Debi Boucher - "Realtor Showcase" Real Estate Slideshows/ Photographer

McAfee Estate in Woodland Park, Co Goes Back on the Auction Block

In the spring of 2007, I had the opportunity to tour the 290 acre property and home of anti-virus mogul, John McAfee. OMG! What an amazing little homestead! John himself conducted the tour of Real Estate professionals prior to the auction in May that would result in the sale of the property for 5.72 million. A disappointment, surely, for McAfee, as bidding was to start at 15 million. Even so, it was the highest priced sale in the region. I was expecting to meet a "geeky" type guy that day. Instead, John McAfee was a well preserved 60 something in jeans, a white T shirt and boots. (Not that there is anything wrong with geeky, just not what in my mind's eye was expecting).

He spent a reputed 25 million to develop the property.

We toured the incredible 10,600 square foot home with 19 bedrooms , and of course, picturesque and to die for views of Pikes Peak. Fabulous and very old statuary from places (now forgotten, sorry) around the world graced the entry. We then followed in other vehicles as he toured us around the acreage. There were 3 guest homes, (one used as a yoga center), and nine cabins on the property. One of the cabins as I recall, was built precariously atop a rock outcropping. Looked a little difficult to get to!

The property sold in May of 2007 to 29 year old Chicago commodities trader, Jeffery Patrick Wu. Mr. Wu put the property back on the market in December of 2007 after he decided he was unable to spend as much time there as he had thought. I do know that there was some negotiating at one point from a potential buyer, a corporation, but I'm not aware of the reason that deal fell through. The property was listed at 8.9 million, and later reduced to 7.5 million. The estate will go on the auction block this time starting at a bargain price of 3.8 million on November 8. Pre-auction inspections are on November 1, and anyone wishing to bid on the property

must have in hand a $100,000 cashiers check.

Personally, I'm hoping whoever buys the estate does not do so with the intention of subdividing. To date, no one has consulted me for my opinion....;)

Thanks to Marti for the new Post Separator!

Buy a television set exactly like your neighbor's. Then annoy them by standing outside their window and changing their channel using your identical remote control.

Prudential Professional REALTORS, ASP REALTOR, Woodland Park Real Estate, Woodland Park Colorado 80863 – Serving the City of Woodland Park, Teller County, Ute Pass, and Park County since 1997.

The Hayman Fire began on June 8, 2002 and burned until July 2, 2002, nearly an entire month. Almost 138,000 acres burned, and the fire cost $1 billion to fight. It was the largest fire in Colorado history.

In all, 133 homes were destroyed, 1 commercial building, and 466 outbuildings. In ONE day only, 60,000 acres burned, and at one point burned 1/2 mile in just 4 minutes due to the "perfect" fire conditions at the time. The fire was caused by arson. Those of us living in the area watched in horror as we struggled to prepare for evacuation, and watch our sky fill with acrid smoke, ashes covering everything.

On June 26, 2007, a tornado tore through the area 2 miles north of our town of Woodland Park, and the next day I took my camera and went out to photograph the damage. It cut through approximately 200 acres, some of it in the burn area.

These are some of the photographs I took on that day.

And the forest regenerates itself with life....

All Photos taken by Debi Boucher, all rights reserved and may not be reproduced without express written permission. Prudential Professional REALTORS, ASP REALTOR, Woodland Park Real Estate, Woodland Park Colorado 80863 – Serving the City of Woodland Park, Teller County, Ute Pass, and Park County since 1997.

Woodland Park, Teller County, Colorado Credit and Mortgage Deficiency Rates

My fellow Active Rainer, Dean Moss from Chicago, posted a very interesting piece to his blog today. In fact, I found it so interesting that I decided, with his permission, to share it here, (the link to his informative post is below), and on Localism.com.

Very interesting to me is the NY Fed's Interactive Map , which gives credit and mortgage deficiency rate percentages for counties all over the country.

This is what it says for Teller County:

Credit Card deficiency rate is at 2.32%

Mortgage deficiency rate is at 2.55%

These numbers are an increase of 1.21% from last quarter.

The mortgage deficiency rate in El Paso County is 2.02%, in Pueblo 3.06%, and Denver County is at 3.73%. The highest in the state is Adams County at 4.53%. Park County is one of the lowest at .07%.

As Dean states, mortgage delinquency rates are up in 73% of counties across the nation, and if that's not bad enough, consumer credit card delinquency rates are up about as much.

Colorado's Department of Labor and Employment reports the unemployment rate for Colorado at 5.2%, up from 4% last year, with the national average at 6.1%. The Labor Department announced earlier this month that U.S. employers cut another 159,000 jobs in September, bringing the loss up to about 728,000 this year, and the total for the quarter to 287,142. In Colorado there are 142,194 unemployed workers as of September 2008, up 40,000 so far from last year.

These are staggering numbers, and as so many of us are being adversely effected in so many ways by the economic downturn, we depend more and more on our credit cards to help carry us through - or worse, stay afloat. Dean's post has more insight into this, and the following is the link to his Blog:

CREDIT CARD DELINQUENCIES - The Next Bubble to Burst?

Thanks for your thought provoking and informational post, Dean.

Prudential Professional REALTORS, ASP REALTOR, Woodland Park Real Estate, Woodland Park Colorado 80863 – Serving the City of Woodland Park, Teller County, Ute Pass, and Park County

The Colorado Gold Oil Rush

In 2006, it was revealed that lying 1000 feet under the surface of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming is more than 2 TRILLION barrels of untapped oil reserves. This is the largest untapped oil reserve on the planet. The oil here comes from "oil shale", which looks like ordinary black rock. When heated, the shale produces oil.

Who knew? Until it was announced in 2006, pretty much only the government knew. But they'd known for a long time. In the 1930's the government took steps to protect this area, comprising about 1.9 million acres, making it BLM land. The thing is that for the past 80 years or so, buying oil from other countries was cheaper than producing our own.

Here are the official estimates of the amount of oil available:

* 8-times as much oil as Saudi Arabia
* 18-times as much oil as Iraq
* 21-times as much oil as Kuwait
* 22-times as much oil as Iran
* 500-times as much oil as Yemen

And it’s all right here in the Western United States.

Full story by Rense: http://www.rinf.com/columnists/news/the-us-governments-secret-colorado-oil-discovery

" According to other estimates, Colorado and Utah have as much oil as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Nigeria, Kuwait, Libya, Angola, Algeria, Indonesia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates combined. Trapped in limestone up to 200 feet thick in the two Rocky Mountain states is enough so-called shale oil to rival OPEC and supply the U.S. for a century".

Full Story by Joe Carroll, Bloomberg News: http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,660227927,00.html

The area is known as the Green River Formation, and holds approximately 2 million barrels of oil PER ACRE. In an article on September 4, 2008, Gary Harmon writes that over 360,000 acres are to be set aside for oil shale development. About 140,000 acres in Colorado were excluded for environmental reasons. This production was looked at in the 1970's, and scraped after the fuel prices began to come down again in the eighties.

This is not without controversy. State leaders claim that the environmental costs are too high, and the technology required is unproven.

There is also the question of the amount of water needed to develop the oil shales. John Orr, Colorado Water Examiner, claims that "it will take ALL the water left to develop in Colorado. No water for new agriculture, a growing population or other industries such as electrical generation or bio fuels".

"Our elected officials, on both sides of the aisle, are pretty much all supportive of oil shale development. There are just too many unknowns right now."

Full Story on water issues from John Orr: http://www.examiner.com/x-395-Colorado-Water-Examiner~y2008m6d17-Shell-Oil

There are 3 companies in Northwest Colorado with 160 acres each, operating six research and development leases.

"Shell Oil is working on its freezewall technique aimed at preventing groundwater contamination from the process the company hopes to use to heat the rock to free petroleum.

By some estimates, Shell and other companies could produce 50,000 barrels of petroleum per day on each 160-acre lease and the companies could convert them to 5,120-acre commercial leases if they can show commercial production.

Shell, however, has said it’s years from deciding whether its process can be a commercial success.

The 1.9 million acres marked for possible development lie atop about the equivalent of 800 billion barrels of oil, according to the Interior Department.

The bureau’s decision also affects 631,000 acres in Utah and 1 million acres in Wyoming."

Full Story by Gary Harmon: http://www.gjsentinel.com/hp/content/news/stories/2008/09/04/090508_1a_Oil_shale_PEIS.html

The Bush administration auctioned off 55,000 acres of oil and natural gas leases in a wildlife habitat area of Colorado in August of this year. Colorado's Governor, Bill Ritter, says "The federal government has once again failed to act as a responsible partner for Colorado".

Apparently, rising and devastating fuel costs have brought this possible production back to the forefront, and with it, continued, and heated, controversy.

Prudential Professional REALTORS, ASP REALTOR, Woodland Park Real Estate, Woodland Park Colorado 80863 – Serving the City of Woodland Park, Teller County, Ute Pass, and Park County