Over the past 10 years South Nevada ~ just outside downtown ~ has generated conversation, studies, renderings and overall tempted by various investors, developers and politicians as a great Urban Renewal site. Recently, Leland Consulting Group of Denver completed a study that details the need for improvement. Developer Jim Rhue, hired Leland to complete the study. Rhue proposes an 8 acre area around Nevada and Navajo to be called, "Broadmoor Gateway Pavilions". Here you would find restaurants, apparel stores and Sunflower Farmers Market as a possible anchor tenant. What happens next is submitting an urban renewal plan that would spell out land uses for the area. If approved, the Colorado Springs City Council would sign off on the new land uses and the blight study. If accepted, an urban renewal designation would allow future tax revenue from redeveloped areas to pay for public improvements in the area. There are several real estate options available in this area as of this writing. Call or email for specific requests and updates.
When looking to make a move to Colorado Springs and like the Falcon area a new term may pop up. Google Metropolitan District and you quickly discover a clear cut definition is not clear cut. You find lots of metropolitan districts, for lots of places. But the only encyclopedia article I could find discusses the making of areas and governments in England. Well, that wasn't what I was looking for! What are these metropolitan districts? What are their benifets?
Essentially, a metropolitan district is a form of state government created to service a particular area or neighborhood. Often Metro districts build and maintain roads in the neighborhood, provide water treatment, and waste water management, parks and recreation, and street lighting depending on a each particular neighborhoods plans. A metropolitan district is run by a board of directors and funded by a combination of property taxes, fees for services, and other charges. And as a whole typically proved more services than a home owner's association.
A homeowners association is easy to find a definition for. But in short it is a non-profit organization typically formed by a developer and designed to provide common services to homeowners. Associations enforce community covenants, and maintain common areas or recreational facilities. Association are funded by dues, and in some cases money from a metropolitan district that may serve the same neighborhood.
Now to the reason for my definitions...
In a recent transaction I learned a valuable piece of information. Homeowner's Association dues are calculated in the totally monthly expenses when a lender is calulating a buyers total loan qualification. If you have condo dues of $200 a month it will lower your total approval considerably. So for buyers looking in the top of their price range, homeowners dues can knock lots of potential homes listed in their price range to unattainable. That can be very dissappointing to a first time homebuyer or someone who is not familiar with assiciations.
On the other hand... A metropolitan district may also have "fees" of $200 per month, openly discribed in the listing. Possibly making even buyers who are familiar with HOA's turn away. My buyers were looking near the top of their price range and were discouraged by the high dues, until their lender shared this. In a case where a metropolitan district provides services particular to a property such as water and sewer, you can request a break down of the bill and make the lender lower the amount counted against the buyers in the debt to income ratio. Possibly putting those homes knocked to unatainable right back in the can do price range.
A couple of weeks ago customers from Switzerland were in town looking at property in Colorado. Throughout our correspondence prior to their arrival they continued to reiterate to me, "distance does not matter," we like remote. Where we live now is 2 hours to a bigger town. I hear this regularly and over the years have learned to ask, "what does remote mean to you"? It can mean:
In Colorado Springs and the surrounding mountains it does not take long to get to a "remote" feel and more imporantly here is what "remote" can represent:
After returning home to Switzerland my customers emailed and said, "Remote' in our book is not necessarily ‘remote' in the mind of a person living in the Rockies (access to infrastructure is more important to us than we thought). I laughed out loud when I read this because as much as we talk about what remote is, most of the time it has to be experienced to truly be able to determine "by experience" what remote is and what they ideally want.
Interested in finding out what your home walking score is? Click on Walk Score. How Colorado Springs neighborhoods’ Walk Scores rate (out of 100): Old North End 97 Falcon 40
While showing houses this past weekend the question came up about the ability to walk to local shops, stores, restaurants & shows. What a great question and could this be a trend emerging? Online I discovered that indeed this is a growing trend and if your house is within a rated walking distance to grocery stores, dining or coffee shops, it could bring more than homes not in walkable neighborhoods.
As Colorado Springs grows new urban areas pop up and commercial centers, marketplaces and speciality stores are discovered. This changes the score for homes in neighborhoods that were previously considered "too far out". Walk Score was developed by a company called Front Seat. They say, "our software connect people to the places we live, the resources we consume and our communities."
The Walk Score of a property is calculated by determining the property's proximity to restaurants, coffee shops, schools, parks, stores and other amenities. A Walk Score of 70 or above indicates neighborhoods where it's possible to get by without a car.
Old Colorado City 97
Manitou Springs 43
Briargate 57Colorado Springs also offers a great variety of walking trails throughout the city. Check back for future blogs on fun trails.
I was driving down I-25 which runs North and South through Colorado Springs. Having recently just read Outside Magazine's story and ranking Colorado Springs as the #1 City for Outdoor lifestyle I could not resist this photo combining the old covered wagon with a 4-wheeler between it. Home & toys packed they are ready to "home
stead".
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I specialize in the Colorado Springs and surrounding Southern Colorado areas for homes and land. http://www.OwnYourOwnMountain.com
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