Arvada, CO

I thought it would be fun to see what my friends who live in the towns northwest of Denver are doing for 4th of July - Independence Day. So I emailed a bunch of them and asked. Here's what they're planning, read through for ideas of your own.

We’ll be in Westcliffe to watch the parade and we’ll be thinking a lot about our founding Fathers and their beliefs. - Georgia

We are having kids/grandkids over for a barbeque/Stenger fireworks. Last year Dave and his girls took us to the Rockies game/fireworks. I'm hoping your blog will give us some creative ideas for next year! Hope all is well with you. - Louise

(I want to do the Rockies game/fireworks one year soon too, Louise.)

Derek and I are venturing up to Granby/Grand Lake for an 8-mile hike and to see the fireworks on Grand Lake with good friends. We'll stay in a cute motel in Granby on Saturday night. - Robin

We're are going over to our friend's, who live in Golden, and BBQ and watch fireworks later in the evening. - Doris

We’re getting together with some family members the day before for a meal. The day of, want to be home so our little dog doesn’t freak out when our neighbors do their “off-the-ground illegal” fireworks. I hope you two have a great 4th! - jas

Dennis & I are gonna hang out at home, eat watermelon and popcorn, and maybe catch some remnants of firework shows that show up around here! As far as past 4ths, I used to go to the Cherry Creek Art Festival with my sister when she lived here. And it was always unbearably hot! Happy 4th to you, too! - Susan

And I heard from my wonderful daughter, Amanda -

Hey Mom! - We used to go to Bandimere Speedway every year but they stopped doing their fireworks show for a while and I don't know if they have started up again. This year we were thinking of going to Arvada's Spirit of American festival featuring the "Hot Times, Kool Cars", classic car show.

"Arvada's fireworks show is over thirty years old and a full day of events begins at 3:00 p.m. at the Lutz/Stenger Sports Complex on W. 58 th Avenue at Oak St. just west of Kipling (parking lot opens at 2:00 pm)." -Gloria Shanstrom (I got this information here.)

And my sweet hubby chimed in too:

I’m going to try and spend time with my beautiful wife, something that doesn’t happen as much as it should. Sleep in or maybe have a BBQ with our children and then either go see a movie or fire works. Maybe even a short bike ride or a walk with the dog or a ride up into the mountains with the top down on the car. - James

(Sounds very tempting!!)

Tim and I are working the morning shift, then going to Loveland to watch fireworks with the family this year. When I lived in AK, we used to do a hog roast in Talkeetna on the 4th, which was in the middle of our annual fishing trip - so fish for breakfast and lunch, then hog for dinner, and fireworks after sunset. - Christine

Wendy & Art - Fried chicken and fireworks.

Debbie - playing with the grandkids

Debbie and I plan to spend the 4th with her mom and dad. It is her dads birthday. - Chris

I'm going down to Pueblo with my sister, Rebecca, and her family. We're going to watch fireworks there with some of her husband's family. - Nicole

Besides the link Amanda provided above, try these for more great celebrations:

Westminster's fishing derby, Broomfield's Great American Picnic, and Thornton's celebration.

Check out my website.

Find homes for sale in Colorado - Arvada, Broomfield, Westminster, North Denver, Golden, Lafayette, Louisville, Wheat Ridge.

iPhone(r) App – for those of you who don’t have an iPhone(r), ‘apps’ are features you can add yourself. To use them, you just touch the screen. One of the fun things about owning an iPhone(r) is that total strangers who also have the phone will strike up conversations, telling you about some cool new app you must have. Now, it’s my turn to share.

Trulia.com is one of the internet sites I use to market my listings. (I also answer questions posed by home buyers and sellers – you can look me up and see what I’ve said.)  They have a free app that will tell you all the houses for sale near you. That can be wherever you are at the moment, or put in any address.  So you could put in the address of the school you want your kids to attend, and immediately know all the houses for sale near it.

Also, it will tell you all the open houses nearby, but only if they’ve been advertised on the Trulia site, which is one of the things I do for my listings.  (I’m telling you about this because I think you can have a lot of fun with it. But if you’re serious about buying a house, you would be amazed how much easier it is with your own real estate agent working for you.  And you don’t even pay them, the listing agent does.)

Find all the homes available between Denver and Boulder (Arvada, Westminster, Broomfield, North Denver, Thornton, Lafayette, Louisville, Wheat Ridge and Golden).

Check out my website.

Out of the 600 homes in this neighborhood, there are only 2 for sale right now. They’re both listed in the $270s. Neither of them are distressed sales (foreclosure or short sale). Wow! What a change from the past few years.

There are three homes currently under contract – none of them are distressed sales. We can’t know what their final selling price will be until they close, but if they end up close to their asking prices, there’s definitely the beginning of an upward price trend for this neighborhood.

The three under contract homes weren’t on the market long – it was just 7, 15, and 16 days for them to get acceptable offers.

It appears that one of them is a fix & flip – 8380 Estes was just sold Feb. 5 2009 for $154,735. It was a short sale. It was remodeled and re-listed on April 30 for $249,000. It was under contract just 2 weeks later. The re-emergence of ‘flippers’ is a good sign of the market picking up.

Since January 1, eight homes have sold here. Five of them were distressed sales. (Three were short sales, one was HUD owned, one was bank owned.

Sold prices for the distressed sales were from a low of $154,735 to $235,000.
Sold prices for the non-distressed sales were from $258,000 to $264,950
Sold price per square foot for distressed sales averaged $94, and $84 for finished square feet. (One of those was my short sale listing – guess which agent got the most for her listing? Uh-huh!)
Sold price per square foot for non-distressed sales averaged $121 and $105 for finished square feet.

Days on market for non-distressed sales were: 4, 9, and 155
Days on market for bank-owned averaged: 92
Days on market for short sales averaged: 151

All in all, this is good news for Pomona Lakes home sellers. However, in 2008 price per square foot was $119. That combined distressed sales and non. That compares to the current $107. So prices are lower now than last year. Also, average days on market last year was 68, compared to 82 so far this year. That means home buyers can still get a great value on a home here.

Low prices and longer days on market are a lingering effect of distressed sales. If Pomona Lakes can remain free of short sales and foreclosures – or at least keep them to only a few – these numbers will turn around. Market values will increase.

Check out my previous post on Pomona Lakes' Sales Statistics.

Read more about the Pomona Lakes neighborhood.

Pomona Lakes is located near the northeast section of the city of Arvada, Colorado. Arvada is an historic small town about midway between Denver and Boulder, in Jefferson County.

Find all the homes available in Arvada, Westminster, Broomfield, North Denver, Thornton, Lafayette, Louisville, Wheat Ridge and Golden.

Check out my website.

Sales statistics for the Five Parks Neighborhood of Arvada, Colorado show a dramatic slowing of homes sold, and a corresponding increase in *absorption rate.

*Absorption rate is the amount of time that it would take for the current number of homes for sale to close, assuming no other homes came onto the market, based on the number of homes sold in past years.

2006 saw 44 sales ranging from $250,000 to $635,000. There were no foreclosures or short sales. Many of these homes were new construction.
2007 saw 44 sales ranging from $293,000 to $540,000. There was one short sale. A few of these sales were new construction.

2008 sales dropped to 28 homes, ranging from $232,200 to $535,000.

2009 is where we see the drastic change. Almost halfway through the year, only 5 homes have sold, and two of them were short sales. They ranged from $314,000 to $441,500.

There are 4 homes under contract, and one of them is a short sale. The highest list price amongst these homes is $449,000.

There are twenty homes for sale. Only one of them is disclosed as a short sale, but that's a LOT of competition. List prices range from $310,000 to $649,000.

The previous years' absorption rate was less than 6 months, but current activity shows an absorption rate of 11 months.

The Village of Five Parks is a very popular area, despite this slump in sales. If you'd like to see any of the homes for sale In The Village, please give me a call. Or, use the links below to search online home sales for yourself.

Arvada is an historic small town about midway between Denver and Boulder, in Jefferson County.

See all the homes for sale in the Village of 5 Parks and nearby.

Find all the homes available in Arvada, Westminster, Broomfield, North Denver, Thornton, Lafayette, Louisville, Wheat Ridge and Golden.

Check out my website.

Info for this post was taken directly from Metrolist on June 8, 2009.

That is a question I received from a local home buyer recently, about a listing he found on the internet (not one of mine!). I thought it would be a good excercise for home sellers, who are holding onto the idea that their over-priced house will sell for more than the rest, to read through the answer, from the perspective of the buyer. Ask yourself - if I was buying a house, would any of these reasons entice me to pay more for this house?

My Answer:

As you can tell, this house does not have more bedrooms, bathrooms, or square footage than others. All the similar homes you've found are nearly new, have granite counters, wood floors, and stainless steel appliances.They do appear to be essentially the same, and the only way to know if this one has some outstanding feature that the listing doesn't mention in the marketing, is to visit the home.

Of course, most home buyers would just move on to the next one, and leave this one 'on the shelf'. But if you do become interested in making an offer, a good real estate agent could help by providing comparative sales along with the offer. They could try to convince the seller that your offer is fair, without irritating them and blowing the deal. In other words, you'd need an agent who could handle it with some 'finesse'.

If I was your agent - working on your behalf and at no cost to you - I would preview this house and the others, or take you to see them all. But for now, I would just assume this house is priced higher due to one of the reasons below.

"I paid $XXX for it, and refuse to sell it for less."
"We put $XXX into the remodeling, and want our money back." (One man actually told me, his wife did all the extensive country-style decor herself, and that made their house worth $20,000 more than the others.)
"We can't afford the home we want to buy unless we get $XXX for this one."
"My neighbor (or friend, or co-worker, or the grocery clerk who used to be a real estate agent) said I should get $XXX for it."

I'll bet I can think of a dozen more. Of course, home buyers won't pay too much for a house because of that kind of reasoning, as I'm sure you know full well.

Check out my website.

Find homes for sale in Colorado - Arvada, Broomfield, Westminster, North Denver, Golden, Lafayette, Louisville, Wheat Ridge.