional buying pyramid, homes that are in the price range are right in the tip of the top of the triangle.”

For more details of luxury homes in Cherry Hills, please visit this Cohomefinder.com link.

Listening to the rushing water through this man-made brook, it would be easy to imagine you are in the middle of the woods.

Contact John Rebchook at JRCHOOK@gmail.com.

The view from the backyard of Jim Crowe's estate.

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Laurent Saltiel has this Cherry Hills home on the market for $5.9 million. The only problem - he paid $6.7 million, less than a year ago.

Laurent Saltiel is such a whiz at international stock investing, that the investment firm of AllianceBernstein LP in New York City, lured him from Denver, where he managed the $2.44 billion Janus Worldwide Fund for the Janus Capital Group.

Six months before the announcement last May that Saltiel would be a team leader and manage the International Large Cap Growth/Global Large Cap Growth funds for AllianceBernstein, Saltiel and his wife, Kimberly, paid $6.7 million for a home on more than 5 acres in Cherry Hills Village. It was the most expensive home to sell in the Denver area last year.  (For the original story in InsideRealEstateNews, please visit Janus Manager Pays Record Price For Home.)

Now, he has put the 10,409-square-foot  home,  on the estate formerly owned by golf pro Craig Stadler, on the market for $5.9 million. It was designed and built by highly regarded Debra Toney, who initially hoped the home would fetch in the neighborhood of $8 million. Cherry Hills Village values the home at $7,225,600 for tax purposes.

That means that Saltiel, if he gets his asking price, will face an $800,000 loss. And when the real estate commissions are thrown in, he will lose $1 million or more. Saltiel is not alone. While there are signs that the 7-million home market in the Denver area is picking up (see a previous blog, Million-dollar home showing rise) it’s because sellers such as Saltiel,  are willing to take big financial haircuts to unload their properties.

Edie Marks, the Kentwood Co. broker who sold the house to Saltier last November, now is listing the home at the new price.

“It was not easy to get him to that,” Marks said. ” He has the ability to wait as long as he has to. But I told him it does not make sense to just have this home sitting here in Colorado and convinced him to go with this price. He has the ability to weather this and hold it until the market comes back. But I thought it would be smart to sell it, even at a loss, and just put it behind him.”

Marks said that Saltier family has just moved to New York, where they bought a unit in a high-rise in the middle of Manhattan. They also own a home in Washington state, she said.

And there is a big cost to holding the home.

Daily tab: $5,176

Records indicate he has a $4.69 million loan with a 5.375 percent interest rate. Monthly principal and interest payments would set him back $26,277. In addition, annual property taxes run $54,255.62, or $4,521 a month. If he was lucky enough to sell it after eight months of ownership, and figured that he paid a 5 percent commission of $295,000, the cost of ownership would amount to about $1.26 million, including the mortgage payments, taxes, loss on the home, and commission. Another way to look at it, that would equate to  about $5,176 per day to own the home. And that’s not even including his utilities, lawn maintenance and other costs.

Interior photo of home listed by Edie Marks.

At the peak of the market, the land itself would have been worth more than $5 million, Marks said. And she estimated the replacement cost at more than $10 million. “The cost of building homes really has not gone down much at all,” she said.

Marks said people house-hunting today for homes priced in the stratosphere, expect to get unbelievable bargains.

‘No. 1, it  is really about the price and No. 2, they have to feel they are getting a great deal,” Marks said. Unlike Saltier, many people selling at the high-end today do not have the financial ability to hang on, she said.

Buyers smell blood

“I think most of the sales we are seeing at the upper-end are bloods sales,” Marks said. “They smell blood. Even though that is not the case in this sale, you do get a lot of those. Or, the bank owns it and is ready to deal.”

She said that Saultier is firm on his price, and won’t budge from the $5.9 million.

Price not low enough

But Greg Geller, principal of Vision Acquisitions LLC, said he thinks Saultier will need to come down more, a lot more, before he can sell it.

“I’m sure he is a really smart guy and he understood when he bought it that it needed very much to be a long-term hold,” Geller said. “As a short-term hold, you’re not going to be able to sell it as $6.7 million any time soon, and he knew that. In today’s market, the number of people paying more than $3 million for a home is a very short list. High-end real estate is on life support.”

Marks said that she thinks the buyer of the home “will be someone who is very comfortable in his own skin, as Laurent is. They will not be trying to prove anything to anybody.  Yes, it is over 10,000 square feet, but it is so warm and comfortable. And the grounds are fabulous. Some lucky buyer is going to take advantage of a great deal.”

Marks said that so far she has only had one showing. “I’m really just starting to market it,” she said. “The family has been living here until recently.  And after 100-degree heat on the East Coast and close to 100 percent humidity, they plan to come back in the near future to beat the heat.”

One wag familiar with the deal, had this to say about Saltiel:  “He should stick to picking stocks, not real estate.”

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

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Steve Blank is listing this home in Park Hill for $1.6 million. The price has been slashed by $350,000.

Peter Niederman, in addition to being the CEO of Kentwood Real Estate, is a student of the housing market, who loves to pour over data to discern the tea leaves of the Denver housing market.

Recently, an in-house statistic caught his eye, when he was looking over the June data for Kentwood, including offices in Cherry Creek, the DTC, and Kentwood City Properties in downtown Denver. (Kentwood is a part-owner in Kentwood City Properties.)

“While our overall showings for all price points were down 10.1 percent in June, compared with June 2009, our million dollar-plus showings were up 8.2 percent,” Niederman said.

That is the metric that is extremely important. Indeed, in some ways he thinks that takes the temperature of the the market better than the Case-Shiller report released today, because that tracks where the housing market has been, but showings show where the market is headed, Niederman said. (To read about today’s report, please visit Denver No. 8 on Case-Shiller.)

“I like the Case Shilller report and I am happy that they compile it, but it looks backwards, and I’m interested in looking forward,” Niederman said. “Traffic through homes is a leading indicator and one we are following closely.”

Carol Ihli, co-managing broker at Kentwood, pulled data to show that they had 422 showings of homes priced at least $1 million in June, compared with 390 in June 2009. Kentwood also had 38 percent of the listings in Cherry Hills Village, home to some of the most expensive homes in the metro area in June, according to their internal data. Earlier reports also showed that the sale of 7-figure homes in June also out-paced the closings of luxury homes in June 2009.

Buyers smell bargains for 7-figure homes

Of course, the reason that interest is picking up in those lofty prices is not because well-heeled buyers can’t snap up expensive homes fast enough at any price in tony neighborhoods such as Cherry Hills, Country Club, Hilltop and Castle Pines Village, as they did during the boom days from about 2004 to early 2007.

Quite the contrary.

“I think sellers are much more likely to be realistic of what they can sell their homes for in today’s market,” Niederman said. “I think last year, they were holding on to unrealistic prices, while now they are willing to meet the market.” (For a look at what the most expensive home sold last year is now selling for, read Former Janus manager faces million dollar loss on his home.)

Rates at record lows

In addition, there is far more money available for so-called jumbo loans – that is, mortgages above $417,000 – and at much lower rates. A Wells Fargo banker last week addressed Kentwood brokers and said that jumbo rates now are available at 5 percent for qualified buyers, compared with 6.125 percent a year earlier.

On a million-dollar mortgage, that translates to a savings in principal and interest of about $720 a month. If a person owned the homes for seven years, which in the past was considered the typical holding period for a home, that saves a buyer more than $60,000 a year.

“That provides a real incentive for someone to buy,” Niederman said. “And that is $60,000 that is tax free. If you were thinking of buying a home in the next year or two, and you can afford it, it probably makes sense to buy now to take advantage of depressed home prices and low rates.”

Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty, which like Kentwood, sells a lot of expensive homes, is seeing a similar trend.

In June, Fuller had 469 showings of homes priced at $1 million or above, 14.1 percent more than the 411 in June 2009, said Steve Blank, a veteran broker at the company.

High-end homes bottoming

But the high-end market is not on fire. “It is definitely better than it was,” Blank said. “I think bottoming out is the way you would describe it.”

And Blank has not experienced prospective buyers knocking down the door of a $1.6 million home he is listing in Park Hill, even though the price has been slashed 18 percent from $1.95 million a year ago.

“It’s really a cool, Georgian-style home almost 100 years old on Montview Boulevard,” Blank said. “But I’m only getting a couple showing a month.”

The problem is that buyers are having problems unloading their current homes, to pave the way to move into an even bigger home.

One prospective buyer first must sell a home, also in Park Hill, for about $1.2 million, and another potential buyer is looking to sell a home for $900,00, but likely will get $750,000 to $800,000 for it, he said.

“One of the problems at the upper-end is that people are not as likely to buy, before they sell,” Blank said.

Quality buyers bargain-hunting

Kelli Lanphere, a broker with RE/MAX of Cherry Creek, who is listing a number of homes above $1.5 million, said she is not seeing an increase in quantity of prospective buyers, but the quality of the buyers has gone up.

“It’s kind of interesting,” Lanphere said. “It’s not as we are seeing an increase in showings, so to speak, but the people looking are truly interested in buying. I do believe they think that homes in the $1 million and up range are priced very attractively. So we’re not seeing a ton of showings, but the ones who are looking are willing and able to perform.”

And Lanphere is walking the walk.

“I bought a home in that price range in Hilltop,” she said. “It was a spec home by a developer, and it was financed using commercial paper. The investors in the commercial paper were very willing to work with buyers.”

She said that infill development of spec mansions in places such as Hilltop have come to a halt, which means there won’t be more supply coming on the market to compete with existing homes.

“Land values used to drive up the price of entry level homes in places like Hilltop,” she said. “Builders used to pay outrageous prices for small homes to get the property. No more. Builders can’t get financing and a lot of them who did build homes at the end of the last cycle, are out of business.”

That is probably the one positive trend for high-end housing, said Greg Geller, principal of Vision Acquisitions, who this week made headlines for buying the Washington Park home of Democratic Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff.

Sea change in buying sentiments

“I can buy homes in any price range, but I seldom buy anything above $400,000, because there just isn’t the market for those homes,” Geller said.”I’m concerned that we are in a new era where people just are not as interested in buying expensive real estate, as they once were.”

Jason Miller, of Milan Realty, said he thinks the high-end market is in worse shape than may realize, and is not close to recovering.

Shadow inventory clouds recovery

“I believe going forward, the high end market will have fewer sales and additional price reductions,” Miller said. “There is too much inventory for prices to stabilize.”

He also said that the many builders, unable to sell their castles, are renting them, instead. This has created a “shadow market” that is not being counted, but will soon hit the market, further depressing prices.

He, like Blank of Fuller, said that people who buy expensive homes, are having trouble selling their homes.

Miller said that some areas, such as Ravenna and Colorado Country Club, “are looking at 60 percent haircuts from their peak. When sellers do come down in price on the higher end, it will compress prices down the food chain. When a $1.3 million home sells for $1 million, the old $1 million homes needs to drop to $800,000 to compensate.”

All markets cyclical

But Niederman is not so skeptical.

He notes that last year, many people had written off the lowest end of the market, thinking that appreciation was years away.

“Now, you can’t buy homes at the low end for the same price today you could have even at the beginning of this year,” Niederman said.

Granted, the number of buyers a the high-end even when the economy is strong, is about as thin as the air at the top of Pike’s Peak.

“All of real estate is cyclical, and we’re in part of the cycle where sellers need to cut their prices before they can sell,” Niederman said. “But if they do, their are buyers out thee and there are unbelievably low mortgage rates available to them. It is really the buyers, not the sellers, who set the market.”

For other blogs on this topic, please visit: Million dollar home market moving, Million dollar homes show life

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