What's Going On in Denver's Suburbs?

If you want to know what's going on in Denver's first-tier suburbs, Westword, the Denver metro area's alternative newspaper, has an in-depth article by Jared Jacang Maher about Northglenn's past and future. Northglenn can easily be seen as a stand-in for Lakewood, Arvada, Wheat Ridge, the northern part of Aurora, the older part of Highlands Ranch, Applewood, parts of Thornton and Commerce City.

These once booming suburbs are beginning a period of decline, where the original owners, now older, are experiencing a rise in foreclosure and rental housing, and a general deterioration in the appearance of the neighborhood.

Bill Sullivan, Director of the Northglenn Neighborhood Development Corporation established by the Northglenn City Council in 2004, has been making heroic efforts to turn the suburb's decline into renewal, and has a vision for the community that could result in a remarkable revitalization.

If gas prices continue on their upward climb, likely to happen as supplies diminish, these first-tier suburbs could well attract homebuyers worried about energy costs. According to a study done in October by the Center for Housing Policy (the research arm of the National Housing Conference, which is a non-profit public policy and affordable housing advocacy group), "for every dollar saved on housing [by buying further out from the city], 77 cents is spent on increased transportation costs."

Other factors not mentioned in the Westword article are the metro area's 6-year drought, which has left urban and suburban landscaping in a shambles. Only homeowners and municipalities that can afford to keep up care of the landscape are not experiencing decay. And the remodeling boom of the 90's and early 2000's has evaded many older homeowners who haven't reckoned with the need to improve their homes so that when it comes time to sell the home will appeal to younger buyers.

Anecdotally, I've seen many homes that have gone the route of natural decline due to homeowner neglect. Buyers want homes they can move into and not have to put time, money and effort into rehabilitating a home. They take one look at these homes in a state of deterioration and they walk out without a second glance.

You might think that these are homes on the low end of the price scale. But neighborhoods with $500,000+ homes have succumbed to the same deterioration.

I tell all my buyers to be sure not just to keep the house in good repair, but also to upgrade it and improve it over the life of their ownership. Recently I walked into a home with an asking price of $425,000 that was in pristine condition - if the 1960's is your style. As one of my clients said, it was like walking into a "time warp." Everything was in perfect condition, but nothing had been changed since the house was built in the 60's. The house was described by the listing agent as "lovingly maintained by original owner." I know now that the listing agent's description was a euphemism for "you'll need to spend a lot of money to bring this house up to date."

If you're looking to buy in one of these deteriorating neighborhoods be sure you know where to go for any information you need about the neighborhood. Federal Fair Housing Laws forbid real estate licensees to discriminate in any way against anyone seeking to purchase a home or any homeowner who has a home available for purchase. These laws have many nuances, too many to go into here. Licensees want you to have the information you need, but they also don't want to be in the business of discriminating against home buyers or sellers. Drive around the neighborhood, call the local police department, talk to neighbors, check out the town's website for plans for renewal. You can look at the schools in the neighborhood you're interested in to see how they fare in Colorado's Accountability report.

You'll have to decide whether a neighborhood is for you or not.