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Chapter 1: Moving to Denver Colorado | Wash Park Luxury Home Tour
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What does $1.7 million get you a few blocks away from Washington Park in Denver, Colorado?
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We're going to show you all around this Washington Park house and then stay tuned because after we do the tour, we're going to show you a little bit about the neighborhood and all about why
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it is one of the most desirable areas in all of Denver. So, this home is priced at 1,695,000.
Chapter 2: Denver Home Tour $1.7M | Wash Park Home Features
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It's got a total above ground square footage of $2,358.
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But if that's not enough for you, it's also got a finished basement, bringing the total finished square footage to 3,371
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square ft. It's got three bedrooms and four bathrooms. Plenty of space, plus, as you'll see, a massive garage
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just blocks from the park and three blocks from Devil's Food, Myrtle Hill cookery, and all the cool stuff on Gayler Street.
Chapter 3: Wash Park Bungalow Denver | Historic Charm and Updates
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This home was built in 1951, but it does not feel like it. Yes, it maintains its historic charm, some of the beautiful
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characteristics that you are never going to find on a new build or a scrape, but it still has gorgeous updates throughout the entire home.
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Excuse me. I thought there were three bedrooms, but looks like there's a fourth one. Oh, no. This is the master closet.
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A lot of houses in Washington Park you're going to find have the original or quite old pine floors. Uh here we've got the updated oak floors. They're not
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brand new by any means, but they are in good shape and they are much newer than some of the original pine flooring and
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they last a lot longer cuz oak is a more high quality wood to use on your floors than pine.
Chapter 4: Luxury Homes Denver Colorado | Primary Suite and Natural Light
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Fully remodeled bathroom on the main with a bathtub and a shower. This is awesome.
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The primary suite is absolutely to die for. We've got this huge tub, separate shower, double sinks in the vanity,
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water closet for the toilet. What more could you ask for?
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Great architecture. The whole house is bathed in natural light. And you've got a sweet front patio to say hey to the neighbors.
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This is the kind of neighborhood where you want to get to know your neighbors and they want to get to know you. Tons of friendliness, lots of friendly people out saying hello. Uh fun things going on
Chapter 5: Washington Park Denver Homes | Pop Top Design and Garage Space
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in the park. Well, here comes some new neighbors right now.
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It's got all the warmth and character that you would find in a classic bungalow style home in Wash Park, but it's been expanded with a pop top, adding tons of extra space.
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Built in 1951, we've got remodeled kitchen with all new appliances and realwood floors. And you're going to have to check out what is a huge garage.
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This is a pretty average lot for Washington Park. Uh so you've got a nice little sitting area. What's abnormal about this is this massive garage. I
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mean, it's it's a twocar garage, but it's a real twocar garage. Most of the garages in this neighborhood, you cannot open your doors if you get two cars in
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there. Couple good things to note here on the side of
Chapter 6: Buying a Home in Denver Colorado | Drainage and Landscaping Tips
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the house. So, we've got two air conditioners, which is really nice. So, this is originally a ranch style home.
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They popped the top years ago. So, we have two zones for the air conditioning.
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And in addition, we've got just a really nice job of the landscaping in this home. Wash Park is known for houses that have uh the the grading has has gotten
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worse over the years, which means water is seeping into the foundations. But with this one, we've done they've done a lot of the work for you to keep the
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water flowing away from the foundation of your home. Super good for the long-term value of your home. You know the story when it comes to real estate.
Chapter 7: Is Washington Park Denver Worth It | Real Estate and Lifestyle
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Location, location, location. And Washington Park delivers. It's an area of Denver where you're going to find so much of the benefits of living in Denver
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without a lot of the cons. It's Denver without the Denver. You've really got like the established treeine streets. You've got the sense of community.
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Everybody's walking and biking. Um, and it's just a really beautiful place to be. Let us show you more. And this home that we've just toured you through is
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located on the northeast end of Washington Park. And this area is known to just have a little bit more luxury style homes. It's got a little bit
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elevated purchase price in comparison to Wash Park as a whole or the east end of Wash Park. And you know, I would say it
Chapter 8: Living in Denver Colorado 2026 | Wash Park Lifestyle
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has a little bit less walkability over on this side, but you are going to find bigger homes, newer builds, and a lot more of these custom luxury style homes.
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Washington Park is just kind of like the neighborhood's big backyard. It's open to everyone just like a park, but it has
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a different feel. You know, people bring their whole coolers in and no glass bottles, but you bring your cans of beers. I remember back when that was not
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allowed and we never ever brought a beer in.
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Never once. I've never brought I solemnly swear.
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But yeah, it's really got that vibe. I mean, people will will bring food and have picnics and it's really just got a different vibe, I think, than a traditional park does. Really that backyard feel.
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Yeah. People come out here to like sunbathe and take a nap and just chill.
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Yeah. And there's more to do in Wash Park rather than just run and drink beer, though that's mostly what I do here. Me, too.
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You can rent some paddle boats. You can do lots of recreational activities like birding. You can bike around. We have
Chapter 9: Denver Lifestyle Neighborhoods | Restaurants and Events
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really good dedicated bike paths. And there's also some events that they host around here, too. Tons of events throughout the year. There's things like
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the Fourth of July parade, and there's the Turkey Trap 5K, which I think we've run together three or four times. Some
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of my favorite spots in all of Denver are actually right here in Washington Park. One of those spots is there's a place called Pura. And right next door
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is a uh not a speak easy, but just like a cocktails only place called the Brick.
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And we just did date night the other day with some friends where we went and grabbed a really custom cocktail and they were trying out something new. So
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we got to try out this like sort of carrot thing for free. It was delightful. Uh everyone there is really wonderful. Pura serves up like Baja style Mexican food, really high quality.
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Um, and there's tons of other choices. There's also Mr. Oso is around here.
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Devil's Food Bakery is is awesome. Then, uh, the old Devil's Food breakfast restaurant is now Myrtle Hill Cookery, and that's been an amazing place for
Chapter 10: 07:08 Denver Colorado Cost of Living 2026 | Relocating to Denver
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years. So, we have so many good things and so many great choices to choose from in Wash Park. And if that's not enough,
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you're also right next to Plat Park with some of the best restaurants in all of Denver.
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So that's what you get for $1.7 million in Washington Park. And this is a great house and a great value for what you're
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paying for it. So whether it's this home or any home in Washington Park, please let us know. We'd love to take you on a personal tour in your favorite neighborhood.
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Description text goes hereChapter 1: Reasons Not to Move to Denver | Living in Denver Colorado
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Oh man, I didn't know all these power lines are going to be right in the view for the intro. Should we go somewhere else?
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I don't know. Yeah, this used to be such a good view. What happened? Well, this is our cons for Denver video. So, this is perfect. We'll roll with it. Yeah. Well, Denver sucks.
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Denver does not suck. Why have you lived here your whole life then?
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I guess that's true. I've never I mean, I did go to summer camp for a couple months for a couple summers there, but other than that, I've never left. But look at they're always putting up power
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lines and stuff. Ruin you are here to stay and you love Denver. We love Denver. But hey, there are cons about Denver that we absolutely
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have to make you aware of if you're thinking of moving here. You got to know about the bad things before you take the good. So, we will break all that down.
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And we're not just going to stop at it's expensive, cuz it is expensive, but there's so much more.
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There's so much more to the expensive thing. It's not just to buy a house, but it's all the ways that Denver, that Colorado is coming to get your home.
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So, stay tuned and we will talk you through that. We are Jake and Megan Fredel. We're your brother sister team, full-time real estate agents, part-time tour guides to all things Denver living.
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So, reach out to us with any questions you have about real estate and enjoy the video because we're excited to talk to you about Denver. Denver is so expensive.
Chapter 2: Denver Public Transportation vs Denver Suburbs
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That's Everybody starts with the cost of living. Everybody knows that Denver is expensive. Can we start with something more exciting or like a little bit off the beaten path?
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Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. So, so interesting thing we do need to talk about is the size of Denver, right? So, the Denver metropolitan area has about 3
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million people and that's kind of an odd size. If you're coming from the Bay Area, if you're coming from back east, you're used to these large cities and
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there's a lot of great things that a large city provides. Controver, you know, on the other side, if you're coming from Texas, you might be from a really friendly small town and you're
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coming and this this feels kind of weird. This feels kind of different.
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It's it's a much bigger there's a lot of pollution. There's a lot of problems.
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Yeah. You know, Denver is not really either of those. I personally find it's kind of the perfect size city, but if you do have this expectation of it being
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really rich with city life or having a really small town feel, you might feel a little disappointed.
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So, some of the problems with being in this sort of mediumsiz city where it's too big to be a little small friendly town but too small to support a lot of
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things that big cities cities like Chicago have is that the public transit is awful here. I mean, it's it's really
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lacking. If you come from a place like Chicago or Boston or whatever, you're going to be s super disappointed in our little light rail system. We do have
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some good things coming. They're working a lot on these uh transit corridors and there's the the BRTs coming in. So, it is getting better and even after it gets
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better, you're probably still going to be disappointed.
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Yeah. So, I mean, we do have like the light rail station. Um, and you know, for a lot of people that serves them pretty well, but it's true, it's not uh really the best top tier transportation system.
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And we are still very highly car dependent.
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Absolutely. And that's partially because it's a really sprawled out city, you know, it's like it's not super big, it's not super small, but everything is kind
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of spread out. So, even if you find a really walkable neighborhood like say Plat Park or Wash Park, which hey, we have full video breakdowns of both of those places that you can check out
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anytime on our channel. But even if you find a little area like that where you can be walkable right around that region, you still are probably going to
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be relying on your car to get to work or to really go anywhere outside of your little pocket.
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Another thing is that the restaurant scene here, we get a lot of complaints about the restaurant scene in Denver is that I think we're just not a big enough
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city yet to really support a robust restaurant scene. Things are getting a lot better before the pandemic and the pandemic kind of wiped a lot of places
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out. So, we're still in this sort of rebuild phase. And not to say that there's not good food here, but it's that there's not good cheap food here.
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It's like if you want good food, you're gonna spend, you know, like 300 bucks on a couple to have a nice dinner out. And that kind of sucks.
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Yeah, it's not that bad for food quality.
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Um, so we're getting better. We're working on that. But another thing is I've heard the complaint that, you know, it's kind of a small city and you can't just kind of disappear into it. You
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know, like if you are in New York, you can totally disappear in New York. You can there's all the burrows and you go to a different burrow and you're not going to know anybody. And Denver is a
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small enough city that you're going to bump into people you know quite often.
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What's funny is I've heard that as a pro. Like I've had people be like, I love that we're in the city. We're so walkable. Um these are my clients that
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are right in Union Station and they say that they do get the repeat people in their lives. Like everywhere they go, they kind of know someone around and
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they love that aspect. So, it's really just like if your expectation isn't aligning with our city size, you're going to have a problem. But if you like that in between, then you're great. And
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if you're looking for a smaller town vibe, all you need to do is really go away from Denver because the further you get from Denver, the more we have these little small town communities that are
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totally available to you. All right, Megan. Now, can we talk about how expensive it is to live in this city? Yeah, go for it.
Chapter 3: Denver Cost of Living 2026 & Home Prices
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Okay, so it's very expensive to live in Denver. Buying a house is the obvious one. Uh the median home cost in Denver city limits is about $640,000.
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The metropolitan area drops a little bit to $580,000.
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That is a lot of money for a starter home. Uh, so it I will say things are getting better and it's become a place
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in the last couple years where prices have backed down a little bit and you can get a decent home in the exerbs for half a million dollars, but that's quite
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expensive. Um, part of the problem has been the interest rates. You know, that is driving up the cost of living for
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your monthly payment. Um, and in a time when uh the mortgage inflation has been
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71%, incomes have only grown in the area around 14%. So the cost of living is growing faster than what we're earning.
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So the median income in Denver is around $92,000 a year. Uh so with the average pricing, it's almost 7 times your uh
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yearly income to buy a home. Anywhere where that number is four to five times on the ratio is considered pretty expensive. So, Denver is pretty darn
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expensive. Outside the cost of actually purchasing the home, it's a very expensive place to live for a number of other reasons. Uh the homeowners
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insurance, which we'll get into in a little bit, is very expensive. Car insurance is very expensive because you have to do a lot of driving in the
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Denver metro area. Uh most couples need to own two cars unless you're living really in the city. Maybe you can get by with one. Um, but car insurance is
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really expensive because the hail and lots of other problems and the heavy use of cars. Um, gas isn't too bad here actually. If you're from California,
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you're going to think it's cheap. If you're from Texas, you're going to think it's a little expensive. Then you've got the groceries which are more expensive than average. Restaurants and drinks and coffees are more expensive than average.
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All these things add up and they contribute to the overall cost of living in Denver being about 12 to 15% higher
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than most of the country. There's so many more things that are way more expensive. We actually did a full video deep dive on the cost of living in
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Denver. So, make sure you check out that video. We're going to end this boring part of the video out now so you can find out more of the nitty-gritty. One tough thing about moving to or moving
Chapter 4: Denver Housing Market 2026 | Buying a Home
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around in the Denver area is that the Denver real estate markets can be very difficult to understand. And I say markets because that's exactly what we
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have. Every single neighborhood has its own market. Every price range has its own market. And they're all acting,
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especially right now, and behaving differently than each other. This is a particular struggle we are seeing with buyers moving in from out of state.
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They're coming here and they're saying, you know, we just had this buyer come in. They're living in Cis. They came here and they were having such a shock
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trying to understand these different markets because it felt like every home they were putting an offer in on was going for over asking. They were up in bidding wars against multiple offers.
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And they were looking at other areas and other price points that were not seeing this. They were maybe even having 50 days on market on average and one single
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offer coming in below asking price to be the winner. Well, that's because right now there are certain neighborhoods that are performing really well and there are
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certain price ranges, particularly the luxury price range, you know, right around 1 to $1.2 million, are booming.
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They're seeing a lot of competition, especially in the spring environments.
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And that's not always true for other markets. And I had some sellers earlier this year that was talking to a friend of hers in a different neighborhood. She
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was kind of modeling her sale on her friends and her friend sale took a long time and it really struggled to get a
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close to listing price value. That wasn't even because they really overpriced it that much. It's just because that neighborhood was moving
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slowly. But her neighborhood was hot. We got that sold much quicker and for above asking price. So, it can be really disorienting. And that's where we shine.
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We really come in with the guidance. We are familiar with the different markets of different neighborhoods and can really sit with the research and data to you to make sure you're pricing your
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home exactly right. We've got our fingers on the pulse of this market and here to help you with that.
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While we're talking about the market, we got to talk a little bit about what's happened in Colorado since the pandemic.
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So, during the pandemic, Denver metropolitan area especially, but all of Colorado experienced this insane increase in values. uh I'd say like
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something in the neighborhood of 40 plus percent depending on the neighborhood you're in which was crazy and all of the cities across the country that
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experienced an insane hike in values are now giving a lot of that back over the last couple of years because now we have
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these high interest rates and the the market is just not sustainable as high as it was. So this is kind of a problem
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in Denver. Um, generally Denver actually outperforms most of the nation in appreciation, but right now we're really getting kicked in the teeth and we're
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giving a lot of that 40% back. In fact, I'd say over the last couple years, we've probably given back uh depending on the neighborhood. Again, there's it
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varies widely somewhere between 10 and 20% for some neighborhoods. Now, we did experience a very hot spring just now,
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and we believe that Denver is on the mend. we are in our on the road to recovery and going to start experience price growth again. Uh but the good news
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is we're kind of right in the starting of that on the mend moment and right now there's still tons of concessions and
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still a lot of negotiation capable in when you're buying a home. So if you're coming here this is actually a good thing. Um, and something interesting to
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note is when you're on Zillow looking at what homes sold for, something Zillow does not record is seller concessions on
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private sales. Uh, seller concession is often given to buy down the interest rate or cover the cost of closing or
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even cover the cost of some repairs on inspection. And that number is just not generated and shown publicly on Zillow.
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On the MLS, we have access to when an agent records. Yes, we closed at a million dollars, but we also gave
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$25,000 back because the furnace was out and we didn't have time to do it before closing. So, we just gave the buyer some
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costs. So, it's a great time for that actually if this video doesn't dissuade you from moving to Denver to come in and get some good closing costs covered.
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What I forgot to mention about the concessions really is that they are available widely for when you just make an offer, not just from getting them
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from an inspection negotiation. So, you could walk in and say you're buying whatever house at $750,000.
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You can make an offer at $775 and get $25,000 in concessions. This is a pretty common negotiation right now. We've got
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values that were higher. So, homes are appraising at higher values so we can get more concessions for the benefit of
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your purchase and keep the costs low at closings.
Chapter 5: Denver Condos, Townhomes & HOA Fees
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Now, another con we're going to talk about is the problem of attached housing in Denver. What I mean with attached h housing is anything that's like a town
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home or a condo, whether stacked or side by side, they all kind of run into a similar issue where number one, HOA
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fees, especially right around the Denver area, can be very high. If you're looking at a high-rise in Denver, you might be looking at an $800 a month HOA.
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And if you're looking a little further from Denver, a town home with almost no amenities could still be costing you $400 a month in your HOA. The reason
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this is a Denver specific issue is, you guessed it, it always comes back to insurance. Because of all of those insurance companies pulling out and not
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agreeing to um cover lots of areas in Denver, this has created a shift, especially for these town homes and
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condos where they are having to pay for big insurance policies for large and expensive areas. What we've seen is these HOAs in the last few years have
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skyrocketed. I've had folks tell me that sometimes their HOA has even doubled in just a few years. One thing that we're
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also seeing with this is maybe a little bit of misrepresentation in the HOA fees. I'm seeing more often town homes
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that used to be fully covered by the HOA. I'm talking your roof goes out, that's okay. The HOA is going to take care of you. That's a massive appeal to
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most people when they're looking at buying a town home. Some of these policies are actually shifting to being not covering the exterior. That means you have your HOA fee. Maybe it's lower.
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It looks more attractive than the neighboring units and it's only $250 a month, but you still are having to get your own insurance for all of the
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exterior maintenance and pay that deductible when the time comes. It's basically like having a single family home without a lot of the perks of the
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single family home. And this is a major issue that we're experiencing in Denver.
Chapter 6: Denver Dating Scene Pros and Cons
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All right, this is one for all the single fellas out there. Apparently, the dating scene is awful in Denver, and we
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call it Denver for a reason. Uh, so the funny thing is, while the overall population is only like 100 women to
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101.8 men, uh, the reality is that there are more men in their 30s and 40s and
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less women. So, for you ladies, this is actually maybe a good thing. Uh, and for you men, maybe it's a struggle. And I
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don't want to forget about the LGBTQ community. From what I hear, it's actually a difficult city for gay men to date as well. So, even though there's a
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flood of men, I don't think that uh from what I hear around the streets is that it's not a great selection. Now, honestly, as a as a guy who's been
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married for a while now, I kind of look back at those single days and I think, "Yeah, but I was so dumb and I was so bad at dating." And I always wonder
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like, is this reality or is this just people suck at dating? So, I don't know.
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You'll have to putts around on the Reddit scene. Maybe come check out a night in town and see what it's like to get out there and meet some folks. Um, but this is highly reported from
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personally my single friends and across Reddit that it is a tough dating scene.
Chapter 7: Denver Nightlife | Colorado Reality Check
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And closely related to the dating scene is the nightlife scene in Denver. The interesting thing is Denver is a very
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early night out city. Like you're not going to find tons of robust late night stuff like in Chicago or New York.
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Things are happening all night long. It really shuts down most nights of the week in Denver at around midnight. And that maybe is kind of late sometimes,
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too. Friday and Saturday, you're going to find late things, but you have to seek them out. It's not a great place to just be kind of stumbling along through
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the city and running into the next thing to do. You have to know where you're headed next. Um, and this is widely reported by a lot of people on the
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internet, and this is my personal experience. Not that I almost ever go out anymore, but you really have to know and you have to be in the right pocket
15:41
15 minutes, 41 seconds
in order to go from place to place. And if you don't know what's happening next, you might be find yourself just kind of stumbling along wondering where is
15:49
15 minutes, 49 seconds
everyone in this city? Well, the night life as a whole is pretty lame. Uh, we do have some really good dance scenes
15:57
15 minutes, 57 seconds
like the electronic dance scene uh is really good. lots of good EDM folks. I swear like half of my friends are DJs on the side as a sort of passion project.
16:06
16 minutes, 6 seconds
And the social dance scene, if you're into something like social like ballroom dance, like blues dancing, zoo dancing, salsa dancing, all those things are
16:14
16 minutes, 14 seconds
really strong in this community. Um, but in the overall just as a ter in general, like going out and finding a dance club, it's not amazing and there's only a
16:22
16 minutes, 22 seconds
handful of places that are really great for that. while you're in town checking out the dance scene. If you're interested in that social dance scene, I am a regular sponsor of a couple of
16:31
16 minutes, 31 seconds
really awesome social dance nights. Uh number one, shout out to my friends at Mojo Mondays, which is a blues dance scene every Monday night at the 11th
16:40
16 minutes, 40 seconds
Avenue Hostel. They have a beautiful space, a nice dance space. It's a super welcoming and loving community, and you get a little lesson at the beginning of
16:48
16 minutes, 48 seconds
the night, and then you can dance and make new friends. It's one of the most welcoming communities in Denver. And I would say very similar things about my
16:55
16 minutes, 55 seconds
friends in the Zuk community. That's every Thursday night at the Denver School of Social Dance. And then there's so many nights uh that are available at
17:04
17 minutes, 4 seconds
so many other places at the Pearl, which is formerly the Mercury Cafe. Now, the Pearl, you've got swing dance nights, tons of dancing. Anyway, uh that's
17:12
17 minutes, 12 seconds
enough positive stuff in this do not move to Denver video.
Chapter 8: Denver Air Quality & Wildfire Smoke
17:17
17 minutes, 17 seconds
All right, Megan. Another thing we got to touch on is the sixth worst air quality in the country ranked here in
17:25
17 minutes, 25 seconds
Denver. Air quality is really bad. Uh it's a unique situation that happens.
17:29
17 minutes, 29 seconds
It's like the mountains kind of trap the pollutants in so they can't disperse normally or evenly. So we've got this
17:36
17 minutes, 36 seconds
kind of bowl situation where Denver sits. Um and then the the cold air kind of traps all the pollutants down. We
17:43
17 minutes, 43 seconds
have a a high reliance on car transit here. So, we just have this weird kind of number of things coming together to make the the air quality really bad.
17:53
17 minutes, 53 seconds
Yeah. And I guess like the sunlight's making it worse. We already have thinner air, you know, in the first place. I have to say, obviously, I've always
18:00
18 minutes
lived here, but I have traveled other places. This isn't something that has ever really hit my radar. It's not something that I've heard my clients
18:08
18 minutes, 8 seconds
complain about on the day-to-day. Um, so this is really something that I can't verify, oh yeah, this is a big problem
18:15
18 minutes, 15 seconds
for us here necessarily. Where I can st step in practically and say that something is a real thing that we
18:22
18 minutes, 22 seconds
experience is wildfire season. When those fires burn in the mountains, and it might not even be a Colorado fire, it could be burning. It could be blowing in
18:31
18 minutes, 31 seconds
from another state. That really notably affects our air quality. Like there are days where you want to go out for a hike and it's just not a great time to do it
18:39
18 minutes, 39 seconds
because you can feel the smoke in your lungs and that that's like a real life practical thing that I've experienced.
18:46
18 minutes, 46 seconds
Yeah. And there were a couple of bad years like 2020 and 2021 were horrible years like Montana was on fire and New Mexico was on fire and Colorado was on
18:54
18 minutes, 54 seconds
fire and it all was converging in this way. Like the only way we were supposed to socialize with people was outside and if you went outside there was ash
19:02
19 minutes, 2 seconds
raining down on the park. So, uh, as thing as things get warmer and we see more and more fires, um, I don't think
19:10
19 minutes, 10 seconds
they're doing a great job of mitigating and removing all of the dead wood from from the mountains. So, uh, more and
19:17
19 minutes, 17 seconds
more fires here in Colorado. And like Megan said, anytime there's a fire somewhere else, it gets blown here.
19:23
19 minutes, 23 seconds
Yeah. And I will still say it's still a niche, very seasonal, selective, like occasional thing. I don't feel like, you know, it's not a a common thing that
19:32
19 minutes, 32 seconds
we're stepping out and just being hit with this, but it's it does put a damper on the summers sometimes when you're excited to get out to the mountains and there's nothing but smog and fire, you know, fire smoke.
Chapter 9: Skiing in Colorado | Mountain Access Reality
19:42
19 minutes, 42 seconds
Yep. And then ski culture. If skiing is something that you are thinking you're going to come here and have this super
19:50
19 minutes, 50 seconds
fantastic, easy, accessible activity to do all the time, you might have a misalignment on your expectations. And
19:57
19 minutes, 57 seconds
the reality, the truth is Denver and most of the Denver suburbs are not a super fast, easy drive to the mountains.
20:04
20 minutes, 4 seconds
No, it's like 2 hours in zero traffic, which there's never zero traffic.
20:09
20 minutes, 9 seconds
Yeah. And like, you know, for us, we have the ability to occasionally take like a Wednesday cuz we're out showing properties and doing open houses
20:16
20 minutes, 16 seconds
Saturday and Sunday. And so Wednesday, you know, prek kids, that would have been a great time for us to go hit the mountains. And I'll vouch for that being
20:23
20 minutes, 23 seconds
an exceptional experience. It cuts your drive down time a lot. And then you're, you know, you're not sitting in the traffic. You're not frustrated. And then
20:31
20 minutes, 31 seconds
when you're on the mountain, it's less crowded, too. But the reality is most of our weekend warriors, that's not a realistic thing. And so, not only are
20:38
20 minutes, 38 seconds
you up against the drive, you're up against the traffic. And we always got to bring it back to cost.
20:44
20 minutes, 44 seconds
Yeah, skiing is very expensive. If you have to get if you plan on skiing regularly, you have to get a ski pass, which are still getting very expensive
20:51
20 minutes, 51 seconds
every day. But if you want to do just a day pass, it's going to be like $250 just to get on the lift.
20:59
20 minutes, 59 seconds
And that's pretty freaking expensive.
21:01
21 minutes, 1 second
Not to mention food. if you don't bring your own food. Uh I last time I was at Breen Ridge, I got a salad for $35.
21:09
21 minutes, 9 seconds
Mhm. It's insane.
21:10
21 minutes, 10 seconds
Yeah. So, you've got the food, you've got that, and then you've also got your ski rentals. You know, if you got to get your snowboard or go get your ski, um you either have to rent that or buy for
21:19
21 minutes, 19 seconds
pay for it. And then you've got your helmets and all of your snowsuits and your gloves. And you want good quality ones, especially if you're going to be,
21:26
21 minutes, 26 seconds
you know, middle of the winter skiing because as sunny as it is, it still does get cold up there. So, you really want quality gear. So, all of that starts to
21:34
21 minutes, 34 seconds
add up. And I'm not here to harp on ski culture because I love skiing. It has been such a big part of my Colorado
21:42
21 minutes, 42 seconds
experience and why I love it here. I think like, you know, come going out and seeing all of the mountains and being in the sunshine and being with your friends and doing something active,
21:50
21 minutes, 50 seconds
quintessential Colorado culture. So, I think it's worth it personally, but I think if you're coming here and you're thinking it's going to be so easy, so
21:58
21 minutes, 58 seconds
accessible, like you're just going to trip fall and end up a full-time skier. It's not going to happen. Exactly.
22:03
22 minutes, 3 seconds
Often times when I meet people and I'm out of state, and they're like, "Oh, you're from Denver. You must ski." And I'm like, "Ah, a little bit." But when I was a kid, we were too poor to ski.
22:11
22 minutes, 11 seconds
Yeah. Yeah. We I didn't start skiing really until like college.
22:14
22 minutes, 14 seconds
So, we became adults. Yeah. So, it's it's going to take it's going to be a hump that you have to get over. You have to invest in your ski equipment and you
22:21
22 minutes, 21 seconds
have to figure out that past you want to buy it like right now every year because now is when it's the cheapest before you know now being April uh when you buy it for next year's season.
Chapter 10: Bentonite Soil & Foundation Issues
22:31
22 minutes, 31 seconds
Mhm.
22:32
22 minutes, 32 seconds
Colorado is out to destroy your home and there are so many ways that it can get you starting with the very soil in which
22:40
22 minutes, 40 seconds
your home is built. So Colorado is filled with a sort of clay called bentonite. And aside from being a beauty
22:48
22 minutes, 48 seconds
product that makes your face look really nice, uh it also expands and contracts when water hits it. So water hits it, it
22:56
22 minutes, 56 seconds
gets bigger and it pushes on the sides of your foundation. And this can mean extremely bad damaging problems to your
23:04
23 minutes, 4 seconds
home. It will make your makes your floors uneven. It uh can make your walls collaps in and it can cost you tons of money.
23:12
23 minutes, 12 seconds
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's the reason why in Colorado, we do a specific kind of building here that you don't find many other places. It's called float framing,
23:19
23 minutes, 19 seconds
and it's where we leave a gap on the ground when we build the walls of your home to ensure that when that inevitably happens with your soils that your entire
23:27
23 minutes, 27 seconds
walls aren't going to get squished upwards. So, that is, you know, foundation problems are a problem everywhere, but it's an especially big concern here in Colorado that you've got
23:36
23 minutes, 36 seconds
to be aware of when you're looking for your home.
23:38
23 minutes, 38 seconds
Yeah. Every time we take people on a tour of a home, we get to the basement and I have to explain, okay, the the vertical walls are actually foundation
23:45
23 minutes, 45 seconds
and the horizontal floor is just slab and it's made to move. And it does. Um, another issue that kind of exacerbates
23:54
23 minutes, 54 seconds
the bentonite problem is if you're in an area that has a flood plane, which you know, let's let's be honest, there's not
24:01
24 minutes, 1 second
a ton of water in Colorado, but there are Yeah. But the most of the water does come from down the mountains and feed the rest of the country. So, we have
24:09
24 minutes, 9 seconds
areas where water comes through. And uh these flood plants aren't huge, but if you're near one, because we have such reactive soil, it makes it an even bigger deal.
24:19
24 minutes, 19 seconds
Yeah. And it makes your insurance astronomical if you are near or in one of these flood zones. So, another thing you have to be aware of when you're
24:26
24 minutes, 26 seconds
looking at your homes in Colorado is to just check on that and make sure you know what you're getting into. Yeah, insurance has become a huge problem over
24:34
24 minutes, 34 seconds
the last few years because of all of the problems that Colorado has. Uh like five or six of the major insurance companies
24:41
24 minutes, 41 seconds
left the state, which has increased all of the costs because there's fewer companies that are willing to cover out here.
Chapter 11: Colorado Hail Damage & Insurance Costs
24:48
24 minutes, 48 seconds
Yeah, it's been a major problem that we've kind of seen across the board. And it brings us really nicely into the next big threat to your home, which is hail.
24:56
24 minutes, 56 seconds
In Colorado, we have a hail season usually in the spring where the homes pretty regularly get pelted with hail
25:03
25 minutes, 3 seconds
and this can really damage your roof of your home. And when that happens, you have a very short window to get your insurance guy out there, get your roofer
25:12
25 minutes, 12 seconds
out there, get them on the roof together to talk to you. We've learned that the hard way to talk to you about what is going on with your roof and get that
25:19
25 minutes, 19 seconds
claim filed and get it replaced. But I do have some more bad news.
25:23
25 minutes, 23 seconds
Unfortunately, insurance deductibles on these roofs are also skyrocketing.
25:29
25 minutes, 29 seconds
So, you got to make sure you get a have a great and detailed conversation with your insurance agent. We have great referrals and make sure that you're well
25:38
25 minutes, 38 seconds
covered and that your roof has whole life insurance or that we negotiate some roof repairs or a new roof upon purchase.
25:46
25 minutes, 46 seconds
Yeah. And have that conversation with us on a continuous basis. We talk with our clients every year about what insurance is best because whoever we set you up
25:55
25 minutes, 55 seconds
with your first year might not be the best option for the long term. I mean, realistically, it's not going to be the best option for the long term. Here in Colorado, we do not reward you for
26:04
26 minutes, 4 seconds
loyalty with one insurance company. If anything, they penalize you. So, keep shopping every year and reach out to us for the latest and greatest cuz we are
Chapter 12: Wildfire Risk & Property Insurance
26:12
26 minutes, 12 seconds
always up to date on that. I feel like one of the common questions I'm getting for folks moving out of state here is questions about how real fire risk is to
26:21
26 minutes, 21 seconds
their home. People are reading the headlines a lot of the time. Colorado is on fire.
26:26
26 minutes, 26 seconds
It's pretty hazy day right now, actually.
26:29
26 minutes, 29 seconds
Yeah. And after the winter we had this past year, everybody's pretty nervous about what fire season looks like. But here's the reality. If you're looking
26:37
26 minutes, 37 seconds
right in Denver, your risk of fire knocking out your home is pretty limited. Where we have a really high
26:44
26 minutes, 44 seconds
fire risk is out in the mountains and any kind of property where you have a lot of brush and unmaintained trees and
26:52
26 minutes, 52 seconds
shrubbery. Um those really need special attention. We actually have a fantastic fire mitigation company to recommend to you. They're called tree beavers and
27:00
27 minutes
they focus on reducing this risk as much as possible. It's something that you might even have even just to get an insurance um policy on your home is to
27:09
27 minutes, 9 seconds
do that mitigation. And it is amazing statistically how if you actually just do the recommended fire mitigation around your home, how you have these
27:16
27 minutes, 16 seconds
homes where like a home is untouched, home across the road didn't do their fire mitigation and it burns down. Yeah.
27:22
27 minutes, 22 seconds
And you know, I won't say that it only is these mountain properties that you have to be worried about that. You know, if you go into look in the fire map, we'll throw it up on the screen here.
27:30
27 minutes, 30 seconds
You can see that this risk is even existing in Castle Rock, which I would consider a Denver suburb. So, it's something that you do need to be aware of. Um, and you need to be checking out
27:38
27 minutes, 38 seconds
in your insurance policy and just be looking at this map when you're checking out things and weighing the pros and cons of being in these areas.
27:44
27 minutes, 44 seconds
And while we're on insurance, further ramifications of this fire problem is that your insurance is going to be kind of insane in the foothills in the mountains area. Um, I have a client who
27:53
27 minutes, 53 seconds
lives in Evergreen. I helped her buy the home there. And I was just checking in.
27:56
27 minutes, 56 seconds
I was like, "Hey, how's your insurance doing with all this uh the insurance companies leaving recently?" And she said, "Oh, it's terrible. my insurance is $8,000 a year. I was like, "Oh my
28:05
28 minutes, 5 seconds
gosh, that's way too high. Talk to my insurance guy." So, she called my insurance guy and he was like, "Oh yeah, we could quote that for $4,000 a year,
28:13
28 minutes, 13 seconds
but we don't quote that area." So, basically, a lot of shopping around the best the the best pricing on that is something around $8,000 a year, which is
28:22
28 minutes, 22 seconds
more than double what you would be down in the city of Denver.
28:25
28 minutes, 25 seconds
Yeah. You know, I would say there there was a moment in time when I was looking at the property insurance deadline on the contracts and thinking, you know,
28:32
28 minutes, 32 seconds
how often did we really have people terminate on property insurance? Almost never.
28:37
28 minutes, 37 seconds
Yeah. So, this is a whole deadline created for you as a buyer where if you have any issues with your property insurance information, you can terminate that contract and go find another home.
28:45
28 minutes, 45 seconds
And I almost never ran into that situation happening, but it's becoming a more real thing. So, you have that due
28:52
28 minutes, 52 seconds
diligence period to go get your property quote. And if it is astronomical and it breaks the bank for you, you have that opportunity to get out um you know, and go find something else.
29:01
29 minutes, 1 second
While we're speaking about termination deadlines, we should talk about you can terminate the the deal on understanding
29:08
29 minutes, 8 seconds
your fire escape routes. So, something huge to think about is if you're buying in a neighborhood in the foothills, is
29:15
29 minutes, 15 seconds
there more than one way to get out of the neighborhood if there's a fire?
29:19
29 minutes, 19 seconds
because if there isn't, you could be stuck. Um, and if you're interested in the foothills, we have a great fire guide that kind of ranks, you know, how
29:27
29 minutes, 27 seconds
uh good of fire mitigation each area in the foothills has. If you'd like common fire in the comments here and we'll send it your way.
29:34
29 minutes, 34 seconds
Yeah. You know, while we're on the topic of fire and heat, let's jump into sun and the damage it has on your home. So, yes, we have the beautiful sunny weather
29:42
29 minutes, 42 seconds
in Colorado. Even when it's snowing, it's usually sunny, and that's amazing.
29:46
29 minutes, 46 seconds
I wouldn't trade it for anything, but it definitely wreaks havoc on your home.
Chapter 13: Denver Weather & Homeownership Costs
29:50
29 minutes, 50 seconds
So, a lot of time, you know, it depends on what orientation your home is facing, but a lot of time it is hitting one side directly of your home. And maybe that
29:58
29 minutes, 58 seconds
side only is the only part that is in need of a paint paint job replacement.
30:02
30 minutes, 2 seconds
You can get away with just doing that one side, but you might have to do it double as often as you were thinking of just because of that direct hitting. It can also damage your windows on that
30:11
30 minutes, 11 seconds
side of the home more quickly. And we even have a story where one of our clients a couple years ago bought a home and one of the windows in there was the
30:19
30 minutes, 19 seconds
light was hitting it so directly that it melted part of her laptop. And tying it back to fire, I had another client many
30:26
30 minutes, 26 seconds
years ago who actually previous to meeting me, she owned her home and the same kind of thing happened, but it was hitting her water filtration filtration
30:35
30 minutes, 35 seconds
system and that glass refracting the light caused a kitchen fire. She had to completely redo her kitchen. So, be
30:43
30 minutes, 43 seconds
aware of where the sun is and get some good blinds on that side. It's not something I even realized was a real threat until I got into real estate.
30:51
30 minutes, 51 seconds
Colorado is a crazy place. You got to be hearty people to live here. I love a good swing outro.
Chapter 14: Moving to Denver? Final Tips
30:56
30 minutes, 56 seconds
I know. Me, too. Do we overdo it? Is it overplayed?
30:59
30 minutes, 59 seconds
I don't know. You get They're not watching all our videos, right?
31:03
31 minutes, 3 seconds
If all of these things we've talked about today did not scare you off from Denver, you're totally right. Denver is an awesome place to live. Yeah, we've
31:11
31 minutes, 11 seconds
never left. We've been here our whole lives. We're Denver natives. We've watched it grow. We've watched it change. We've we've loved it. We've
31:18
31 minutes, 18 seconds
we've not loved everything, but you know, now you know, all the stuff that we think is a pain in the butt. And if that wasn't enough to dissuade you, it's
31:25
31 minutes, 25 seconds
time to find the perfect neighborhood for you.
31:28
31 minutes, 28 seconds
Yeah. In addition to being lovers of Denver, we are also lovers of real estate. That's what we do for our full-time jobs. And we are so excited to hear all of your Denver real estate
31:36
31 minutes, 36 seconds
questions. Reach out to us with any of them. All of our information is in the description below.
31:40
31 minutes, 40 seconds
Thanks so much and we'll see you next time.
-
DescriptioMoving to Denver Colorado? Denver Housing Market 2026 Predictions
0:00
If you are thinking about moving to or
0:02
around in the Denver area, you're
0:04
probably looking into what people say
0:06
comes next. And that could be
0:08
problematic because two of the
0:10
nationwide highest regarded economists
0:13
completely differ on what the future
0:14
holds.
0:15
That's right. So, it's now April of 2026
0:19
and we have, you know, throughout the
0:21
year, people have been formulating their
0:22
opinions. There are a lot of predictions
0:24
on what's coming to the market
0:26
generally, what's coming to the Denver
0:28
market. We even made some predictions
0:30
and we're here to update you because now
0:32
that we've had half of a spring,
0:34
everything has changed. Some unexpected
0:36
things have happened in the world and
0:38
things are different. So, we are here to
0:40
explain how this impacts your Denver
0:43
specific move. What you should be
0:45
thinking about when strategizing moving
0:47
to or around Denver.
0:48
Yep. And we are qualified to do this
0:50
because we are living this every day,
0:52
helping folks just like you find their
0:53
place in Denver. We are Jake and Megan
0:55
Fredel. We're your full-time real estate
0:57
agents, part-time tour guides on all
0:58
things Dead for Living. And today, we
1:00
want to talk to you about what's next in
1:02
the 2026 market.
Denver Housing Crash or Denver Market Correction? What Really Happened
1:04
All right, to set up how we got here,
1:06
where have we been? In the toilet.
1:08
All right, maybe that's an exaggeration,
1:10
but we have had some issues here in the
1:12
Denver metropolitan area. So, focusing
1:14
in on Denver specifically. Okay, during
1:17
COVID, the areas of the country that
1:19
experienced the sharpest growth in
1:21
values. So depending on where you were
1:23
in Denver, you know, 2020 and 2021 over
1:26
those two years, you might have gotten
1:27
like 40% growth in your value. But be
1:31
what goes up must come down. And the
1:33
areas that experienced such huge growth
1:35
have also experienced the sharpest
1:37
decline. So Denver has had it some one
1:40
of the roughest of of the major cities
1:42
across the country. In some areas,
1:44
depending on, you know, what kind of a a
1:46
home you purchased and what neighborhood
1:48
you're in, you might have experienced up
1:50
to a 15% drop. And, you know, I think
1:54
this kind of counters, although it feels
1:56
harsh to us living in that moment,
1:57
especially last year, if you were trying
1:59
to sell your home after just a couple
2:00
years of owning it, um, that is a pain
2:03
point. But I will say for the people who
2:05
were really pontificating some really
2:07
really harsh realities. I mean there
2:09
were pe there were Instagram stars
2:11
saying that we were going to see a 50%
2:13
price reduction um because of what we
2:15
were seeing. I don't think it was nearly
2:17
as dire or in the toilet as I was joking
2:20
about. Um but we did see a little bit of
2:22
a slump following such a dramatic price
2:26
increase. Um, you know, we were living
2:28
in a time where people were bidding
2:30
things up 50, 100 grand, waving
2:33
appraisals, waving inspections, and so
2:35
we saw a little bit of a rebound from
Denver Home Prices 2026, Interest Rates & Buying a Home in Colorado
2:37
that.
2:38
Yeah, it wasn't a crash, but more like a
2:40
correction and honestly a much needed
2:42
correction, especially with the interest
2:44
rate environment the way it is today. So
2:47
during the pandemic, right, uh, high
2:49
twos, low threes for a lot of folks. Now
2:52
we're kind of wiggling in between. For a
2:54
moment this year, we saw rates,
2:56
conventional rates as low as like 5.75,
2:59
and now they've jumped up back to the,
3:01
you know, 6.25, 6.375 range, depending
3:05
on your situation. And so I think for
3:08
the people who did buy in 2021, maybe at
3:10
the height, and are looking to sell just
3:13
a few years later, I think rather than
3:15
this being a sign of a big crash or a
3:18
market gone wrong, I would say this is a
3:20
very normal fluctuation that you can
3:22
totally expect to see. And for these
3:24
folks, they didn't make a mistake. Their
3:26
monthly payments are very comfortable
3:29
compared to, you know, what buying that
3:31
home might look like with an elevated
3:32
rate. But where this is a problem for
3:35
some people is if they own their home
3:36
for 2 and 1/2 years and then are looking
3:38
to sell. That can cause some issues. But
3:40
that's not what we coach people to be
3:43
ready to do. Sometimes things happen and
3:45
a certain situation means you've got to
3:47
sell after 2 and 1/2 years. But we
3:49
typically coach people to be looking to
3:51
own their home for 5 to 10 years if they
3:53
want it to be a solid investment.
3:55
That's right. Like Warren Buffett tells
3:57
us, you know, if you can't see yourself
3:59
owning a you think he's he's talking
4:02
about stocks. So, if you can't see
4:03
yourself owning something for 10 years,
4:05
don't even think about holding it for 10
4:07
minutes. And we constantly are coaching
4:09
our folks when they're buying a home,
4:10
like, hey, more than likely, you know,
4:13
you're probably going to be in a
4:14
situation where you buy this home and 5
4:16
years from now, you're going to be able
4:18
to sell it for some profit. But that's
4:20
not always the case. As you know, is the
4:22
proof of 2021 to 2026. If you bought in
4:25
2021, you're probably close to maybe an
4:28
even value or, you know, maybe a little
4:31
less. I think this year,
4:33
maybe a little more. It depends on your
4:35
product. If you're in a condo, you're
4:37
probably struggling a little more than a
4:38
single family home. Um, but you give it
4:41
five more years and it's more than
4:43
likely going to be looking much better.
4:45
You know, if we look at back at the the
4:47
great recession, you know, if you bought
4:49
at the height of craziness in 20 2007,
4:52
uh you were looking pretty rough by 2009
4:55
2010. But if you waited till 2017, you
4:59
actually went back to this sort of uh
5:01
around 6% average growth year-over-year
5:04
from 2007 to 2017. So that's what we're
5:08
always coaching our people on is like be
5:10
ready to hold this and even that doesn't
5:12
necessarily mean living in it for 10
5:14
years but if you can manage to rent it
5:16
out for a few years if you find yourself
5:17
in a bad situation between years like 4
5:21
and 9. So the story we're telling today
Denver Real Estate Market Update: Why Every Neighborhood Is Different
5:23
is like basically the exact same for the
5:26
entire Denver metro area. Right.
5:28
Not at all. So I think that's why it's
5:30
so confusing. You can be hearing from,
5:33
you know, several economists or several
5:36
Denver realtors that are all working
5:38
really similar areas and be getting
5:40
wildly different responses to how's the
5:42
market doing? Because even though you're
5:45
looking in the same general area, you
5:47
can skip over just a couple
5:49
neighborhoods or just a little bit
5:51
different of a price range and
5:53
experience a radical shift in what we're
5:56
seeing out in the market. Um, you know,
5:58
we talked about condos are struggling a
6:00
little bit more right now than single
6:02
family homes, but also downtown Denver
6:04
saw a little bit more of a struggle,
6:06
especially with theirs condos, those
6:08
highrises. They saw a little bit of a,
6:10
you know, bigger slowdown than some of
6:13
the outer suburbs did. And so, it's not
6:16
that some people are maybe less educated
6:18
than others. And why you're getting one
6:20
person's right, one person's wrong. They
6:22
just might be talking to a different
6:24
area than each other.
6:26
Yeah. of two completely different
6:27
experiences depending. So, for example,
Berkeley Denver, Congress Park Denver & Denver Condos vs Single Family Homes
6:30
uh I've been shopping with folks in the
6:32
Berkeley neighborhood, in the Congress
6:34
Park, some of these like really hot
6:35
Denver neighborhoods. And what I'm
6:38
finding is that between around 800 and
6:41
1.75 million, right? So, this this
6:44
pretty big, you know, uh spread of price
6:48
points, it is super hot. And I think the
6:51
reason being is that folks in this price
6:54
point are they're ready to rock and
6:57
roll, right? Like they are maybe on
6:59
their second home. They're feeling
7:01
pinched. They've been waiting to buy
7:03
this next home. They're a move up buyer,
7:05
right? So they're going to maybe sell or
7:07
rent their their home that they already
7:09
own and move into something else. And
7:11
these folks are ready to rock and roll.
7:13
They they've been squeezed for years.
7:15
They've been holding on to this interest
7:16
rate thinking like, "Oh my gosh, when
7:18
rates drop, we're finally going to buy."
7:20
And the bottleneck is finally breaking
7:22
for a lot of these buyers. So,
7:24
especially for the hot neighborhoods,
7:26
right? And people are like, "We've
7:27
always wanted to live in Berkeley or
7:29
Congress Park. Now's the time we're
7:31
going to do it." And so, everybody is
7:33
converging on these neighborhoods. And
7:34
I'm telling you, like I had uh I've had
7:36
more than one experience where we went
7:38
in, you know, at an offer price uh you
7:41
know, tens of thousands of dollars
7:43
higher and lost. Like we weren't even
7:46
just this past spring, right? just this
7:48
current spring
7:48
like last weekend, right? Yes. So, there
7:51
was a house in Berkeley listed at $1.45
7:54
million and it I mean I walked in with
7:57
my clients and I said, "This is a
7:59
heartbreaker house. This is a great
8:00
house and you and everybody else is
8:02
going to fall in love." And uh we don't
8:05
even know what it's closed for yet, but
8:07
we know it was more than $150,000
8:11
higher than the offer. I think maybe
8:12
it's more like $250,000. it was an
8:15
allcash buyer, no appraisal, no
8:18
inspection. So, that's happening. And
8:20
then on the other side, you know, I have
8:21
some folks who have been were were
8:23
trying to sell their condo and I said,
8:25
"Hey, it's kind of a rough year for
8:26
this. You know, if you're willing to to
8:28
maybe take a little haircut, you might
8:30
be okay, but let's give it a try." and
8:32
we're at the point we've been on the
8:33
market for a little while and I just
8:35
suggested like hey guys you know what I
8:37
thought was going to happen is happening
8:39
and I you know maybe a little worse then
8:42
and and I think it's time that you
8:43
should rent and hold hold on to this
8:45
property so
8:46
cuz they were in the position where they
8:48
could stomach that and they could they
8:49
were okay with staying there for another
8:51
year and some sometimes that's like the
8:53
behind the scenes work that you don't
8:54
know about us is sometimes we are
8:56
coaching our people to not make a move
8:58
if they you know if it works for their
9:00
lifestyle and that sounds like what you
9:01
did right there.
9:02
Yeah. You know, when I first got into
9:04
real estate, I took uh some courses at
9:05
Keller Williams and uh you know, no
9:08
shade on Keller Williams, but this
9:09
particular presentation was like a lot
9:11
of these bigger agencies are, you know,
9:13
they're always, "What's the right time
9:14
to sell? It's always now, baby." And I
9:17
just, you know, that's just not
9:19
realistic. Like I cannot in good
9:21
conscience coach our clients and say
9:22
like now is always the right time to
9:24
sell. Sometimes if you waited a year,
9:26
you'd make a lot more money and
9:28
sometimes it's just not right. So,
9:30
they're going to appreciate that sort of
9:31
like big box realtor company pressure to
9:35
always be about the profits, you know.
Denver Real Estate Forecast 2026: Lawrence Yun vs Elliot Eisenberg
9:37
Now, let's hop into these economists,
9:39
shall we? The professionals, the
9:41
so-called
9:42
uh so Lawrence Yun coming into this
9:44
year, honestly, one of the top real
9:47
estate economists in the world. Like,
9:49
the guy is brilliant and he's one of the
9:51
people who actually predicted during CO
9:54
that not that we would have a crash, but
9:56
that the the housing market would be
9:58
okay. And we were all going, "Really?"
10:00
Yeah. Everyone thought like the world
10:01
was going to end. And Lawrence Hern
10:03
said, "No, it's going to be okay." And
10:04
he was the closest to right because he
10:06
was the only one who didn't predict
10:07
gloom and doom. He he predicted we'd be
10:10
okay. And we were actually
10:12
obviously prices went bonkers. So
10:15
Lawrence Hun is someone that I do pay
10:17
attention to. And in the beginning of
10:19
this year, he was predicting a pretty
10:21
moderate recovery for housing. I think
10:23
housing has been in a recession
10:26
basically since, you know, May of 2022
10:28
when interest rates went from 2.75 to 6
10:32
and a half in the matter of a couple
10:33
months. Um, and he was predicting, okay,
10:36
this year is when the bottleneck gets
10:38
released. We're going to see 14% higher
10:42
overall sales and modest 2 to 4% value
10:45
growth across the country.
10:47
Yeah. You know, he himself referred to
10:49
that as being aggressive. I actually
10:50
attended their econ um econ summit to
10:54
where they together um Lawrence Yune
10:56
along with Elliot Eisenberg another
10:58
really highly regarded well-known
11:01
economist that we also really really
11:03
enjoy his speaking and how he breaks
11:05
things down and think he has some really
11:07
great insights they went up together and
11:10
Lawrence Jun said you know I know these
11:11
are aggressive but I feel that they are
11:14
realistic because typically when we see
11:16
a bounce back like we're expecting this
11:18
year we see them in the double digits.
11:20
So he felt really justified in that. And
11:22
I will say that Elliot Eisenberg came on
11:24
to speak right after he said this and he
11:27
said, "I have to disagree respectfully.
11:29
I do not think that we're going to see
11:31
nearly as strong of a growth as he's
11:34
predicting." And since then, interesting
11:36
enough, Lawrence Yun has come back on,
11:39
right, and said that he's changing his
11:40
tune a bit.
11:41
He basically cut his growth projections
11:44
in half. Uh and that's because interest
11:47
rates, you know, we were dancing. He was
11:49
predicting interest rates to start
11:50
coming below and saying hey once
11:52
interest rates are below 6% we are going
11:55
to see this strong bottleneck break and
11:58
people will come back to the market and
12:00
start purchasing and to his credit we
12:02
had a hot spring and we'll get into that
12:04
just a minute but um he's now saying not
12:08
not quite the recovery we thought cover
12:10
recovery is not going to be a sort of
12:12
linear line it's a little disjointed
12:15
we're on our way no one is predicting
12:17
you know a crash cash right now. And I
12:19
don't I don't think that's what's
12:21
happening either, right? I think I think
12:22
we've plateaued in our our value loss
12:27
and we're actually starting to grow a
12:30
little bit depending on what kind of
12:32
property and what kind of market you're
12:33
in.
12:33
Yeah, I think to your point, we're
12:36
talking about these two economists as
12:38
being pretty different opinions and
12:42
there's some truth to that. you know,
12:43
they got on stage one right after
12:45
another and kind of countered each
12:47
other. In the grand scheme, though, if
12:49
you're comparing their beliefs to maybe
12:52
some people on social media with a
12:54
little bit less credentials and who
12:56
maybe we trust a little bit less, who
12:58
predicted these massive market crashes,
13:01
um, who predicted some really extreme
13:03
things, really, Elliot Eisenberg and
13:05
Laurens are very much on the same page.
13:07
They differ on how much growth they are
13:10
expecting to see this and next year, but
13:13
their difference really is I see a
13:16
little bit of growth and I see really
13:18
strong growth. So really their answers
13:20
are a lot more alike than different.
Colorado Housing Market 2026 & Denver New Construction Trends
13:22
So at some point Lawrence Yun had kind
13:24
of postulated that he believed we'd have
13:27
some good action from new builds this
13:29
year and they would sort of fill the gap
13:31
uh you know that we're missing with a
13:33
lot of the resale market. What happened
13:35
with that? Yeah. So, at the same econ
13:37
summit that I went to, u Mike Kabbouti
13:39
does a lot of research development for
13:42
new builds and what builders are looking
13:44
at and what's happening with their
13:45
activity and what does that kind of mean
13:47
for us. And what he said at the
13:49
beginning of the year was that he is
13:51
seeing, you know, a lot of caution from
13:53
builders. Builders were not buying up a
13:56
lot of land and starting a bunch of
13:58
projects at once because of that
13:59
caution. and he saw this year um
14:02
starting to be a lot more of buy a small
14:05
project, finish it, sell it all before
14:08
moving on to the next thing. Um and that
14:10
is just kind of indicative of a little
14:12
bit of a slower market on the new build
14:14
front.
14:15
Yeah. So, watching what builders are
14:16
doing tells us a lot about the market
14:18
because they're being cautious. They're
14:20
not feeling confident about the future
14:22
of the economy. Part of that is like,
14:23
well, some of the costs of new builds
14:26
have eased since the height of the
14:28
craziness and the pandemic. you know,
14:29
some of our our uh distribution, you
14:31
know, manufacturing problems are kind of
14:33
coming to an ease, but it's still not
14:36
enough. Stuff is still really expensive.
14:38
That and there's all these huge fees
14:40
that he's saying are going to be a huge
14:42
policy issue in 2026 because the fees
14:45
are making it an unattractive time for
14:47
builders to build because their profits
14:49
are really being squeezed.
Is 2026 a Good Time to Buy a House? Denver Home Buying Tips
14:50
Mhm.
14:51
All right. So, the big thing, what's
14:52
this video about? Is 2026 a good time to
14:55
buy in Denver? Yeah, I think we're very
14:58
particular about, you know, first of
15:00
all, what works best for you is the most
15:02
important thing. Like when you say like,
15:03
is now a right time to buy or right time
15:05
to sell, it kind of depends on like,
15:06
well, what do you need? What do you
15:08
what's going on in your personal life?
15:10
And so, we do tend to be a little bit
15:12
more when we're thinking about selling,
15:15
timing things up a little bit better and
15:17
giving you some guidance on what the
15:19
best time to sell for your situation is.
15:21
for buying. I think you can overall say
15:23
there really is a good time to buy for
15:26
many people all the time. It kind of
15:28
just depends on what lens you're
15:30
approaching it in. So, back when we
15:31
talked about 2021 and speculating, you
15:34
know, was that a good time to buy
15:36
knowing that there was going to be a
15:38
little bit of a decrease in values, I
15:40
would still say overall for most people,
15:41
yes. I mean, I was one of those people.
15:43
Oh, absolutely. I mean, we did not buy
15:45
in 2021, but we almost we put an offer
15:49
in on a house that we loved. And at the
15:51
time, the uh the monthly payment on that
15:55
house would have been something like
15:56
$5,200 a month. That same house today,
15:59
if I wanted to buy the same price, uh my
16:02
mortgage payment would be like $8,000 a
16:05
month, which is super painful, right?
16:07
like maybe that house experienced some
16:10
price drop and and maybe it's not worth
16:13
or maybe it's kind of recovering towards
16:14
what it would have been but man that you
16:17
can't beat that monthly payment.
16:18
Yeah. So I think the lens for that is
16:20
like in 2021 was that a good time to
16:22
buy. Absolutely. Yes. Uh you need it to
16:25
be able to be there for more than 3
16:27
years or more than 2 years um in order
16:30
for it to really be you're coming out on
16:32
top with a lot of appreciation. But it
16:34
was right because so many people's
16:36
monthly payments who bought in 2021 are
16:38
unbeatable. And so we can now kind of
16:40
take that same thought and apply it to
16:42
today. Is right now a good time to buy?
16:44
You know, it depends on what you need.
16:46
But overall, yes.
16:48
Right. Like if if it's the time for you,
16:50
I think when we base our advice is is it
16:52
a good time for you to buy? Is is it a
16:54
good time for you? Do you have the
16:56
mortgage? What's happening in your
16:57
world? Does it make sense to commit to
16:59
something right now? But if you're
17:01
thinking about it, you know, yeah, like
Buying a House in Denver: Concessions, Negotiations & Buyer Opportunities
17:04
what what is good is is in like 2023,
17:07
what was tough about then was that
17:09
prices hadn't really come down yet and
17:11
interest rates were also high. Now we've
17:14
seen prices come down and they've kind
17:16
of plateaued and maybe are starting to
17:18
kick back up, right? And so the problem
17:20
with like waiting for the bottom of the
17:22
market is you never know where the
17:24
bottom of the market is until you've
17:26
missed it because you only know like,
17:28
oh, yesterday was the lowest point. now
17:30
are starting to come up.
17:31
We're kind of in this plateau. You know,
17:33
things are staying relatively level, but
17:36
we're seeing tons of opportunity because
17:39
we're seeing tons of concessions being
17:41
given out where we're seeing sellers are
17:43
actually negotiable on the prices and
17:45
conditions of their home.
17:46
Yeah, I wanted to say, you know, we
17:48
talked about like a couple of these
17:49
spring pockets where things went bananas
17:52
and they were super competitive and
17:53
really tough. Um, and I'd say, you know,
17:56
we kept saying it's so neighborhood
17:58
specific. That wasn't true for every
18:00
neighborhood by far. This year we've
18:03
seen more opportunity for people asking
18:05
for concessions than we've seen in a
18:08
very very long time. And I want to talk
18:10
really quickly about how important that
18:12
is because concessions impact buyer more
18:15
dramatically than almost any other
18:17
feature. And so what a concession is
18:19
really quickly is when a seller is
18:22
offering to give you money and you can
18:24
use that upfront for anything. So people
18:26
who are constrained by what their down
18:28
payment is um and they don't want to
18:30
have to pay for their closing costs, you
18:32
can basically have the seller pay
18:33
through that for concessions or use some
18:36
of those concession monies to use in
18:38
fixups. And that's something that we
18:39
just didn't see an opportunity for in
18:41
2021 in 2020. And now we are having all
18:45
this ability to say, can we have some
18:47
money for some things that we need to
18:48
do? And I think that's really a
18:50
beautiful thing about some of the areas
18:53
that we're seeing right now. And I guess
18:55
one more piece I would talk about with
18:57
timing of like is now a good time to
Best Time to Buy in Denver: Denver Housing Inventory & Seasonal Trends
18:59
buy. We do see more of a you know if
19:02
we're not talking about like is this
19:03
year a good time to buy? There is some
19:05
good advice that we have for you on like
19:07
how to time the year in and of itself
19:11
because there is a pretty specific uh
19:14
pattern that the years follow in
19:16
Colorado for for how real estate works.
19:19
So, what happens is, all right, I don't
19:22
know exactly why, but I have some
19:23
guesses and I'll explain that. Uh, but I
19:25
do know that this is the pattern every
19:27
year. Okay, so let's say it's January
19:29
1st and everybody's been thinking if
19:31
you're buying a house in Janu if you're
19:33
ready to buy in 2026, you've been
19:35
thinking about it in 2025 and there's
19:37
that new year day comes along and you
19:39
think new year, new me, new house, let's
19:41
make this happen. Okay. So, if that's
19:44
your move as a buyer, you talk to your
19:45
real estate agent, you uh send an email
19:48
to Southern Denver Living, and you get
19:50
in touch with Jake and Megan, and you're
19:53
ready to shop in the matter of like a
19:55
week. Okay? So, then you get shopping
19:58
and as you start looking, you know, a
20:00
few weeks go by, we see some houses
20:02
together and you start figuring like,
20:03
okay, this is what we want. This is what
20:05
we can afford. This is what that gives
20:06
us. Let's make an offer. And you make
20:09
that first offer and someone else thinks
20:11
it, too. and you're like, "Okay, well,
20:12
let's make a little bit of a low offer,
20:14
right?" Or maybe you just ask price for
20:16
this one, but someone else beats you to
20:18
it. You think, "Okay, well, the next
20:20
one." So, a couple weeks goes later, we
20:22
see some more houses and you find
20:24
another house. And somebody else
20:25
snatches this one up, too, and you're
20:26
like, "Dang, we got we've been beaten
20:28
out twice in a row.
20:29
Okay, it's March now. We really got to
20:32
go for it." You and everybody else are
20:34
having this falling into the same
20:35
pattern of like, "We lost several in a
20:37
row. It's getting hotter. We have to
20:39
really go for it on this house." So
20:41
March and April are the peak of
Denver Metro Housing Market: When Buyers and Sellers Have the Advantage
20:44
insanity. If there is going to be
20:46
insanity, if you're in one of those hot
20:48
neighborhoods, it's the peak of
20:50
competition in the best time of year to
20:52
sell because of the way the buyer's
20:53
behaving.
20:54
Yeah. And we always say like this this
20:56
changes marginally every year, but it
20:57
follows the same pattern year after year
21:00
for many, many years. And so sometimes
21:02
it starts a little bit later than we're
21:04
expecting. Sometimes it goes a little
21:05
later and starts earlier. But we do know
21:08
spring, you know, March, April, May, um,
21:11
around then tends to be that height.
21:14
That's right. And so then what we see is
21:16
also once we get into the summer, it's
21:18
the most common time for new leases to
21:21
be signed. So if your lease is up in
21:24
June, you kind of got to give up your
21:26
shopping journey in May and resign that
21:29
lease. Like, well, maybe next year. And
21:31
next year, you're putting yourself right
21:33
back into the same mess cuz you're going
21:34
to be shopping in the spring again. So
21:37
then the way it works, so then we have
21:39
the way we have some buyer activity
21:42
throughout the summer, right? It kind of
21:43
plateaus and and it's decent and then
21:45
kind of starts fading towards the end of
21:47
the summer. And then there's a little
21:49
spike before the holidays because people
21:52
think if we get in before Thanksgiving,
21:53
then we can if we buy, you know, if we
21:55
put an offer in before Thanksgiving,
21:57
we'll be in by Christmas. And then the
21:59
year kind of just finishes up with
22:01
Christmas and it's slow.
22:02
Okay, going backwards. If you're a
22:04
seller, January 1st, new me, new house,
22:07
new year, let's go. And you call your
22:10
contractor and you fix up your house for
22:12
the next three to six months. So, what
22:14
we see consistently is that the best
22:17
inventory starts in May, June, July,
22:20
August. This is the months when we have
22:23
the most inventory in the greatest
22:25
selection of houses. And that good
22:27
inventory isn't starting until the
22:30
buyers are starting to fade. So, if
22:32
you're thinking about a good time to
22:34
buy, it is right around the corner. So,
22:37
that tells me like we're about to see,
22:39
and it's always right around the time
22:41
kids graduate. Once graduation happens
22:43
in May, the the housing market floods
22:46
with inventory and the buyers kind of
Best Time to Buy a House in Colorado: July, August & September
22:48
let off.
22:49
Let's break this down to a too long
22:51
didn't lesson. If you're looking for the
22:53
months that you want to avoid buying in,
22:57
if you really can specifically custom
23:00
design your life like this, and you
23:01
can't always do it, but if you have that
23:03
ability, let's say if you can miss March
23:06
and April, that would be lovely. If you
23:08
could miss the months around that, that
23:10
would also be lovely. Target.
23:12
Yeah. If you could look for a time to
23:14
buy, it would be
23:15
June, July, August.
23:16
Mhm. Yeah. I was a shade July, August,
23:19
maybe a bit of September. Those are your
Denver Relocation Guide: Should You Buy a House in 2026?
23:21
golden times. All right. So, is right
23:24
now 2026 or whenever you're watching
23:26
this video, is it a good time to buy
23:29
real estate?
23:29
I don't know. Can you give us a call?
23:31
We've got to talk to you a little bit.
23:33
We've got to ask you some questions. Let
23:34
us coach you through this. We have been
23:36
doing this for many, many years. We are
23:38
full-time real estate agents and we're
23:39
really excited to guide you through and
23:41
figure out what makes the most sense for
23:42
you. and we really want to customize
23:45
your experience and figure out what's
23:46
happening for you and how can we get you
23:49
into the best situation and the best
23:51
deal possible. We're professional real
23:53
estate agents. We're Denver natives.
23:55
We've been in real estate for a combined
23:57
over 20 years and we've been in Denver
24:01
for a combined like oh god, how old are
24:02
we?
24:03
Don't say it. Don't say it. And if you
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need more information about the places
24:07
in Denver that you want to move, we've
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got videos for all of that. Subscribe
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and be the very first to see it all. and
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we are so excited to hear from you.n text goes here
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Chapter 1: Moving to Parker Colorado Overview, West Parker Intro
0:00
I'm so excited to give you a tour of all the neighborhoods of West Parker. I'm going to go through the different HOAs, the amenities, what the homes look like,
0:08
8 seconds
all of the stats, how they're performing in the market, and everything you need to make your decision about what area of Parker is right for you. I'm out braving
0:16
16 seconds
the Colorado cold weather today without Jake Fredel, my brother, best friend, business partner. If you're missing his dad jokes today or maybe some of our
0:24
24 seconds
sibling rivalry, no worries. We've got more coming with both of us very soon.
0:28
28 seconds
But today, let's check out all of the neighborhoods of West Parker. So, today we'll go over Stonegate, Stepping Stone, Meridian Village, Bradbury Ranch, and
0:36
36 seconds
Strow Ranch. And stay tuned cuz I've got a hot take about some of the new builds.
0:41
41 seconds
So, let's hit it. I am Megan Fredo. I am usually joined by my brother and business partner, Jake Fredle. And together, we are your full-time real estate agents, part-time tour guides to
0:50
50 seconds
all things southern Denver living. And whether you're looking to move in 9 days or 900 days, we are always happy to talk you through the move, answer any
0:58
58 seconds
questions you have, and give you any guidance you need. All of our information is in the description below.
Chapter 2: Where to Live in Parker Colorado, West Parker Location and Commute
1:09
1 minute, 9 seconds
So, if you've decided you think that Parker might be a fit for you, you're probably also realizing that Parker is really massive, and so it might be hard to know which area of Parker
1:17
1 minute, 17 seconds
specifically is going to be right for you. So, West Parker itself is a great option for people who are looking for a little bit of communability ease. Being
1:25
1 minute, 25 seconds
on the west side of Parker means, you know, you've got a little easier access to I25. You've got easier access to Lone Tree and everything that's over there.
1:33
1 minute, 33 seconds
Um, and being further up north means you've got quicker access to E470 for commuting. So, that gives it a little bit of convenience on that end. Plus,
1:42
1 minute, 42 seconds
you've also got really great access to everything that downtown Parker has to offer in a lot of the communities that we're going to look at today. And
1:49
1 minute, 49 seconds
downtown Parker, it's not like a big massive city by any means, but as far as a lot of the southern Denver suburbs
1:57
1 minute, 57 seconds
that we're looking into, I think it's got a really cute downtown with ample amenities. You know, it's got it's great for a lot of the restaurants it has. and
2:05
2 minutes, 5 seconds
it's doing a lot of uh work on their main street which is just a little, you know, area of Parker where they're doing some rebuttification projects and a lot
2:14
2 minutes, 14 seconds
of work to make everything more beautiful. But I think Parker is already pretty fantastic. So, when you're on the west side of Parker and you're still kind of close to downtown, I think
Chapter 3: Parker Colorado Neighborhoods, Who West Parker Is For
2:22
2 minutes, 22 seconds
you've got access to a lot of really great stuff. It's great for people who are looking for a little bit newer style
2:29
2 minutes, 29 seconds
homes in a kind of typical suburb. So, when I say newer, I'm not really going into some super super new builds today.
2:36
2 minutes, 36 seconds
There are a few in some of the communities we're going to talk about, but I'm saying newer in the fact that, you know, you're not in downtown Denver where you're looking at completely redoing the plumbing and the electrical
2:44
2 minutes, 44 seconds
and all those major systems. Um, our latest homes that we're going to talk about today are the early '90s. So, I consider that pretty new homes that
2:52
2 minutes, 52 seconds
you're not going to need a ton of maintenance. You might need to do some repairs and some upgrades, but not any of the big big ticket items that you might see in some of the older
3:00
3 minutes
communities. Well, let's talk a little bit about who West Parker might not be for. If you're headed to Parker because you're really looking for the acreage
3:08
3 minutes, 8 seconds
that it provides and all of kind of the more rural spacing, the neighborhoods we're talking about today are just a little bit too close to everything to
3:15
3 minutes, 15 seconds
really have that for you. It also is not great for people who are looking to seek out um these really nice luxury golf amenities that Parker is known to have.
3:25
3 minutes, 25 seconds
Um they do exist on West Parker a little bit, but they're a little further south than where we're talking today. and a little further east is where you're going to find more of those. Same with
3:33
3 minutes, 33 seconds
kind of the more rural areas. It's not for folks who are looking to avoid an HOA. Um, pretty much everywhere, no,
Chapter 4: Stonegate Parker CO, Location, HOA, Taxes and Lifestyle
3:41
3 minutes, 41 seconds
everywhere we are talking about today in Western Parker does have an HOA. Um, if you're looking for a Western Parker community that does not have an HOA,
3:49
3 minutes, 49 seconds
Cottonwood is just north of the ones we're going to talk about today and it does not have an HOA. So, gives you a little bit of flexibility there. And there's some communities if you go way
3:58
3 minutes, 58 seconds
further out east that do not have an HOA. But everything we're talking about today is in an HOA community. And then it's also not going to be for people who really hate like a cookie cutter suburb.
4:09
4 minutes, 9 seconds
You know, it's just the truth of that's what these neighborhoods are. Um, if that's really not your thing, if you're looking for the historic charm, if
4:16
4 minutes, 16 seconds
you're looking for really, really unique homes or customuilt homes, um, again, there is some of that in Parker, but not
4:24
4 minutes, 24 seconds
in any of the areas we're talking about today. So, we'll start out over here in Stonegate. And I love Stonegate for its location. Um, I like that it's quite a
4:32
4 minutes, 32 seconds
bit further north and quite a bit further west. So, you've got the all those access to everything like we talked about already. you know, easy access to I25 laundry. Um, getting into
4:40
4 minutes, 40 seconds
DTC to commute. Um, but I also really like that Stonegate still has a super maintained feel. You can see behind me.
4:48
4 minutes, 48 seconds
I mean, these yards are maintained, the homes are maintained. Um, and that is just something that comes with an HOA.
4:53
4 minutes, 53 seconds
And this is an HOA protected community, but the HOA fee is roughly 17 bucks a month. And that is the lowest fee that
Chapter 5: Parker CO Real Estate Stats, Stonegate Market Performance
5:02
5 minutes, 2 seconds
we're going to talk about today. You know, it's also part of a metro district, which sometimes means that you're going to see really elevated taxes. But here, the taxes are very
5:11
5 minutes, 11 seconds
typical. I mean, on a 6 thou $600,000 home, your typical taxes here are probably just around just around or above $4,000.
5:20
5 minutes, 20 seconds
And when we're talking about elevated taxes, I mean, there are areas of say Castle Rock, you go into Founders Village, and you take that same price
5:27
5 minutes, 27 seconds
home, you're going up one to $25,000 a year. Um, so that that really makes a difference. I like that they have nice
5:36
5 minutes, 36 seconds
normal tax prices, really low HOA fee, and it still has all of that really wellmaintained feel to it. And despite
5:43
5 minutes, 43 seconds
that low fee, they still have a really solid HOA amenity group feature. So, there are two different metro districts
5:51
5 minutes, 51 seconds
that you're going to be a part of. And depending on which metro district you are in in Stonegate is going to qualify
5:58
5 minutes, 58 seconds
which pool you go to. But there's two two different pools to go to. They have little clubhouse, fitness center, um, and people really like the amenities
6:06
6 minutes, 6 seconds
that the um, community has to offer. And because those are actually part of the metro district, not the HOA. That's why you see the fees be lower. But also
6:14
6 minutes, 14 seconds
because the metro district is really wellrun, that's why you don't see that really inflated tax price. You can see out here, you know, although they have
6:23
6 minutes, 23 seconds
the typical home setup, you know, homes kind of right next to each other that you're going to see in any suburb, they've still done a really good job and aotted for open space. So, if you look
6:31
6 minutes, 31 seconds
behind me, you're going to see these little pocket open spaces kind of all over in Stonegate and really in a lot of the areas that we're going to talk about
6:40
6 minutes, 40 seconds
in West Parker today. Um, but I feel like Stonegate does a great job of that.
6:43
6 minutes, 43 seconds
They have a couple little parks nearby as well, some pocket parks that you can go out to. So what the stats tell us about the neighborhood in Stonegate and
6:51
6 minutes, 51 seconds
for all of these neighborhoods I'm going to use single family homes median stats for the last year that typical home is
6:59
6 minutes, 59 seconds
going to look like a 4bedroom 4b 2350 ft above ground 3319
Chapter 6: Stepping Stone and Meridian Village Parker CO, HOA and Pricing
7:07
7 minutes, 7 seconds
ft total including the basement $700,000 closeout price 18 days on the market and a build year of $195.
7:17
7 minutes, 17 seconds
The lot size was about 6,882 square feet on average. Now, the reason I'm including days on market in these
7:25
7 minutes, 25 seconds
stats is because I think it's important to tell you how quickly a home has moved in the last year. The longer the days it
7:32
7 minutes, 32 seconds
sat on market before it sold might tell you that that neighborhood just doesn't really sell as well. The great news, Stonegate at just 18 days on market is
7:41
7 minutes, 41 seconds
performing really well. It's the best of any of the neighborhoods we're going to talk about today. But there are no neighborhoods that are performing super
7:49
7 minutes, 49 seconds
poorly for today's market. The highest days on market that we're going to talk about of any of the neighborhoods today is still very in line with typical of
7:56
7 minutes, 56 seconds
Colorado's market. So any of these neighborhoods, what I can see so far are going to probably sell pretty quickly and appreciate pretty well. As far as
8:03
8 minutes, 3 seconds
getting out of Parker from Stonegate, you're most likely to be taking Lincoln Road, which man, it's had some
8:10
8 minutes, 10 seconds
construction on it. a lot and I think they're going to continue to do some construction. I've heard about some more road widening and different parts. So, I
8:18
8 minutes, 18 seconds
think that's going to continue to be a bit annoying, but I even with all that, I'd still say it's probably one of the more preferable routes outside of
8:26
8 minutes, 26 seconds
Parker. Um other than 470, which is the toll road. Um I would rather probably take Lincoln than have to get on to
8:33
8 minutes, 33 seconds
Parker Road um or take Main Street a little further south. Next communities I want to take you through are Stepping Stones and Meridian Village. I'm
8:40
8 minutes, 40 seconds
combining them here because they are right up next to each other. They have really similar stats and features like their square footage and all of those
Chapter 7: Parker Colorado Housing Market 2026, New Builds and Taxes
8:48
8 minutes, 48 seconds
stats are really comparable, but also their HOA is really similar as well.
8:53
8 minutes, 53 seconds
They both got the clubhouse, parks, trails, pool. Um, but they both sit around $170 $180 per month. You can see
9:01
9 minutes, 1 second
we just came from Stonegate and I said, you know, oh, one of my favorite things is this is a lower HOA. Well, here you can see what I mean. 170 and 180. We've
9:10
9 minutes, 10 seconds
taken pretty big jump and you're not really gaining a ton amenity-wise here.
9:15
9 minutes, 15 seconds
As far as taxes go, I think it's worth touching on again because the distinguishing features here of Stonegate and Meridian are that they are
9:22
9 minutes, 22 seconds
the newest builds of any of the communities that we're talking about today in this upper western area with their median um build year being about
9:31
9 minutes, 31 seconds
2015. I know that they are not super new, but that is still pretty fresh. And typically when you see those newer
9:38
9 minutes, 38 seconds
builds, you usually see a price jump with your taxes. And we don't really see that here. Um, so I think that's nice.
9:45
9 minutes, 45 seconds
Now, keep in mind when I look at taxes, I'm really they jump a lot from place to place. And that's because when they go
9:53
9 minutes, 53 seconds
to assess your property taxes every year, they're going to use condition, they're going to use size, and they're going to reassess your taxes. So, that's going to mean really different uh
10:01
10 minutes, 1 second
property tax assessments for each property. But the other thing is property ass uh property taxes are assessed every 2 years. If you don't
10:10
10 minutes, 10 seconds
take the time to look at where they're assessing, make sure that those jumps make sense and appeal them. If they
10:17
10 minutes, 17 seconds
don't, then your property taxes can just continue to rise and really never be reigned in. So that is something we do
10:25
10 minutes, 25 seconds
for all our folks. Every 2 years, we sit with you. We look at where your property taxes are being assessed and if you need help appealing them, that is something
10:33
10 minutes, 33 seconds
we hold your hand and guide you through the whole thing. And in addition to newness, I think another really nice feature that we have over here in Stepping Stone is that you have two
10:41
10 minutes, 41 seconds
different bodies of water like this that are really pretty to walk around. Um, there's a couple different trails, lots
10:48
10 minutes, 48 seconds
of parket pocket parks like most of communities have. Um, but I think this is kind of a nice unique feature. I think I make this joke in every Parker
10:56
10 minutes, 56 seconds
video I make, but even in West Parker, your wind is getting better, but you cannot escape the wind out here. But back to Stepping Stone and Meridian
11:04
11 minutes, 4 seconds
Village. So, yes, these communities being newer, um, you know, median 2015, but there are definitely homes newer than that. And one style that I'm
11:13
11 minutes, 13 seconds
seeing, not specific to Parker anywhere in Denver in these new builds is these threele homes. So, they'll have from the
11:21
11 minutes, 21 seconds
ground up three levels. And what I think about these is a very personal opinion.
11:27
11 minutes, 27 seconds
I can totally be wrong here and it's if it's your personal preference, it's great. I think that these are a bit of a fad. And I don't really think these are
Chapter 8: Denver Suburbs Comparison, New Build Trends and Resale Risk
11:36
11 minutes, 36 seconds
going to appreciate super strongly like some of the other standard home styles like say a twotory or a ranch.
11:46
11 minutes, 46 seconds
Um, we saw this with B levels and tri levels. When they started doing that in the '8s, they were a big fad for a little bit. Everybody was excited about
11:53
11 minutes, 53 seconds
this new style. Pretty quickly, they burnt out and people were less excited about them and they started to sell not as well. And I can just totally see this
12:02
12 minutes, 2 seconds
being true for these three level style homes. Um, they are hard to have that many stairs in a home. People always
12:09
12 minutes, 9 seconds
complain when there's an excess of stairs. It's hard for older folks. It's hard for people who have injuries, people who have disabilities. Um, it's
12:17
12 minutes, 17 seconds
also hard for growing families. If you have little kids, uh, parents typically want all the rooms on one level. And
12:25
12 minutes, 25 seconds
with these pocket style homes, what I usually see is one bedroom per level or maybe two on the same level. Um, but
12:32
12 minutes, 32 seconds
rarely three or four bedrooms on one level because you can't fit them in that kind of a style. So, it's purely just a word of caution. I don't think you should not buy that style of home. Just
12:40
12 minutes, 40 seconds
like everything, it's just another pro and conway. and you've got to take it into consideration when you're valuing a home. The data for the past year of Stepping Stone in Meridian Village look
12:49
12 minutes, 49 seconds
like a 4bedroom 4b 2398 above ground square footage with a total
12:56
12 minutes, 56 seconds
square footage of 3,632 ft. Close price of 780K,
13:03
13 minutes, 3 seconds
22 days on market, and the median build year of 2015. The lot size was 6,839
13:12
13 minutes, 12 seconds
ft. And every time I'm showing out here in Stepping Stone, I feel like I have the worst service. I can't tell you how many times I've had to write down my
13:19
13 minutes, 19 seconds
showing codes instead of using the app because I just can't log in. This is typically a comment I get for further out new builds, not ones that are kind
Chapter 9: Bradbury Ranch Parker CO, Affordable Homes and HOA
13:27
13 minutes, 27 seconds
of so centralized, but it's always a problem here. So maybe blame it on my phone carrier, but maybe it's a real thing. So, this is the Bradbury Ranch
13:34
13 minutes, 34 seconds
community, and I want to clear up a little bit about the naming of the area.
13:38
13 minutes, 38 seconds
So, it has a little pool, um, a small little community center, and a really nice park a part of it. And everything
13:47
13 minutes, 47 seconds
around here has a little bit of a different names. So, most people are going to refer to this area as Bradbury Ranch. When you look on a map, you're
13:55
13 minutes, 55 seconds
going to see um, Auburn Hills as another name. And then when you get to the pool center, you're going to see Bradbury
14:03
14 minutes, 3 seconds
Hills. Bradbury Ranch is the overarching area. Auburn Hills is a small subset of
14:10
14 minutes, 10 seconds
Bradberry Ranch. Um, and here in Auburn Hills, there are more areas where you have a little bit more maintenance
14:17
14 minutes, 17 seconds
included with your HOA. So, Bradbury Ranch HOA is about $125 a month. Auburn
14:24
14 minutes, 24 seconds
Hills has an elevated HOA area where um it's $175 a month. And what you get for
14:31
14 minutes, 31 seconds
that extra 50 bucks a month is a yard uh front yard maintenance free. So they take care of all of the yard maintenance
14:39
14 minutes, 39 seconds
and shoveling for you over there. So that's one uh key difference, but that's just to clear that up a little bit.
14:46
14 minutes, 46 seconds
Bradberry Ranch has that same typical suburban feel. I like some of the homes that have that brick facing on the exterior. And your typical home here is
14:54
14 minutes, 54 seconds
going to look like a four bedroomedroom, threeb, 2,14 ft above ground and 3,136
15:03
15 minutes, 3 seconds
ft total including the basement. The days on market for the last year averaged out at about 20 days on market
15:10
15 minutes, 10 seconds
and the average build year was 2,000 and a median closed price of $636,000 making Bradbury Ranch one of our most
15:18
15 minutes, 18 seconds
affordable options that we're talking about today. This is another community with really reasonable taxes and I really love the Auburn Hills Park. It's
15:26
15 minutes, 26 seconds
got this big open space and it really, you know, breaks up the whole suburban stack feel. And we have saved the furthest out for last. But in Colorado,
Chapter 10: Stroh Ranch Parker CO, Cost of Living and Affordability
15:35
15 minutes, 35 seconds
as a general rule of thumb, when you tend to go further out south and further out east, you start to see a little bit more affordability open up. And that's
15:43
15 minutes, 43 seconds
true here for Strow Ranch. We are the furthest south and the furthest east of any of the communities that we're talking about today. But with that, you know, we have the lowest purchase price.
15:51
15 minutes, 51 seconds
We also have only a $67 a month HOA, which still has all the bells and whistles. You still get the tennis courts, the pools, the clubhouse. Um,
15:59
15 minutes, 59 seconds
and then again, the taxes here are pretty low in this community. So definitely some affordability with still some really nice maintenance. Um a
16:07
16 minutes, 7 seconds
really similar HOA suburb type style and uh you are, you know, you're still close to downtown Parker. You're just a little
16:15
16 minutes, 15 seconds
further from getting access to I25. You do have to take Parker Road probably most of the time, which I already kind of harped on as being not my favorite road to take. I would say Strow Ranch is
16:24
16 minutes, 24 seconds
one of the areas that I hear my clients complain more about the HOA than a lot of comparable areas. Um, but I would also say there's not really much in
16:33
16 minutes, 33 seconds
their HOA that would impact me personally. There's not much that I would want to do to my property or in my neighborhood that the HOA is really
16:41
16 minutes, 41 seconds
strict on and actually enforces that would put me off. And then I'll also say, you know, a lot of these HOAs are losing a lot of their rights. It's becoming harder for them to find folks.
16:51
16 minutes, 51 seconds
It's becoming harder for them to really have much bite with their bark. Um, so yes, there are definitely some rules that you have to abide by in an HOA
17:00
17 minutes
community. Um, but if you're okay with an HOA, I would say all of these are probably pretty doable for you. The data for Strow Ranch, you're looking at your
17:09
17 minutes, 9 seconds
typical home being a 4bedroom, 3B, 1,684 above ground square foot and $2,419
17:18
17 minutes, 18 seconds
total square ft home with a median closed price last year of $590,000.
17:25
17 minutes, 25 seconds
Just 19 days on the market and a median year of $19.99. The lot size looked about 5,77
17:34
17 minutes, 34 seconds
square ft. Now, this makes it the smallest of the neighborhoods that we've looked at. It also makes it the most
17:41
17 minutes, 41 seconds
affordable. And a note on the lot sizes, I will say, um, you can see that some of the lot sizes from the other
17:48
17 minutes, 48 seconds
neighborhoods we've mentioned are quite a bit bigger for median, but also they have a bigger footprint. So, when you're
17:55
17 minutes, 55 seconds
thinking about usable backyard square footage, uh, you do have to take that in consideration. I'd say they're fairly comparable. Those are the main neighborhoods I wanted to hit today for
18:04
18 minutes, 4 seconds
a West Neighborhood Parker tour. Now, there's a lot of new builds coming to West Parker. So, if you want a little deeper dive on those, I do that in my
18:11
18 minutes, 11 seconds
changes coming to Parker in 26 and 27 video. And I'm sure you have more questions. So, reach out to me. All of my information is in the description
18:19
18 minutes, 19 seconds
below. I'm so excited to hear about what your moving plans are, what your biggest concerns and questions are. So, reach out and we'll talk soon.
-
Chapter 1: Reasons Not to Move to Denver | Living in Denver Colorado
0:00
Oh man, I didn't know all these power lines are going to be right in the view for the intro. Should we go somewhere else?
0:04
4 seconds
I don't know. Yeah, this used to be such a good view. What happened? Well, this is our cons for Denver video. So, this is perfect. We'll roll with it. Yeah. Well, Denver sucks.
0:12
12 seconds
Denver does not suck. Why have you lived here your whole life then?
0:15
15 seconds
I guess that's true. I've never I mean, I did go to summer camp for a couple months for a couple summers there, but other than that, I've never left. But look at they're always putting up power
0:22
22 seconds
lines and stuff. Ruin you are here to stay and you love Denver. We love Denver. But hey, there are cons about Denver that we absolutely
0:30
30 seconds
have to make you aware of if you're thinking of moving here. You got to know about the bad things before you take the good. So, we will break all that down.
0:37
37 seconds
And we're not just going to stop at it's expensive, cuz it is expensive, but there's so much more.
0:41
41 seconds
There's so much more to the expensive thing. It's not just to buy a house, but it's all the ways that Denver, that Colorado is coming to get your home.
0:48
48 seconds
So, stay tuned and we will talk you through that. We are Jake and Megan Fredel. We're your brother sister team, full-time real estate agents, part-time tour guides to all things Denver living.
0:57
57 seconds
So, reach out to us with any questions you have about real estate and enjoy the video because we're excited to talk to you about Denver. Denver is so expensive.
Chapter 2: Denver Public Transportation vs Denver Suburbs
1:06
1 minute, 6 seconds
That's Everybody starts with the cost of living. Everybody knows that Denver is expensive. Can we start with something more exciting or like a little bit off the beaten path?
1:12
1 minute, 12 seconds
Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. So, so interesting thing we do need to talk about is the size of Denver, right? So, the Denver metropolitan area has about 3
1:19
1 minute, 19 seconds
million people and that's kind of an odd size. If you're coming from the Bay Area, if you're coming from back east, you're used to these large cities and
1:27
1 minute, 27 seconds
there's a lot of great things that a large city provides. Controver, you know, on the other side, if you're coming from Texas, you might be from a really friendly small town and you're
1:36
1 minute, 36 seconds
coming and this this feels kind of weird. This feels kind of different.
1:39
1 minute, 39 seconds
It's it's a much bigger there's a lot of pollution. There's a lot of problems.
1:43
1 minute, 43 seconds
Yeah. You know, Denver is not really either of those. I personally find it's kind of the perfect size city, but if you do have this expectation of it being
1:50
1 minute, 50 seconds
really rich with city life or having a really small town feel, you might feel a little disappointed.
1:56
1 minute, 56 seconds
So, some of the problems with being in this sort of mediumsiz city where it's too big to be a little small friendly town but too small to support a lot of
2:05
2 minutes, 5 seconds
things that big cities cities like Chicago have is that the public transit is awful here. I mean, it's it's really
2:12
2 minutes, 12 seconds
lacking. If you come from a place like Chicago or Boston or whatever, you're going to be s super disappointed in our little light rail system. We do have
2:20
2 minutes, 20 seconds
some good things coming. They're working a lot on these uh transit corridors and there's the the BRTs coming in. So, it is getting better and even after it gets
2:29
2 minutes, 29 seconds
better, you're probably still going to be disappointed.
2:31
2 minutes, 31 seconds
Yeah. So, I mean, we do have like the light rail station. Um, and you know, for a lot of people that serves them pretty well, but it's true, it's not uh really the best top tier transportation system.
2:40
2 minutes, 40 seconds
And we are still very highly car dependent.
2:43
2 minutes, 43 seconds
Absolutely. And that's partially because it's a really sprawled out city, you know, it's like it's not super big, it's not super small, but everything is kind
2:51
2 minutes, 51 seconds
of spread out. So, even if you find a really walkable neighborhood like say Plat Park or Wash Park, which hey, we have full video breakdowns of both of those places that you can check out
3:00
3 minutes
anytime on our channel. But even if you find a little area like that where you can be walkable right around that region, you still are probably going to
3:07
3 minutes, 7 seconds
be relying on your car to get to work or to really go anywhere outside of your little pocket.
3:12
3 minutes, 12 seconds
Another thing is that the restaurant scene here, we get a lot of complaints about the restaurant scene in Denver is that I think we're just not a big enough
3:20
3 minutes, 20 seconds
city yet to really support a robust restaurant scene. Things are getting a lot better before the pandemic and the pandemic kind of wiped a lot of places
3:27
3 minutes, 27 seconds
out. So, we're still in this sort of rebuild phase. And not to say that there's not good food here, but it's that there's not good cheap food here.
3:35
3 minutes, 35 seconds
It's like if you want good food, you're gonna spend, you know, like 300 bucks on a couple to have a nice dinner out. And that kind of sucks.
3:45
3 minutes, 45 seconds
Yeah, it's not that bad for food quality.
3:47
3 minutes, 47 seconds
Um, so we're getting better. We're working on that. But another thing is I've heard the complaint that, you know, it's kind of a small city and you can't just kind of disappear into it. You
3:56
3 minutes, 56 seconds
know, like if you are in New York, you can totally disappear in New York. You can there's all the burrows and you go to a different burrow and you're not going to know anybody. And Denver is a
4:04
4 minutes, 4 seconds
small enough city that you're going to bump into people you know quite often.
4:07
4 minutes, 7 seconds
What's funny is I've heard that as a pro. Like I've had people be like, I love that we're in the city. We're so walkable. Um these are my clients that
4:14
4 minutes, 14 seconds
are right in Union Station and they say that they do get the repeat people in their lives. Like everywhere they go, they kind of know someone around and
4:22
4 minutes, 22 seconds
they love that aspect. So, it's really just like if your expectation isn't aligning with our city size, you're going to have a problem. But if you like that in between, then you're great. And
4:31
4 minutes, 31 seconds
if you're looking for a smaller town vibe, all you need to do is really go away from Denver because the further you get from Denver, the more we have these little small town communities that are
4:40
4 minutes, 40 seconds
totally available to you. All right, Megan. Now, can we talk about how expensive it is to live in this city? Yeah, go for it.
Chapter 3: Denver Cost of Living 2026 & Home Prices
4:48
4 minutes, 48 seconds
Okay, so it's very expensive to live in Denver. Buying a house is the obvious one. Uh the median home cost in Denver city limits is about $640,000.
4:59
4 minutes, 59 seconds
The metropolitan area drops a little bit to $580,000.
5:03
5 minutes, 3 seconds
That is a lot of money for a starter home. Uh, so it I will say things are getting better and it's become a place
5:11
5 minutes, 11 seconds
in the last couple years where prices have backed down a little bit and you can get a decent home in the exerbs for half a million dollars, but that's quite
5:20
5 minutes, 20 seconds
expensive. Um, part of the problem has been the interest rates. You know, that is driving up the cost of living for
5:26
5 minutes, 26 seconds
your monthly payment. Um, and in a time when uh the mortgage inflation has been
5:33
5 minutes, 33 seconds
71%, incomes have only grown in the area around 14%. So the cost of living is growing faster than what we're earning.
5:42
5 minutes, 42 seconds
So the median income in Denver is around $92,000 a year. Uh so with the average pricing, it's almost 7 times your uh
5:51
5 minutes, 51 seconds
yearly income to buy a home. Anywhere where that number is four to five times on the ratio is considered pretty expensive. So, Denver is pretty darn
6:00
6 minutes
expensive. Outside the cost of actually purchasing the home, it's a very expensive place to live for a number of other reasons. Uh the homeowners
6:07
6 minutes, 7 seconds
insurance, which we'll get into in a little bit, is very expensive. Car insurance is very expensive because you have to do a lot of driving in the
6:14
6 minutes, 14 seconds
Denver metro area. Uh most couples need to own two cars unless you're living really in the city. Maybe you can get by with one. Um, but car insurance is
6:23
6 minutes, 23 seconds
really expensive because the hail and lots of other problems and the heavy use of cars. Um, gas isn't too bad here actually. If you're from California,
6:31
6 minutes, 31 seconds
you're going to think it's cheap. If you're from Texas, you're going to think it's a little expensive. Then you've got the groceries which are more expensive than average. Restaurants and drinks and coffees are more expensive than average.
6:43
6 minutes, 43 seconds
All these things add up and they contribute to the overall cost of living in Denver being about 12 to 15% higher
6:51
6 minutes, 51 seconds
than most of the country. There's so many more things that are way more expensive. We actually did a full video deep dive on the cost of living in
6:59
6 minutes, 59 seconds
Denver. So, make sure you check out that video. We're going to end this boring part of the video out now so you can find out more of the nitty-gritty. One tough thing about moving to or moving
Chapter 4: Denver Housing Market 2026 | Buying a Home
7:08
7 minutes, 8 seconds
around in the Denver area is that the Denver real estate markets can be very difficult to understand. And I say markets because that's exactly what we
7:15
7 minutes, 15 seconds
have. Every single neighborhood has its own market. Every price range has its own market. And they're all acting,
7:23
7 minutes, 23 seconds
especially right now, and behaving differently than each other. This is a particular struggle we are seeing with buyers moving in from out of state.
7:31
7 minutes, 31 seconds
They're coming here and they're saying, you know, we just had this buyer come in. They're living in Cis. They came here and they were having such a shock
7:38
7 minutes, 38 seconds
trying to understand these different markets because it felt like every home they were putting an offer in on was going for over asking. They were up in bidding wars against multiple offers.
7:48
7 minutes, 48 seconds
And they were looking at other areas and other price points that were not seeing this. They were maybe even having 50 days on market on average and one single
7:57
7 minutes, 57 seconds
offer coming in below asking price to be the winner. Well, that's because right now there are certain neighborhoods that are performing really well and there are
8:04
8 minutes, 4 seconds
certain price ranges, particularly the luxury price range, you know, right around 1 to $1.2 million, are booming.
8:12
8 minutes, 12 seconds
They're seeing a lot of competition, especially in the spring environments.
8:15
8 minutes, 15 seconds
And that's not always true for other markets. And I had some sellers earlier this year that was talking to a friend of hers in a different neighborhood. She
8:23
8 minutes, 23 seconds
was kind of modeling her sale on her friends and her friend sale took a long time and it really struggled to get a
8:31
8 minutes, 31 seconds
close to listing price value. That wasn't even because they really overpriced it that much. It's just because that neighborhood was moving
8:39
8 minutes, 39 seconds
slowly. But her neighborhood was hot. We got that sold much quicker and for above asking price. So, it can be really disorienting. And that's where we shine.
8:48
8 minutes, 48 seconds
We really come in with the guidance. We are familiar with the different markets of different neighborhoods and can really sit with the research and data to you to make sure you're pricing your
8:57
8 minutes, 57 seconds
home exactly right. We've got our fingers on the pulse of this market and here to help you with that.
9:01
9 minutes, 1 second
While we're talking about the market, we got to talk a little bit about what's happened in Colorado since the pandemic.
9:06
9 minutes, 6 seconds
So, during the pandemic, Denver metropolitan area especially, but all of Colorado experienced this insane increase in values. uh I'd say like
9:15
9 minutes, 15 seconds
something in the neighborhood of 40 plus percent depending on the neighborhood you're in which was crazy and all of the cities across the country that
9:23
9 minutes, 23 seconds
experienced an insane hike in values are now giving a lot of that back over the last couple of years because now we have
9:31
9 minutes, 31 seconds
these high interest rates and the the market is just not sustainable as high as it was. So this is kind of a problem
9:39
9 minutes, 39 seconds
in Denver. Um, generally Denver actually outperforms most of the nation in appreciation, but right now we're really getting kicked in the teeth and we're
9:47
9 minutes, 47 seconds
giving a lot of that 40% back. In fact, I'd say over the last couple years, we've probably given back uh depending on the neighborhood. Again, there's it
9:55
9 minutes, 55 seconds
varies widely somewhere between 10 and 20% for some neighborhoods. Now, we did experience a very hot spring just now,
10:02
10 minutes, 2 seconds
and we believe that Denver is on the mend. we are in our on the road to recovery and going to start experience price growth again. Uh but the good news
10:11
10 minutes, 11 seconds
is we're kind of right in the starting of that on the mend moment and right now there's still tons of concessions and
10:19
10 minutes, 19 seconds
still a lot of negotiation capable in when you're buying a home. So if you're coming here this is actually a good thing. Um, and something interesting to
10:28
10 minutes, 28 seconds
note is when you're on Zillow looking at what homes sold for, something Zillow does not record is seller concessions on
10:36
10 minutes, 36 seconds
private sales. Uh, seller concession is often given to buy down the interest rate or cover the cost of closing or
10:44
10 minutes, 44 seconds
even cover the cost of some repairs on inspection. And that number is just not generated and shown publicly on Zillow.
10:52
10 minutes, 52 seconds
On the MLS, we have access to when an agent records. Yes, we closed at a million dollars, but we also gave
11:00
11 minutes
$25,000 back because the furnace was out and we didn't have time to do it before closing. So, we just gave the buyer some
11:07
11 minutes, 7 seconds
costs. So, it's a great time for that actually if this video doesn't dissuade you from moving to Denver to come in and get some good closing costs covered.
11:15
11 minutes, 15 seconds
What I forgot to mention about the concessions really is that they are available widely for when you just make an offer, not just from getting them
11:23
11 minutes, 23 seconds
from an inspection negotiation. So, you could walk in and say you're buying whatever house at $750,000.
11:30
11 minutes, 30 seconds
You can make an offer at $775 and get $25,000 in concessions. This is a pretty common negotiation right now. We've got
11:38
11 minutes, 38 seconds
values that were higher. So, homes are appraising at higher values so we can get more concessions for the benefit of
11:46
11 minutes, 46 seconds
your purchase and keep the costs low at closings.
Chapter 5: Denver Condos, Townhomes & HOA Fees
11:49
11 minutes, 49 seconds
Now, another con we're going to talk about is the problem of attached housing in Denver. What I mean with attached h housing is anything that's like a town
11:57
11 minutes, 57 seconds
home or a condo, whether stacked or side by side, they all kind of run into a similar issue where number one, HOA
12:04
12 minutes, 4 seconds
fees, especially right around the Denver area, can be very high. If you're looking at a high-rise in Denver, you might be looking at an $800 a month HOA.
12:13
12 minutes, 13 seconds
And if you're looking a little further from Denver, a town home with almost no amenities could still be costing you $400 a month in your HOA. The reason
12:20
12 minutes, 20 seconds
this is a Denver specific issue is, you guessed it, it always comes back to insurance. Because of all of those insurance companies pulling out and not
12:29
12 minutes, 29 seconds
agreeing to um cover lots of areas in Denver, this has created a shift, especially for these town homes and
12:36
12 minutes, 36 seconds
condos where they are having to pay for big insurance policies for large and expensive areas. What we've seen is these HOAs in the last few years have
12:44
12 minutes, 44 seconds
skyrocketed. I've had folks tell me that sometimes their HOA has even doubled in just a few years. One thing that we're
12:52
12 minutes, 52 seconds
also seeing with this is maybe a little bit of misrepresentation in the HOA fees. I'm seeing more often town homes
12:59
12 minutes, 59 seconds
that used to be fully covered by the HOA. I'm talking your roof goes out, that's okay. The HOA is going to take care of you. That's a massive appeal to
13:08
13 minutes, 8 seconds
most people when they're looking at buying a town home. Some of these policies are actually shifting to being not covering the exterior. That means you have your HOA fee. Maybe it's lower.
13:19
13 minutes, 19 seconds
It looks more attractive than the neighboring units and it's only $250 a month, but you still are having to get your own insurance for all of the
13:27
13 minutes, 27 seconds
exterior maintenance and pay that deductible when the time comes. It's basically like having a single family home without a lot of the perks of the
13:35
13 minutes, 35 seconds
single family home. And this is a major issue that we're experiencing in Denver.
Chapter 6: Denver Dating Scene Pros and Cons
13:39
13 minutes, 39 seconds
All right, this is one for all the single fellas out there. Apparently, the dating scene is awful in Denver, and we
13:47
13 minutes, 47 seconds
call it Denver for a reason. Uh, so the funny thing is, while the overall population is only like 100 women to
13:56
13 minutes, 56 seconds
101.8 men, uh, the reality is that there are more men in their 30s and 40s and
14:03
14 minutes, 3 seconds
less women. So, for you ladies, this is actually maybe a good thing. Uh, and for you men, maybe it's a struggle. And I
14:11
14 minutes, 11 seconds
don't want to forget about the LGBTQ community. From what I hear, it's actually a difficult city for gay men to date as well. So, even though there's a
14:19
14 minutes, 19 seconds
flood of men, I don't think that uh from what I hear around the streets is that it's not a great selection. Now, honestly, as a as a guy who's been
14:28
14 minutes, 28 seconds
married for a while now, I kind of look back at those single days and I think, "Yeah, but I was so dumb and I was so bad at dating." And I always wonder
14:35
14 minutes, 35 seconds
like, is this reality or is this just people suck at dating? So, I don't know.
14:40
14 minutes, 40 seconds
You'll have to putts around on the Reddit scene. Maybe come check out a night in town and see what it's like to get out there and meet some folks. Um, but this is highly reported from
14:49
14 minutes, 49 seconds
personally my single friends and across Reddit that it is a tough dating scene.
Chapter 7: Denver Nightlife | Colorado Reality Check
14:54
14 minutes, 54 seconds
And closely related to the dating scene is the nightlife scene in Denver. The interesting thing is Denver is a very
15:01
15 minutes, 1 second
early night out city. Like you're not going to find tons of robust late night stuff like in Chicago or New York.
15:09
15 minutes, 9 seconds
Things are happening all night long. It really shuts down most nights of the week in Denver at around midnight. And that maybe is kind of late sometimes,
15:17
15 minutes, 17 seconds
too. Friday and Saturday, you're going to find late things, but you have to seek them out. It's not a great place to just be kind of stumbling along through
15:25
15 minutes, 25 seconds
the city and running into the next thing to do. You have to know where you're headed next. Um, and this is widely reported by a lot of people on the
15:33
15 minutes, 33 seconds
internet, and this is my personal experience. Not that I almost ever go out anymore, but you really have to know and you have to be in the right pocket
15:41
15 minutes, 41 seconds
in order to go from place to place. And if you don't know what's happening next, you might be find yourself just kind of stumbling along wondering where is
15:49
15 minutes, 49 seconds
everyone in this city? Well, the night life as a whole is pretty lame. Uh, we do have some really good dance scenes
15:57
15 minutes, 57 seconds
like the electronic dance scene uh is really good. lots of good EDM folks. I swear like half of my friends are DJs on the side as a sort of passion project.
16:06
16 minutes, 6 seconds
And the social dance scene, if you're into something like social like ballroom dance, like blues dancing, zoo dancing, salsa dancing, all those things are
16:14
16 minutes, 14 seconds
really strong in this community. Um, but in the overall just as a ter in general, like going out and finding a dance club, it's not amazing and there's only a
16:22
16 minutes, 22 seconds
handful of places that are really great for that. while you're in town checking out the dance scene. If you're interested in that social dance scene, I am a regular sponsor of a couple of
16:31
16 minutes, 31 seconds
really awesome social dance nights. Uh number one, shout out to my friends at Mojo Mondays, which is a blues dance scene every Monday night at the 11th
16:40
16 minutes, 40 seconds
Avenue Hostel. They have a beautiful space, a nice dance space. It's a super welcoming and loving community, and you get a little lesson at the beginning of
16:48
16 minutes, 48 seconds
the night, and then you can dance and make new friends. It's one of the most welcoming communities in Denver. And I would say very similar things about my
16:55
16 minutes, 55 seconds
friends in the Zuk community. That's every Thursday night at the Denver School of Social Dance. And then there's so many nights uh that are available at
17:04
17 minutes, 4 seconds
so many other places at the Pearl, which is formerly the Mercury Cafe. Now, the Pearl, you've got swing dance nights, tons of dancing. Anyway, uh that's
17:12
17 minutes, 12 seconds
enough positive stuff in this do not move to Denver video.
Chapter 8: Denver Air Quality & Wildfire Smoke
17:17
17 minutes, 17 seconds
All right, Megan. Another thing we got to touch on is the sixth worst air quality in the country ranked here in
17:25
17 minutes, 25 seconds
Denver. Air quality is really bad. Uh it's a unique situation that happens.
17:29
17 minutes, 29 seconds
It's like the mountains kind of trap the pollutants in so they can't disperse normally or evenly. So we've got this
17:36
17 minutes, 36 seconds
kind of bowl situation where Denver sits. Um and then the the cold air kind of traps all the pollutants down. We
17:43
17 minutes, 43 seconds
have a a high reliance on car transit here. So, we just have this weird kind of number of things coming together to make the the air quality really bad.
17:53
17 minutes, 53 seconds
Yeah. And I guess like the sunlight's making it worse. We already have thinner air, you know, in the first place. I have to say, obviously, I've always
18:00
18 minutes
lived here, but I have traveled other places. This isn't something that has ever really hit my radar. It's not something that I've heard my clients
18:08
18 minutes, 8 seconds
complain about on the day-to-day. Um, so this is really something that I can't verify, oh yeah, this is a big problem
18:15
18 minutes, 15 seconds
for us here necessarily. Where I can st step in practically and say that something is a real thing that we
18:22
18 minutes, 22 seconds
experience is wildfire season. When those fires burn in the mountains, and it might not even be a Colorado fire, it could be burning. It could be blowing in
18:31
18 minutes, 31 seconds
from another state. That really notably affects our air quality. Like there are days where you want to go out for a hike and it's just not a great time to do it
18:39
18 minutes, 39 seconds
because you can feel the smoke in your lungs and that that's like a real life practical thing that I've experienced.
18:46
18 minutes, 46 seconds
Yeah. And there were a couple of bad years like 2020 and 2021 were horrible years like Montana was on fire and New Mexico was on fire and Colorado was on
18:54
18 minutes, 54 seconds
fire and it all was converging in this way. Like the only way we were supposed to socialize with people was outside and if you went outside there was ash
19:02
19 minutes, 2 seconds
raining down on the park. So, uh, as thing as things get warmer and we see more and more fires, um, I don't think
19:10
19 minutes, 10 seconds
they're doing a great job of mitigating and removing all of the dead wood from from the mountains. So, uh, more and
19:17
19 minutes, 17 seconds
more fires here in Colorado. And like Megan said, anytime there's a fire somewhere else, it gets blown here.
19:23
19 minutes, 23 seconds
Yeah. And I will still say it's still a niche, very seasonal, selective, like occasional thing. I don't feel like, you know, it's not a a common thing that
19:32
19 minutes, 32 seconds
we're stepping out and just being hit with this, but it's it does put a damper on the summers sometimes when you're excited to get out to the mountains and there's nothing but smog and fire, you know, fire smoke.
Chapter 9: Skiing in Colorado | Mountain Access Reality
19:42
19 minutes, 42 seconds
Yep. And then ski culture. If skiing is something that you are thinking you're going to come here and have this super
19:50
19 minutes, 50 seconds
fantastic, easy, accessible activity to do all the time, you might have a misalignment on your expectations. And
19:57
19 minutes, 57 seconds
the reality, the truth is Denver and most of the Denver suburbs are not a super fast, easy drive to the mountains.
20:04
20 minutes, 4 seconds
No, it's like 2 hours in zero traffic, which there's never zero traffic.
20:09
20 minutes, 9 seconds
Yeah. And like, you know, for us, we have the ability to occasionally take like a Wednesday cuz we're out showing properties and doing open houses
20:16
20 minutes, 16 seconds
Saturday and Sunday. And so Wednesday, you know, prek kids, that would have been a great time for us to go hit the mountains. And I'll vouch for that being
20:23
20 minutes, 23 seconds
an exceptional experience. It cuts your drive down time a lot. And then you're, you know, you're not sitting in the traffic. You're not frustrated. And then
20:31
20 minutes, 31 seconds
when you're on the mountain, it's less crowded, too. But the reality is most of our weekend warriors, that's not a realistic thing. And so, not only are
20:38
20 minutes, 38 seconds
you up against the drive, you're up against the traffic. And we always got to bring it back to cost.
20:44
20 minutes, 44 seconds
Yeah, skiing is very expensive. If you have to get if you plan on skiing regularly, you have to get a ski pass, which are still getting very expensive
20:51
20 minutes, 51 seconds
every day. But if you want to do just a day pass, it's going to be like $250 just to get on the lift.
20:59
20 minutes, 59 seconds
And that's pretty freaking expensive.
21:01
21 minutes, 1 second
Not to mention food. if you don't bring your own food. Uh I last time I was at Breen Ridge, I got a salad for $35.
21:09
21 minutes, 9 seconds
Mhm. It's insane.
21:10
21 minutes, 10 seconds
Yeah. So, you've got the food, you've got that, and then you've also got your ski rentals. You know, if you got to get your snowboard or go get your ski, um you either have to rent that or buy for
21:19
21 minutes, 19 seconds
pay for it. And then you've got your helmets and all of your snowsuits and your gloves. And you want good quality ones, especially if you're going to be,
21:26
21 minutes, 26 seconds
you know, middle of the winter skiing because as sunny as it is, it still does get cold up there. So, you really want quality gear. So, all of that starts to
21:34
21 minutes, 34 seconds
add up. And I'm not here to harp on ski culture because I love skiing. It has been such a big part of my Colorado
21:42
21 minutes, 42 seconds
experience and why I love it here. I think like, you know, come going out and seeing all of the mountains and being in the sunshine and being with your friends and doing something active,
21:50
21 minutes, 50 seconds
quintessential Colorado culture. So, I think it's worth it personally, but I think if you're coming here and you're thinking it's going to be so easy, so
21:58
21 minutes, 58 seconds
accessible, like you're just going to trip fall and end up a full-time skier. It's not going to happen. Exactly.
22:03
22 minutes, 3 seconds
Often times when I meet people and I'm out of state, and they're like, "Oh, you're from Denver. You must ski." And I'm like, "Ah, a little bit." But when I was a kid, we were too poor to ski.
22:11
22 minutes, 11 seconds
Yeah. Yeah. We I didn't start skiing really until like college.
22:14
22 minutes, 14 seconds
So, we became adults. Yeah. So, it's it's going to take it's going to be a hump that you have to get over. You have to invest in your ski equipment and you
22:21
22 minutes, 21 seconds
have to figure out that past you want to buy it like right now every year because now is when it's the cheapest before you know now being April uh when you buy it for next year's season.
Chapter 10: Bentonite Soil & Foundation Issues
22:31
22 minutes, 31 seconds
Mhm.
22:32
22 minutes, 32 seconds
Colorado is out to destroy your home and there are so many ways that it can get you starting with the very soil in which
22:40
22 minutes, 40 seconds
your home is built. So Colorado is filled with a sort of clay called bentonite. And aside from being a beauty
22:48
22 minutes, 48 seconds
product that makes your face look really nice, uh it also expands and contracts when water hits it. So water hits it, it
22:56
22 minutes, 56 seconds
gets bigger and it pushes on the sides of your foundation. And this can mean extremely bad damaging problems to your
23:04
23 minutes, 4 seconds
home. It will make your makes your floors uneven. It uh can make your walls collaps in and it can cost you tons of money.
23:12
23 minutes, 12 seconds
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's the reason why in Colorado, we do a specific kind of building here that you don't find many other places. It's called float framing,
23:19
23 minutes, 19 seconds
and it's where we leave a gap on the ground when we build the walls of your home to ensure that when that inevitably happens with your soils that your entire
23:27
23 minutes, 27 seconds
walls aren't going to get squished upwards. So, that is, you know, foundation problems are a problem everywhere, but it's an especially big concern here in Colorado that you've got
23:36
23 minutes, 36 seconds
to be aware of when you're looking for your home.
23:38
23 minutes, 38 seconds
Yeah. Every time we take people on a tour of a home, we get to the basement and I have to explain, okay, the the vertical walls are actually foundation
23:45
23 minutes, 45 seconds
and the horizontal floor is just slab and it's made to move. And it does. Um, another issue that kind of exacerbates
23:54
23 minutes, 54 seconds
the bentonite problem is if you're in an area that has a flood plane, which you know, let's let's be honest, there's not
24:01
24 minutes, 1 second
a ton of water in Colorado, but there are Yeah. But the most of the water does come from down the mountains and feed the rest of the country. So, we have
24:09
24 minutes, 9 seconds
areas where water comes through. And uh these flood plants aren't huge, but if you're near one, because we have such reactive soil, it makes it an even bigger deal.
24:19
24 minutes, 19 seconds
Yeah. And it makes your insurance astronomical if you are near or in one of these flood zones. So, another thing you have to be aware of when you're
24:26
24 minutes, 26 seconds
looking at your homes in Colorado is to just check on that and make sure you know what you're getting into. Yeah, insurance has become a huge problem over
24:34
24 minutes, 34 seconds
the last few years because of all of the problems that Colorado has. Uh like five or six of the major insurance companies
24:41
24 minutes, 41 seconds
left the state, which has increased all of the costs because there's fewer companies that are willing to cover out here.
Chapter 11: Colorado Hail Damage & Insurance Costs
24:48
24 minutes, 48 seconds
Yeah, it's been a major problem that we've kind of seen across the board. And it brings us really nicely into the next big threat to your home, which is hail.
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In Colorado, we have a hail season usually in the spring where the homes pretty regularly get pelted with hail
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25 minutes, 3 seconds
and this can really damage your roof of your home. And when that happens, you have a very short window to get your insurance guy out there, get your roofer
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25 minutes, 12 seconds
out there, get them on the roof together to talk to you. We've learned that the hard way to talk to you about what is going on with your roof and get that
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25 minutes, 19 seconds
claim filed and get it replaced. But I do have some more bad news.
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25 minutes, 23 seconds
Unfortunately, insurance deductibles on these roofs are also skyrocketing.
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25 minutes, 29 seconds
So, you got to make sure you get a have a great and detailed conversation with your insurance agent. We have great referrals and make sure that you're well
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25 minutes, 38 seconds
covered and that your roof has whole life insurance or that we negotiate some roof repairs or a new roof upon purchase.
25:46
25 minutes, 46 seconds
Yeah. And have that conversation with us on a continuous basis. We talk with our clients every year about what insurance is best because whoever we set you up
25:55
25 minutes, 55 seconds
with your first year might not be the best option for the long term. I mean, realistically, it's not going to be the best option for the long term. Here in Colorado, we do not reward you for
26:04
26 minutes, 4 seconds
loyalty with one insurance company. If anything, they penalize you. So, keep shopping every year and reach out to us for the latest and greatest cuz we are
Chapter 12: Wildfire Risk & Property Insurance
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26 minutes, 12 seconds
always up to date on that. I feel like one of the common questions I'm getting for folks moving out of state here is questions about how real fire risk is to
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26 minutes, 21 seconds
their home. People are reading the headlines a lot of the time. Colorado is on fire.
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26 minutes, 26 seconds
It's pretty hazy day right now, actually.
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26 minutes, 29 seconds
Yeah. And after the winter we had this past year, everybody's pretty nervous about what fire season looks like. But here's the reality. If you're looking
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26 minutes, 37 seconds
right in Denver, your risk of fire knocking out your home is pretty limited. Where we have a really high
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26 minutes, 44 seconds
fire risk is out in the mountains and any kind of property where you have a lot of brush and unmaintained trees and
26:52
26 minutes, 52 seconds
shrubbery. Um those really need special attention. We actually have a fantastic fire mitigation company to recommend to you. They're called tree beavers and
27:00
27 minutes
they focus on reducing this risk as much as possible. It's something that you might even have even just to get an insurance um policy on your home is to
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27 minutes, 9 seconds
do that mitigation. And it is amazing statistically how if you actually just do the recommended fire mitigation around your home, how you have these
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27 minutes, 16 seconds
homes where like a home is untouched, home across the road didn't do their fire mitigation and it burns down. Yeah.
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27 minutes, 22 seconds
And you know, I won't say that it only is these mountain properties that you have to be worried about that. You know, if you go into look in the fire map, we'll throw it up on the screen here.
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27 minutes, 30 seconds
You can see that this risk is even existing in Castle Rock, which I would consider a Denver suburb. So, it's something that you do need to be aware of. Um, and you need to be checking out
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27 minutes, 38 seconds
in your insurance policy and just be looking at this map when you're checking out things and weighing the pros and cons of being in these areas.
27:44
27 minutes, 44 seconds
And while we're on insurance, further ramifications of this fire problem is that your insurance is going to be kind of insane in the foothills in the mountains area. Um, I have a client who
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27 minutes, 53 seconds
lives in Evergreen. I helped her buy the home there. And I was just checking in.
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27 minutes, 56 seconds
I was like, "Hey, how's your insurance doing with all this uh the insurance companies leaving recently?" And she said, "Oh, it's terrible. my insurance is $8,000 a year. I was like, "Oh my
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28 minutes, 5 seconds
gosh, that's way too high. Talk to my insurance guy." So, she called my insurance guy and he was like, "Oh yeah, we could quote that for $4,000 a year,
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28 minutes, 13 seconds
but we don't quote that area." So, basically, a lot of shopping around the best the the best pricing on that is something around $8,000 a year, which is
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28 minutes, 22 seconds
more than double what you would be down in the city of Denver.
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Yeah. You know, I would say there there was a moment in time when I was looking at the property insurance deadline on the contracts and thinking, you know,
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how often did we really have people terminate on property insurance? Almost never.
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28 minutes, 37 seconds
Yeah. So, this is a whole deadline created for you as a buyer where if you have any issues with your property insurance information, you can terminate that contract and go find another home.
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28 minutes, 45 seconds
And I almost never ran into that situation happening, but it's becoming a more real thing. So, you have that due
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28 minutes, 52 seconds
diligence period to go get your property quote. And if it is astronomical and it breaks the bank for you, you have that opportunity to get out um you know, and go find something else.
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29 minutes, 1 second
While we're speaking about termination deadlines, we should talk about you can terminate the the deal on understanding
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29 minutes, 8 seconds
your fire escape routes. So, something huge to think about is if you're buying in a neighborhood in the foothills, is
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29 minutes, 15 seconds
there more than one way to get out of the neighborhood if there's a fire?
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29 minutes, 19 seconds
because if there isn't, you could be stuck. Um, and if you're interested in the foothills, we have a great fire guide that kind of ranks, you know, how
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29 minutes, 27 seconds
uh good of fire mitigation each area in the foothills has. If you'd like common fire in the comments here and we'll send it your way.
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29 minutes, 34 seconds
Yeah. You know, while we're on the topic of fire and heat, let's jump into sun and the damage it has on your home. So, yes, we have the beautiful sunny weather
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in Colorado. Even when it's snowing, it's usually sunny, and that's amazing.
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29 minutes, 46 seconds
I wouldn't trade it for anything, but it definitely wreaks havoc on your home.
Chapter 13: Denver Weather & Homeownership Costs
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29 minutes, 50 seconds
So, a lot of time, you know, it depends on what orientation your home is facing, but a lot of time it is hitting one side directly of your home. And maybe that
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29 minutes, 58 seconds
side only is the only part that is in need of a paint paint job replacement.
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30 minutes, 2 seconds
You can get away with just doing that one side, but you might have to do it double as often as you were thinking of just because of that direct hitting. It can also damage your windows on that
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30 minutes, 11 seconds
side of the home more quickly. And we even have a story where one of our clients a couple years ago bought a home and one of the windows in there was the
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30 minutes, 19 seconds
light was hitting it so directly that it melted part of her laptop. And tying it back to fire, I had another client many
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30 minutes, 26 seconds
years ago who actually previous to meeting me, she owned her home and the same kind of thing happened, but it was hitting her water filtration filtration
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30 minutes, 35 seconds
system and that glass refracting the light caused a kitchen fire. She had to completely redo her kitchen. So, be
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30 minutes, 43 seconds
aware of where the sun is and get some good blinds on that side. It's not something I even realized was a real threat until I got into real estate.
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30 minutes, 51 seconds
Colorado is a crazy place. You got to be hearty people to live here. I love a good swing outro.
Chapter 14: Moving to Denver? Final Tips
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30 minutes, 56 seconds
I know. Me, too. Do we overdo it? Is it overplayed?
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30 minutes, 59 seconds
I don't know. You get They're not watching all our videos, right?
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31 minutes, 3 seconds
If all of these things we've talked about today did not scare you off from Denver, you're totally right. Denver is an awesome place to live. Yeah, we've
31:11
31 minutes, 11 seconds
never left. We've been here our whole lives. We're Denver natives. We've watched it grow. We've watched it change. We've we've loved it. We've
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31 minutes, 18 seconds
we've not loved everything, but you know, now you know, all the stuff that we think is a pain in the butt. And if that wasn't enough to dissuade you, it's
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31 minutes, 25 seconds
time to find the perfect neighborhood for you.
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31 minutes, 28 seconds
Yeah. In addition to being lovers of Denver, we are also lovers of real estate. That's what we do for our full-time jobs. And we are so excited to hear all of your Denver real estate
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31 minutes, 36 seconds
questions. Reach out to us with any of them. All of our information is in the description below.
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31 minutes, 40 seconds
Thanks so much and we'll see you next time.