RE/MAX of Boulder News

What’s the latest in the Boulder County real estate market? Here’s a snapshot of our vital statistics with our quick videos below.

Not all home improvements are equal when it comes to recovering the costs of the job. In Colorado and its fellow Mountain Region states, homeowners recoup considerably more of their costs for some projects than others, according to the Remodeling 2019 Cost vs. Value Report (www.costvsvalue.com).

Produced by Remodeling Magazine, the report provides an in-depth look at the return on investment (ROI) of common remodeling projects. This year’s analysis compares average costs for 22 remodeling projects with the value those projects retain at resale in 136 U.S. markets.

Across the Mountain region states of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho and Montana, the highest return for upscale homes – 98.6 percent – comes from replacing the garage door.

When I first started selling real estate in 1978, the contract to purchase a home a home was only one page long. Now in 2019, the contract to purchase a home has grown to 14 pages, plus multiple pages of disclosures, approaching 30 pages total. I have watched the contract grow, a few clauses at a time, over the last 40 years. In the past, contracts were updated as often as once a year. Now, they are usually updated every two years, unless there is a Federal or Colorado legislative mandatory update. This year is one of the mandatory legislative update years. 

On March 6, 2019, the Colorado Association of REALTORS® (CAR) announced that Governor Jared Polis signed House Bill-19-1098, known as the “Deeds to Convey Real Property Bill” into law. Several

If you drive up Flagstaff Mountain and look across the sea of homes on the eastern Colorado plains, the striking view will compel you to ask, “where is the water supply coming from for all those houses?” In Boulder, we are dependent on the Rocky Mountain winter and summer rains after the snow melts. Located at the base of the Rocky Mountains, Boulder looks to three major sources of water. First is Barker Reservoir, just east of Nederland on Middle Boulder Creek. Second is the Silver Lake/Lakewood Watershed on North Boulder Creek. Third is Boulder Reservoir, which is fed by the Colorado-Big Thompson system.

The water from these sources flow into City of Boulder’s two water treatment plants via a complex series of creeks, ditches, and pipes. The

First of all, what is a special tax district or metro district? It’s a tool which has been around for years to finance the infrastructure of new subdivisions for urban services such as streets, water/sewer lines, fire protection, etc. Back in the 1980s it was primarily used when a subdivision was outside a city’s limits or when a city did not have the ability to provide the infrastructure.     

On May 9, 2019, our Local IRES MLS (Multiple Listing Service) for home listings announced that in the next update there will be a field for home informational listings to disclose whether or not a home is in a special tax district or metro district. Special districts and metro districts have been around for years, and now there is suddenly an avenue for

Real estate prices are increasing across much of the nation and four Colorado cities are among housing markets increasing the most, according to SmartAsset.com analysis.

Leading the Colorado contingent, Aurora claimed the No. 6 spot with population and income growth ranking in the top 40. Other Colorado metros ranked are Denver No. 10, Thornton No. 18, and Greeley No. 19.

Denver’s population rose nearly 12 percent from 2013 to 2017, reports SmartAsset. While Denver’s home prices are rising, study data shows incomes are also rising. Median household income increased more than 19 percent from 2013 to 2017.

Six of the top 10 on the rising housing markets list are California cities where a housing affordability has reached crisis levels. Median

Article published in Boulder Daily Camera's At Home section on Friday, May 24
By Adam Goldstein

BOULDER – A lot has changed in the world of real estate since Karolyn Merrill and Patrick Dolan started working together in 1997.

It was the age of fax machines, carbon-copy contracts and brick-sized cell phones that plugged into a car’s cigarette lighter. Colorado and the Boulder Valley had yet to see several cycles of booms and busts – the population hadn’t exploded to its current levels, and real estate in the area was in a different phase of development.

Working together, Merrill and Dolan witnessed a fundamental change as the local home-buying landscape changed and opportunities began to shift.

“We worked together just the two of us for