By Mark Samuelson
Most of the 300 families who’ve bought homes at RidgeGate in Lone Tree over the past three years have come from Denver’s southeast corridor…but among the remainder are some arriving from California, who instantly recognize what the developer is creating here: a community with a suburban address, but with a new urban feel.

Darryl M. Jones, Development Manager for RidgeGate, takes in view toward DTC from a trail up bluffs above Sky Ridge Medical Center. Luxury homes in foreground are sold out.

“We’re calling it ‘Urban Scape,’” says Coventry Development Corporation Vice President Keith Simon, who has a view across the changing landscape from his office near Sky Ridge Medical Center.

One buyer from the Bay Area started exploring their move to the Mile High by Googling “new urbanism Denver.” That turned up web sites of the two, big Denver city redevelopment projects…and RidgeGate’s. The family visited all three…and were probably impressed by the master plan taking shape here. But the clincher, says Simon, may well have been the pretty terrain around Lone Tree. more »

Mid-summer housing data are showing favorable swings in inventory and sales that haven’t been seen in the Denver metropolitan area in five years, and that suggest a general return to rising home prices early in 2009.

Jack O’Connor
“Typically you would see an increase in inventory and a small decrease in sold data from June through September; however, this summer is already showing the opposite trend,” said Jack O’Connor, Managing Broker of Prestige Real Estate Group and author of the Prestige Monthly Report. more »

Late spring data are showing further evidence of an early recovery for the real estate market in the Denver area—particularly for the under-$250,000 price range—according to a newly released report issued by Prestige Real Estate Group.

Prestige agent Bonnie Wing prepares a new listing in Denver’s popular Highlands neighborhood near downtown. Key to a quick sale, Wing says, is a listing that is staged properly and given any necessary repairs.

“The continuing decrease in supply we’re seeing at the low end is exactly what you would expect from the earliest stage of a general recovery,” said Jack O’Connor, Managing Broker of Prestige Real Estate Group and author of the new report. more »