Arvada, CO

My, how I used to love to fly a kite!

And we do have some wind here - unfortunately, it was conspicuously absent on the day of Arvada's 2009 Kite Festival.  Still, as you can see in the photos, lots of people got their kites up and had a great time with friends and family.

The kite festival was an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours.  Local people of all ages, all smiling, music playing, lots of good food.  I had a wonderful caramel apple, my husband had fresh-made donuts (they made them when you ordered them!).

Next year, we'll be prepared with a kite of our own!

Keep up with what's going on in Old Towne Arvada. 

Learn more about life in Arvada.

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

I thought I was pretty good at giving tips and suggestions for making your rooms as appealing as possible. I can almost always find easy, inexpensive changes and fixes to help a house shine.  But today I found out that a professional is even better.

I was holding an open house in one of Arvada, Colorado's premier neighborhoods - Wyndham Park - and a lovely young lady came by, a home stager who said she looks at houses for fun.  Now, this house is just lovely.  I’ve had a busy day, and every visitor loved the floor plan, paint colors, multitude of windows with their streaming sunlight, location and even the furnishings.

A couple people mentioned that they loved the ‘staging’, yet I knew no professional stager had been involved. When the seller left for the day, he said, “I know you’ll see something that needs to be done after spending a whole day here, so just let me know and I’ll do it.”  A couple of real estate agents came by, so I asked if they had any suggestions, and they had ‘not a one’.

So when Heidi showed up, I asked her to let me know if she had any tips.  Fully confident that she wouldn’t find anything that needed doing, I relaxed while she viewed the house on her own.  What a surprise when she said, “I do have a few suggestions. Do you want to see?”

She was right. She saw a few little things that made a big difference in all three bedrooms.  So, I learned a fun lesson and found out a couple things about Heidi.

For one thing, she’s still in school.  She said she’s offering her services for free for the next two weeks (oops, one week now!) as a school project.  I think she meant advice, if you need to paint a room I doubt she’ll do that for free!

She seems to be a talented stager, with a good ‘eye’.  If you have a house for sale in the area, give her a try!  Heidi Curtis – Heidi.Staging@comcast.net.

Arvada is an historic small town between Denver and Boulder, in Jefferson County.Read about Old Towne Arvada here.

And check out the Wyndham Park neighborhood, where you'll find several homes for sale, of different styles and price ranges, here.

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

Check out my website.

I hear that question a lot. After all, everyone's interested in real estate. But when someone says, "What's that house selling for?", I know what they mean to ask is, "How much are they asking for that house?"  That's an easy question to answer.

But what the house will sell for is often a very different thing.

Just this morning, I studied the 'Active' houses and the 'Sold' houses in a neighborhood here in Arvada. While the price range for those for the comparative sales was $279,900 to $290,000, the price range for properties sold in the past six months told a different story. $230,000 to $262,000.

So if someone asked me the list price on a house in that neighborhood, it might be $280,000.  But what the house will sell for may actually be  $10,000 less.

(Arvada is about midway between Denver and Boulder, Colorado, in Jefferson County.  But this information would be helpful to home buyers everywhere.)

If you're planning to sell your house, be sure you price it where the comparable homes in your neighborhood are actually selling. Otherwise, you can have a house that's 'For Sale', but never 'Sold'.  You can't fool home buyers into paying more than market value for your home.

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

Check out my website.

I’ve been telling you for awhile now that the real estate market has picked up in the area between Denver and Boulder Colorado, especially in the under $200,000 range.  Unfortunately, it’s a different story for the luxury market.  Someone told me that the over-$500,000 home market is dead.  So I thought I’d see if that’s true for Arvada. Home sellers in this price point - take note.

    Homes sold at $500,000 and up -
    2006:  104         2007:  90         2008:  50   

    Homes between $400,000 and $500,000 -
    2006:  137         2007:  133         2008:  111 
   
For a year-over-year comparison:
    Homes at $500,000 and above sold by March 21
    2006:  11         2007:   11        2008:   9        2009:   5
    Homes between $400,000 and $500,000 sold by March 21
    2006:  25        2007:    13        2008:   19        2009:   8

    So it's true the over $500,000 market has slipped, and is still sluggish so far this year, although I wouldn't call it 'dead'.  And now it appears the $400 – 500,000 market is struggling too. 

    By the way, some people say the reason fewer are selling is because people in this bracket are waiting for real estate to start appreciating again, and they’re not putting their homes on the market.  But right now, Arvada has 57 homes in the $400-500,000 range and 92 above $500,000 actively for sale.
    Obviously, if you’re selling a home in this price range, you’ll want to assess your motivation for selling and price accordingly.  And of course, be sure to hire an agent who’ll market the ‘heck’ out of it!

See all Arvada's luxury homes - $500,000 and up.

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

Check out my website.

Wyndham Park - it's a destination neighborhood.  You know, like instead of someone saying they want to live northwest of Denver, they say they want to live in Wyndham Park.  It's a newer neighborhood (built in 1998-2002), yet isn't near Arvada's busy train tracks.

In fact, as of last week, if you wanted a home in Arvada that was built since 1995, priced between $375,000 and $425,000, and not near the train tracks, there's only two subdivisions you could search in. Wyndham Park is one of them, but only about 12 homes sell here each year, so you'd best hurry when they become available.

Wyndham Park is in west Arvada, so residents enjoy lovely mountain views. Most of the infrastructure in this part of Arvada is newer, the area has a bright, clean face.

Wyndham Park has a friendly, small town feel due to the mix of homes and nearness to shops, restaurants, and gathering places such as the park and recently built YMCA.  If you're looking for a single-family home, patio home, or town home, you can find one here. View my Wyndham Park listing here.

12 homes sold in Wyndham Park in 2008, between $345,000 and $485,000, or $162 per square foot.  There was 1 foreclosure and no short sales.  The homes sold for an average of 69 days on market, ranging from 4 to 179.

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.