John Keene

My daughter is 4-years old and it seems like every weekend one of her classmates is having a birthday party. Luckily I don't live far from the Timbuk Toys in Lowry. Located in the Lowry Town Center (2nd and Quebec) their store is only about 10 minutes away. The fact that they are open 7 days a week is helpful too, since I always end up waiting until the last minute to pick up a gift.

But when I do finally get around to shopping for a present I am always amazed at the selection, and I always find something appropriate. Then they gift wrap it for me!

I will probably be there tomorrow as my daughter has a party to go to on Thursday. Luckily, through their rewards program, I earned a $10 off coupon last time I was there.

Did you know that Stapleton is currently divided into five distinct neighborhoods? East 29th Ave neighborhood is where it all began. The retail stores around 29th Avenue and the aptly named Founders Green provide the anchor for the multitude of housing options. You will find apartments, lofts, affordable and senior housing, as well as a wide variety of single family homes.

Eastbridge is what they call the neighborhood on the completely opposite side of Stapleton. Eastbridge is everything located east of the Westerly Creek greenway, and will be the home to the next town center at Havana and MLK. The most recent development in the Eastbridge neighborhood has been the opening of the F-15 pool on 28th St last summer.

Located in the center of what is the current Stapleton is the Westerly Creek neighborhood. It surrounds Westerly Creek Elementary School and is bound by parks on three of it's four sides. This neighborhood is also home to the original Stapleton pool.

The south end of Stapleton is called, guess what? South End. On either side of Central Park you will find The Bladium Health Club and a the new RE/MAX building, which is home to Perk-n-Play, An's Lemon Grass Cafe, and the Sweet Life Nail Bar & Lounge, to name a few.

Lastly, the newest neighborhood is Central Park North. Located immediately north of the 80-acre Central Park, this neighborhood is also close to Quebec Square and a future light rail stop. Central Park North is now the home to most of the builder models now being offered in Stapleton.

After last year's poison pet food scare, my wife and I began to research better food for our two cats as well as our two dogs. After quite a bit of online research we learned that only a few miles away, in Park Hill, there was a natural pet food store. Ever since, I visit Ciji's Natural Pet Supplies about every two weeks.

Upon our initial visit Bonnie, the store owner, provided us with a wealth of information of pet nutrition. We switched to a combination of wet and dry food for the cats, and put our dogs on a Holistic dry food.

Our 4-year old daugher loves Ciji's too, and always wants to bring a toy home. I highly recommend Ciji's for all your pet needs. They are located in a wonderful block of retail at 2260 Kearney St.

I visited three builders today. Infinity Homes currently has no inventory homes for sale.

Harvard Homes only has one Near Zero Energy Home available. It is a Courtyard model, 3BR/3.5BA home, listed at $758K.

McStain, on the other hand, has several inventory homes. In their Casita paired homes product, there is a 2BR/2BA Cielo listed at $290K and a 2BR/2BA Luna listed at $250. Both are approximately 1000 square feet and come with an attached 2 car garage.

McStain is also running a special on three penthouse units on Xenia St. The Alcott, a 3BR/3.5BA (including two master suites) has been reduced to $435K. The price of the 4BR/3.5BA Franklin has dropped $47K to $450K. While the largest of the three units, the 4BR/4BA Grove is now only $525K.

Lastly, McStain is selling a Lincoln row home near the dog park for $350K. The Lincoln has 2 bedrooms and 2.5 baths.

A few buyers have recently expressed concern over purchasing a home now because they fear that home prices will continue to drop. They want to time the market and buy at the "bottom". What they fail to realize is that interest rates are near an all time low, and that an increase in interest rates will have a greater impact on their purchasing power than price.

In the following example, assume a buyer is pre-approved to purchase a $200,000 home while the 30-year FHA rate currently at 5%. Their monthly payment would be approximately $1322. Now assume the interest rate goes up to 6%. To keep that monthly payment, the home owner could only purchase a $180,000 home.

Home Price Rate Payment
$200,000 5% $1322
$180,000 6% $1320

In other words, the value of home would have to drop 10% in order to offset the one point increase in interest rate for this buyer to break even. In my opinion, at this price point such a price reduction is unlikely. Inventory of homes in this price range continues to decline as these homes are in great demand.

I work with a lot of first time home buyers, and this is the price point where many of them fall. I've been in competitive bid situations quite a bit lately in the sub-$200K market. That is why I recommend the buyers I am working with buy now.

The only way they could lose would be if home prices do continue to fall AND interest rates followed. But really that's not much of a loss either because they could still re-finance at the lower rate. If either go up (which history tells us they eventually will) the buyer is ahead of the game.