$10 Starbucks card at The Hearth in Highlands Ranch by Berkeley Homes, showing three decorator show homes going on the market. Take Quebec south from C-470 into Highlands Ranch, past University/Lincoln Ave., one more mile to McArthur, right 1/3-mile to Heatherton and left.

PRICE: From mid $300s, decorator models from $399,900
PHONE: 303-470-1166 WEB: www.liveberkeley.com.

Is it a bad market or a good market? If you’re buying rather than selling, there’s not much doubt: “I wish I were a buyer, not a seller,” says Rich Laws, president of Berkeley Homes…and he’ll show you why in Colorado’s most enduringly popular community, Highlands Ranch; even give you a $10 Starbucks card for looking.

Rich Laws, president of Berkeley Homes, shows off two of three decorator show homes coming on the market in Highlands Ranch.

Highlands Ranch performs terrific in good markets, and pretty well in not-so-good ones, too. “Master-planned communities have always performed best over time,” Laws said, showing me his nearly built-out neighborhood “The Hearth”…walking distance from Highlands Ranch’s newest rec center, Southridge, and from Rock Canyon High, rated by 5280 Magazine as second best high school in the Denver-Boulder area…better than the private academies, better than Cherry Creek High. 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 »