Real Estate Blog

Jared Polis will face several challenges as governor of Colorado, but one of the biggest could be an economic downturn in the second half of the year, if a forecast from economist Alan Beaulieu finally proves out.

Beaulieu is president of ITR Economics and a specialist in predicting economic cycles. This year, as he has done for much of the decade, Beaulieu made his first public forecast of the year in front of the Denver Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth.

“The U.S. economy and your economy in Colorado will slow down in 2019,” he told the more than 275 people attending a lunch Tuesday at the Embassy Suites in downtown Denver.

The downturn will hit industrial firms, exporters and commodity producers harder than it will consumers and the businesses that supply them. And it won’t be particularly severe, but it will sting after a long stretch of growth.

“Expect a slow down, but don’t expect a break down,” he said.

Given what some of the economic numbers are starting to s..

A mountain long identified with the city of Trinidad but inaccessible to residents and the public will one day be open to recreation and could become a key part of the area’s economy, if plans by the city, state agencies and nonprofits work out.

The Trust for Public Land and The Nature Conservancy have signed an agreement to buy the 19,200-acre Crazy French Ranch, which includes Fisher’s Peak. The 9,630-foot-high mountain is clearly visible from downtown Trinidad and figures prominently in many photos of the city.

However, Fisher’s Peak is surrounded by private property. As a result, it is largely off limits to the public. Two nearby state wildlife areas — James M. John and Lake Dorothey — can be reached only by a detour through northern New Mexico.

That will change after the purchase of the ranch is completed and it becomes public land. But that is a few years down the road, according to the city of Trinidad and others involved in the effort.

“It’s a big project. It’s not going to..

Stapleton remains Colorado’s top-selling new home community, claiming the 11th spot nationally last year with 622 sales, according to a ranking from John Burns Real Estate Consulting.

But home sales at Stapleton, which Forest City Enterprises has developed for two decades, are down 18 percent from the 758 sold in 2017. Stapleton’s sales volume has swung around based on the availability of lots. Last year represented a time of transition, with the Denver community opening up its 12th and final neighborhood this summer.

Green Valley Ranch, which regularly made the top 50 below Stapleton, didn’t make the cut on the John Burns’ list last year. But Banning Lewis Ranch in Colorado Springs shot up out of nowhere, with 342 sales, enough to rank 45th nationally.

Through October, Colorado Springs had the fourth fastest annual rate of job gains of any metro in the country at 5.4 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Real estate firm RCLCO had Green Valley Ranch sales at 3..

For metro Denver’s housing market, 2018 will go down as a year of fire and ice, where a very hot first half flipped into a much colder second half that held December tight in its grip.

Home and condo sales in metro Denver dropped 17.8 percent in December from November to 3,396. Comparing December 2018 with December 2017, home sales are down by 23 percent, according to the market trends report from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.

Measured across the entire year, home sales in metro Denver fell 5.5 percent in 2018 versus 2017 and came in at their lowest volume since 2014. Higher prices, however, allowed the market to hit a record sales volume of $26.5 billion, which is 2.36 percent above the volume sold in 2017, according to the DMAR report.

“Sellers celebrated in the first half of the year with a crazy blur of multiple offers and fast sales,” Jill Schafer, head of the DMAR market trends committee and a local Realtor, said in a news release. “It was buyers’ turn to celebrate..

Texas business enters the 86th legislature with a focus on preserving the state’s job-winning incentive programs, with nary a whisper of a bathroom bill to stall the session. That leaves more room on the businessperson's lobbying to-do list.

Created as a community development tool, the Opportunity Zone program is meant to encourage long-term investment in low-income urban and rural communities by allowing developers and investors to reinvest capital gains into Opportunity Funds.

Between the loan and its permits, construction on the closely watched property in downtown Tampa is likely to begin before the end of the first quarter.

The Main Line Health hospital cut the ribbon for its 256,000-square-foot patient pavilion.

In the market for spec office space in Bethesda? Doug Firstenberg has you covered.

Firstenberg, principal of StonebridgeCarras, said his firm will begin construction in March on its $300 million Avocet Tower mixed-use development at 7359 Wisconsin Ave. featuring a trophy office tower that will soar 300 feet into the air with a rooftop terrace and 220-unit AC by Marriott hotel.

If completed as expected by spring 2021, the development will add to other speculative trophy office buildings in Bethesda,…

San Antonio-based Pape-Dawson Engineers Inc. is acquiring Houston-based Tomball-based ArborLeaf Engineering & Surveying, according to a press release. The purchase price was not disclosed.

Walter Smith launched ArborLeaf in 2004 and will become a vice president at Pape-Dawson. About 80 percent of ArborLeaf’s work is land surveying, with civil engineering making up the other 20 percent, per the release. The firm has three registered surveyors with more than 125 years of combined experience. Pape-Dawson…