If you've ever wondered if a neighborhood was right for you and your family before committing to it by buying a home, you've probably done a fair amount of research. You've looked into the school district, the taxes, the water and energy bill averages. You've surveyed the streets by driving by, taking note of the landscaping, the care with which your prospective neighbors take with their properties. You've asked a REALTOR or two about the market values and conditions, and you've even met and spoken with some residents. Maybe you've event spent some time hanging out at the park, or walking down a few streets, especially during hours when people are likely to be home. Bonus point if you've looked into local neighborhood groups and/or the HOA.

Neighborhood groups can be as formally or casually structured as you would imagine, and often provide a social experience for residents. They can enhance residential life in a section of a community by providing location-based or virtual opportunities for getting to know your neighbors and neighborhood. Social gatherings in a neighborhood group are often flavored with activities that maintain or improve the overall neighborhood atmosphere, such as a designated cleanup day. Virtual neighborhood groups (online) usually serve residents by providing a platform for referring each other to service providers, spreading news (such as mountain lion sightings or crime reports), and arranging meetups and sub-groups. Most neighborhood groups post at least some information online; search for them or ask your REALTOR about them, and browse their Web site or call one of the officers or organizers to learn more about a neighborhood's inside scoop.

An HOA, or homeowner's association, is a formally organized entity charged with duties pertaining to a community or development. These duties vary widely from place to place, but you should be able to judge an HOA's involvement by reading the bylaws and speaking to an officer of the HOA. Your REALTOR will be able to provide you with the necessary details. Not all neighborhoods are subject to HOA governance, and while some communities are technically under an HOA's covenants, the actual organization may be too loosely structured or defunct to influence the residential experience.

Getting to know a community while shopping around is one of the easiest ways to make an informed decision on a home. While it won't be the only data point in your evaluation, the quality of life in a new home and other intangibles are just as important as the stuff you can enter into a spreadsheet.

If you've looked at real estate listings online this year, you may have noticed one more measurement characterizing homes and neighborhoods. It's a number from 0 to 100 called Walk Score. The way it works, according to the Web site, is simple: "Walk Score calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc. Walk Score measures how easy it is to live a car-lite lifestyle—not how pretty the area is for walking." It's also worth pointing out that Walk Score doesn't tell you what those restaurants and stores are, nor does it rate them. But if you're wondering weather that two-bedroom bungalow in Corey-Merrill spells out an existence of living in your car, or being able to walk with your family to Joe's Pizzeria for a dinner slice, give it a try.According to Walk Score, ten of Denver's most walkable neighborhoods are Lodo, Golden Triangle, Capitol Hill, Cherry Creek, Baker, Alamo Placita, Five Points, City Park, Highland, and University. If you're considering a relocation to Colorado, ask around and see if your own research matches up.

Perhaps the widespread social emphasis on reducing carbon emissions, and home buying trends favoring community, sustainability, and connection between the people of a neighborhood or section of town, created a demand for understanding how walk friendly an area is. While it's up to each home owner to decide how important a home's "walkability index" is, it looks like the feature is getting some attention. From the gist of a recent Money/CNN article, it looks like people are putting their money where there feet are by paying more for walkable homes.

Your REALTOR or real estate Web site can chime in with some of the additional information Walk Score can't tell you, such as whether you're in for a rude awakening with your school district, overall neighborhood vibe, or how involved the homeowner's association is or isn't. Walk Score is a raw number, perhaps somewhat arbitrary, and a kind of sterile indicator of a neighborhood's character, so make sure you're using a healthy amount of human-driven data in your decision making. As always, balance facts and indexes with your own intuition, judgment, and experience, along with some expert opinion--from a real person, not an algorithm.

Speaking with home buyers across the nation, the quality of schools in their communities is always a concern raised by parents, and even home buyers without children. It's true that a solid school district is a win for families with school-aged children, but the same solid school district can also be found to relate to solid home prices and market interest.

That's because good schools can lead to neighborhood desirability. It also can mean slower speed limits, a more involved neighborhood association, invested homeowners, a more pleasant neighborhood atmosphere, and slower turnover. Good schools are good for everyone in the community, not just the children who attend, but it's an intangible that's easy to miss--if you're not paying attention to it.

Before and during your next home search, ask your Realtor about the school districts in your neighborhoods of interest, and check out the Colorado Department of Educations, school rankings and report cards. Categorize the listings you're considering by elementary, middle, or high school, and map out which properties interest you. If you're able, call or visit neighborhood schools, especially if you have children who may attend. Don't overlook school rankings and locations when conducting your home search. The results may make all the difference in the long and short terms. Back to school time isn't just for students anymore; it's for home buyers, too.

Downtown, LoHi, Highland, LoDo: Relocating to Colorado must sound like Morse code to the newcomer. Before you drill down to specific neighborhoods, of which there are many, try getting a macro view of Denver's real estate market first.

For example, the inventory of homes in the central part of Denver tend to be older homes built in the 1800's and early 1900's. The great majority of these homes are the craftsman style bungalow, Denver square style or Victorian. Most of the homes utilized a brick construction because the threat of fire was still a very real concern even forty years after the Great Denver Fire of 1863. However, a relatively small inventory of brand new custom homes have been built in the older neighborhoods of Denver. The original home on the lot is remodeled or completely rebuilt from the ground-up. You will see a few of these homes in the listings that you receive.

You'll find that as you move toward the center of Denver (the downtown area around the Lower Downtown or LODO), the price per square foot for housing increases. Also, as you move closer to the Cherry Creek Shopping District, the price per square foot also increases. In the core of Denver, homes sell for $275-$500 per square foot.

The price per square foot drops dramatically as you move out from the center of Denver to the neighborhoods on the outskirts of Denver proper, and even less in the outlying neighborhoods just outside of the Denver city limits. ($200-300 per square foot)

Although there are too many Denver neighborhoods and metro areas to mention here, some of Denver's top-performing, most active neighborhoods include:

• Cherry Creek
• Washington Park
• Cherry Creek North
• Park Hill
• Stapleton
• Lowry
• Hilltop
• Windsor Gardens East

For a full list of Denver real estate communities, which you can sort through and save according to your preferences, visit our Web site or give us a call.

Denver real estate isn't just about the places; it's also about the people and the things that go with them. Now that the snows melted, thoughts are turning away from that face plant you took at Copper Mountain, and toward what will happen to the bulbs you planted in your garden. (Darned deer!) Salting the walks has given way to salting the margaritas. Can you hear the siren song of the deck outside your favorite neighborhood hang?

Augment your Denver home tours by taking the opportunity to soak in some of Denver's fine happenings along the way. Here are just a few events in Denver that are going on this spring and summer around your location, location, location:

• 27th Annual Cherry Creek Sneak--April 26.
• Furry Scurry--May 2, Denver's Washington Park.
• Cinco de Mayo Celebrate Culture Festival. May 9-10, 2009. Civic Center Park--Broadway and Colfax Avenue.
• VIP Evenings at Denver Center Theater productions of Monty Python's Spamalot, May 15; Wicked, October 16; Little House on the Prairie, December 27.
• 27th Annual Highlands Street Fair. June 20, 2009. Highlands Square--32nd Avenue and Lowell Street.
• Cherry Creek Arts Festival. July 3-5, 2009. Cherry Creek North Shopping District--299 Milwaukee Street.
• Parade of Homes--July 29 through Labor Day, at Promontory at McKay Shores.

Near Cranmer Park, where the dog-walkers, strollers and pee-wee soccer leagues roam, and over near Graland Country Day School, founded in 1924, is one of Denver's most regaled historic neighborhoods: Hilltop.

Often mixed in with other neighborhoods for its proximity to Crestmoor, Mayfair, Cherry Creek, Bellvue, Belcaro, and Montclair, Hilltop is in the mix of old and new business and lifestyle developments in Denver. It's near some of Denver's most renowned restaurants, and is a long-time companion to the arts and culture scene. Today, the face of Hilltop is, like most other places, changing. While many small homes have been razed and rebuilt, or enlarged to accommodate today's tastes, some of the historical flavor and architecture remains, despite the trend toward lot-splitting that took over neighborhood real estate conversations around 2000. A few lots are being consumed almost in their entirety by large homes, but the number of these corner-to-corner builds are pretty limited. For now, Hilltop is a mature neighborhood of, for now, mature residents. Childless couples and empty nesters have dominated the Hilltop landscape for many years. What kinds of demographic turns the neighborhood will take is unfolding now.

What's Nearby
Its one geographic shortcoming is also perhaps a strength: Because it's located in the lower right hand quadrant opposite the I-70/I-25 intersection (aka "the mousetrap"), it lacks the handy access to either interstate highway. You can call that a bug or a feature, depending on how much time you want to spend navigating the surface streets to or from the north or west during rush hour. Architecturally, besides the Crestmoor and Glendale communities, there's George Cranmer's residence, the mayoral home (also known as Cableland), the modern splendor of the Shangi-La mansion, and other nameless, yet spectacular homes. The area is also home to established community landmarks such as Temple Emanuel, Assumption Greek Orthodox, and Epiphany Episcopal. And because Hilltop is in the center of it all, the neighborhood is within minutes of downtown and within an hour of destinations such as DIA, Boulder, and Colorado Springs.

From West 6th Avenue to Alameda Avenue and from Federal Boulevard to Sheridan Boulevard lies a little Denver neighborhood with a big history. In 1882, P.T. Barnum — yes, THE P.T. Barnum — purchased 760 acres of Denver dirt as a winter hiatus hot spot. While he was at it, it's been said that Barnum took the liberty of naming many of the streets in the neighborhood after show-biz folk, although in this day and age, it's hard to tell who's who. With street names like King, Newton, and Perry, people of the Generation X persuasion are likely to assume that the corresponding first names might be Larry, Wayne, and Steve, but who's counting?

Annexed to the city of Denver in the late 1800s, Barnum listings are relatively plentiful now, especially considering the rest of the west Denver markets such as Sloan's Lake, Highland, and Lakewood. With home prices from the 50s — yes, THE 50s — to a max of about $275K, Barnum is perhaps the most approachable starter neighborhood in the Denver metro family. Barnum Elementary, a school of about 480 students, was built in 1921 in a Spanish Colonial Revival style, and is surrounded by their other historic folks, such as the Bowman house at King Street and West Fourth Avenue, and the 1890s retail building at West 1st Avenue and Hooker Streets.

Whatever your Denver area of interest, consider what's most important to you in a neighborhood. Is it diversity? Is it the schools? Is it the atmosphere, the views, the amenities, or the community cohesiveness? In this buyer's market, there's an unprecedented opportunity to study your Denver neighborhoods carefully and weigh in with your REALTOR. The time is right; is the neighborhood?

What It Is: Clement's Addition is a little sliver of old Denver; it's the oldest intact block of housing in Denver, along with Curtis Park, which remains remarkably intact north of 23rd Street. South of the line, however, there isn't much residential remaining with any regularity. The exception is the Arapahoe Square area, with what is becoming a less sparsely-housed neighborhood just west of Clement's. Clement's Addition proper is the one surviving block that staved off the bulldozers and wrecking balls of the mid-70 that made way for the 1976 Winter Olympics Housing. It's also often lumped in with another historic Denver neighborhood: Uptown.

Where It Is: Southeast of Lower Downtown between 20th and 22nd Streets, from Tremont Place to Glenarm Place.

What's Nearby: Benedict Fountain Park, Curtis Park, Arapahoe Square, Ballpark, Central Business District, LoDo, Park Avenue Addition, and numerous lightrail stations. Also theThomas Hornsby Ferril House on 2123 Downing Street, now home to the Lighthouse Writers Workshop and formerly other fine nonprofit organizations in service to Denver and its people. (Ferril was Colorado's Poet Laureate from the late '70s until his death in 1988.)

What you'll find in housing: A new 32-story luxury high-rise at 1950 Welton Street, Historic single-family homes, Historic office conversions, Brand-new, one-of-a-kind brownstones at 2137 Glenarm Place, and more.

There's a tendency when in Denver to look west. It's where the natural beauty of the mountains are, which is still the way that some residents figure out which cardinal direction they're driving. During the daytime, that it. But there's the other side of Denver, the east side, and one of those sections of Denver that's east of center is an historic and celebrated part of Denver known as Park Hill.

Park Hill, hemmed in by Colorado Boulevard on the west, East Colfax Avenue on the south, Quebec Street on the east, and East 52nd Avenue on the north, is often further dissected by the City and County of Denver into three administrative neighborhoods: South Park Hill, North Park Hill, and Northeast Park Hill. Montview Boulevard and Monaco Parkway are main thoroughfares, recognized by their wide lanes and tree-lined medians. And for those of you who remember when Denver's airport was a little closer to downtown, you know that Park Hill as the close, older neighbor to the Stapelton community, named for its predecessor, Stapelton International Airport.

It's also three miles from the Central Business District and just a scoot eastward from the Denver Museum of Science and History. It's a top Denver subdivision, served by Park Hill Elementary, Montclair Elementary School, Hill Middle School, Park Hill Middle School, Smiley Middle School, East High School, George Washington High School, and others. Today, the Park Hill neighborhood, a top Denver suburb holds a median price of $427,000, with a Minimum price of $99,900, and a maximum price: $1,925,000.

Neighbors, businesses, and the city and county government often keep in touch with each other by way of The Greater Park Hill Community (GPHC), a non-profit neighborhood organization formed in 1961 which also organizes an annual tour of the historic architecture still found in the area today.

Because Denver's history has taken so many twists and turns--including a gold rush, a silver rush, epic storms, and a big, big fire--Denver's rich tapestry trickles down to its architecture. Most homes utilized a brick construction because the threat of fire was still a very real concern even forty years after the Great Denver Fire of 1863. However, a relatively small inventory of brand new custom homes have been built in the older neighborhoods of Denver; the original home on the lot is remodeled or completely rebuilt from the ground-up.

Among the streets and alleys of Denver's fine homes are many an architectural style. All in one city, you'll find examples of all these:

• Art Deco--Found in the Bonnie Brae and Hilltop neighborhoods, and at the Cruise Room at The Oxford Hotel.
• Beaux-Arts--The Richard C. Campbell Mansion at 909 York Street and The Weckbaugh Mansion on 450 East 9th Avenue, along with some of the homes in the Country Club neighborhood.
• Bungalow--Found in the Washington Park, Congress Park, Park Hill and the West Highlands neighborhoods.
• Colonial Revival--Found at The Thomson Henry Residence at1070 Humboldt, The Tears McFarland House at1200 Williams Street, The Governor's Mansion, the Phipps Mansion, and more.
• Dutch Colonial Revival--Found at the Pearce-McAllister House at1880 Gaylord Street, and in the Cheesman Park neighborhood.
• Denver Square--Found practically everywhere, but particularly in Capitol Hill, Cheesman Park, City Park and West Highlands.
• Spanish Colonial Revival--Washington Park, Polo Club, and Capitol Hill neighborhoods.
• Queen Anne--Found throughout the Curtis Park neighborhood, and at The Molly Brown House at 1340 Pennsylvania.

Other styles found in Denver include:

• International
• Italian Renaissance Revival
• Mission Revival
• Neoclassical
• Prairie Style
• Pueblo
• Tudor and English Revival
• Victorian

The good news is that it's not too late to find your own unique piece of Denver history in one of these Denver neighborhoods. Or in any of these other popular Denver metro areas:

• Washington Park - the community park is filled with fit, young professionals and families of all kinds.
• Park Hill - up and coming neighborhood with a lot of redevelopment activity.
• Cherry Creek - Cherry Creek Mall and world class restaurants are a short walk or bike ride away.
• Stapleton - new construction with a new urbanism theme. Denver proper's newest neighborhood.
• Highlands - less expensive than Wash Park and a great place for the urban professional looking for a single family home.
• Lowry - redeveloped earlier than Stapleton and a bit closer to downtown.
• Bonnie Brae - like to walk to latte AND ice cream? This is your neighborhood.
• Hilltop - hub of building activity, scrape offs, and new custom mansions.
• Crestmoor- right next door to Hilltop in East Denver, this is the hot neighborhood for stately custom homes.
• Country Club - architecturally significant homes on wide tree-lined streets in a central location.
• LoDo- Nightlife out your door, hip urban loft living.
• Capitol Hill - neighborhood of single family homes closest to Downtown Denver and in the center of Denver's live music scene.
• Polo Club - Typical prices 2 - 4 million....enough said.

Happy hunting, and don't forget to stop and smell the many varieties of Denver roses. (But that's another article.)

Known as "Wash Park", the area of Washington Park is nestled between I-25 (to the south), Cherry Creek Drive / East Alameda (to the north), University Boulevard (at the east end), and Downing Street (at the west). It's also been tapped by experts, agents, and buyers as a reliable buy in what has otherwise proven an unsettling market. This desirable pocket of Denver is a great demonstration that a close-up view of the market is usually the more accurate one. When considering markets, use a microscope, not a telescope; national data is unhelpful to the individual home buyer, especially in Colorado, where certain Front Range neighborhoods are famous for bucking wider US trends.

There was a price hike in the Washington Park neighborhood from '06 to '07; about nine percent, with park-side houses taking top dollar. Those streets are South Downing, Louisiana Avenue, South Franklin, and East Virginia Avenue. Off-Washington, the pricier streets are Corona and Ogden.

This longtime best-loved and best-bet neighborhood enjoys a long-standing reputation of good neighbors and good deals. It's got charm, good schools, accessibility to Downtown, and a 165-acre park of, not coincidentally, the same name.

From its incorporation in 1861 to the 21st century, Denver's come a long way, baby. And now that environmental considerations are topping the list of things that make a city great, Denver continues to deliver on its reputation of going the distance. And it's not just the clean water and wilderness areas that make it a Rockies gem.

Construction
In a demonstration of one Denver citizen's commitment to the environment and historic preservation, developer Evan Makovsky will spend almost $1 million to replace 76 windows with energy-efficient ones in the historic Fontius building along the 16th Street Mall. Currently, Denver has 17 LEED-certified buildings, with 73 more in the certification process. That includes Aardex's Signature Center in the Denver West Office Park, perhaps the greenest private office building in the country. The EPA building in LoDo has been awarded LEED Gold level certification, meaning it has been built and designed to be one of the nation's most environmentally friendly buildings. And when the Westfield Development Company finishes its office tower at 1800 Larimer Street, it may be the most energy-efficient building downtown, with state-of-the-art under-floor air delivery and other heating and cooling features. Other notable green building sites on the docket for Denver include the Denver Justice Center, the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Denver.

Transportation
With a tax-funded plan in place to build more light-rail lines to augment the two well-used systems that criss-cross the metro area, Denver leads the nation in terms of new rail projects in dollars per capita. Despite highly-publicized opposition, the public overwhelmingly voted for light rail even before the phrase "carbon footprint" existed. The former Mile High Stadium, demolished in 2002 to make way for the construction of Invesco Field, still lives on in the form of steel reused in tracks for the metro area's T-REX light rail expansion.

Green Homes
Which neighborhood is a good candidate for "green" building? Well, any neighborhood, really, but in particular, it's notable that: Bicycle lanes have been installed along 18th, 19th, Wynkoop, Lawrence, Arapahoe, and Glenarm Streets downtown. In 2005, the pedestrian-bicycle bridge over the Platte River at 3rd Avenue was completed, easing safe travel along the Platte River Trail. In 2006, a ped-bike bridge over I-25 connects North Denver's Highlands neighborhood and downtown Denver. Nearly 30 percent of what used to be Stapelton International Airport are dedicated to parks and open space--over 4,700 acres. Nearby shopping, Energy Star® certified homes, access to public transportation, and other features have made the Stapleton residential development a model for smart growth.

When we see the mountains from our homes and offices, and consider our weekends on the ski slopes or wide open outdoors, it's no wonder Denver is such a green city. Enjoy.

Does Downtown Denver have multiple personalities? Maybe, in a good way. Or you could say that this urban community consisting of eleven distinct neighborhoods is the city that keeps reinventing itself. For the true city slicker, there are high-rises, lofts, and condos, where window boxes are the most you'll have to water. And for the urbanite who takes pride in a stretch of manicured lawn, there are plenty of charming turn-of-the-century homes on tree-lined streets. And it's also the place where the new-new and the Old West make friends. So here are some highlights from a sampling of downtown Denver's finest.

Ballpark--Where you'll find funky warehouses near a major league baseball field, the city's best flea and farmer's markets, and the gambit of homes. Because Ballpark's rail yard history makes it ideal for classic loft conversions, most of the original warehouses have been stripped and updated into converted lofts. New construction and apartments are in abundance, and many more are planned here, guaranteeing continued growth and development.

Capitol Hill--The neighborhood that offers the city's widest range in housing types and price ranges. Think high-rise apartments and single-family homes, apartments in historic mansions, and lofts in renovated commercial buildings. Commercial buildings have been transformed into mixed-use housing projects, and vacant lots have given rise to new construction housing developments.

Curtis Park--Super accessible, it's the oldest residential neighborhood in the city. You'll find single story duplexes next door to recently renovated grand Victorian mansions. Denver's flat-roofed row homes stand proudly beside classic, two-story Denver Square brick houses, and Denver's ubiquitous Queen Anne-style homes with second floor porches.

Central Platte Valley--Denver's new frontier neighborhood between the river and I-25. Made famous by Jack Kerouac when he wrote about the rail yards of Denver in "On the Road" in the 1940s, you'll find red-bricked buildings with ground floor retail and restaurants and residential lofts above. Riverfront Park is the largest planned community in the neighborhood, consisting of condos, lofts, penthouses, townhomes and Brownstones. WaterTower Lofts, Jack Kerouac Lofts in Prospect Place, and several other historic warehouses in the Prospect area northeast of 20th, make themselves useful here.

Golden Triangle--A mixed-use neighborhood located in the middle of it all, between Speer Boulevard, Colfax Avenue and Lincoln Street. Just to the south of Downtown, you'll find both luxurious, modern, and architecturally eccentric choices. Find funky row homes and classic Denver bungalows, and modern high-end condominiums and lofts. It's where the art culture shakes hands with home and hearth.

Highland--It may be over the hill (from downtown) but its citizens aren't. It's the place to be for younger couples and families wanting to own homes close to Downtown. Check out row houses, duplexes, apartments above retail shops, grand Victorian and Queen Anne mansions, and post-WW II era single family detached houses. You'll also find some lofts, condos, studios and small offices in the form of warehouse renovations.

Lower Downtown--Nearly lost forever when many of its historic buildings were demolished in the '70s and '80s, Lo Do is home to million dollar lofts and apartments built above historic buildings, with retail and entertainment below. But the neighborhood also has some new loft buildings, and new construction residential projects are becoming more common as fewer vacant buildings are available for renovation.

Uptown--East of downtown, Uptown is up-and-coming. Denver Squares, Victorians, bungalows, Queen Anne-style houses with second-story porches and much more are Uptown's staples. And it's a little roomier, with more single family homes on tree-lined boulevards that separate sidewalks from the street.

If you're raring to become a part of Colorado's whirring center of culture, commerce, and community, the news is good. Generally speaking, Denver's affordable, with entry level homes starting in the mid $100s. In fact, while home prices in the Denver area slid by 5 percent in January, it's the seventh best-performing city out of 20 nationwide, which is why home buyers and realtors alike are proclaiming that it's a good time to buy in Denver.

It's a rite of spring and early summer in our transient society: from coast to coast, for-sale signs crop up like wildflowers on the lawns of subdivisions. Yard sales in which "everything must go" proliferate. Kids finish another year of school, and await the new school culture and friends they'll encounter in the fall. And it's during the spring home shopping season when a certain kind of homebuyer is more likely to get out into the nicer weather and maybe plans to use his tax refund to fund a down payment. And although parts of Florida, Colorado, California, and other regions of the country don't follow the traditional sale season, historic data from the National Association of REALTORs indicate that April through July outpace the balance of the year in sales.

That means that there is more home inventory and variety then; it also means that all the other fair weather home shoppers are out and about looking at the same properties. The days may be getting longer, but it's no time to dally. It's to those home buyers with a chunk of tax money and are hankering to play horseshoes or Frisbee somewhere other than the kitchen that we highlight some of Denver's popular "Park" neighborhoods.

Washington Park is great, but it isn't the only game in town.  There are the Hilltop and Crestmoor neighborhoods that border Cranmer Park, a popular park with zippy access to the rest of the metro area, but with a quiet, intimate atmosphere. Platt Park, with the shops and restaurants on Pearl Street nearby, is a neighborhood with something for families and socialites alike. It's between the triumvirate of Cheeseman Park, Congress Park, and Denver City Park that you'll find some of Denver's most charming and popular neighborhoods.

The good news is that the Internet has added a nonseasonal dimension to homebuying. Virtual tours, accompanied by a wealth of neighborhood, zip code, school and property value data, can speed along the Denver home searching, browsing, and decision-making processes well before other prospective homebuyers hit town. And that leaves more time for a bike ride, picnic, or barefoot walk in the green, green grass of Denver. Enjoy.

A host of new market indicators were published last week, and....drum roll please...

The Denver Metro real estate market is still flat as a pancake!

Here's the data for the Denver metro market:

• Case/Schiller Index for June 2007: home prices down 1.0% from a year ago, but up 1.6% in 2007.
• Office of Federal Housing for June 2007: home prices up 0.76% from a year ago and up 0.22% from last quarter.
• National Association of REALTORs for June 2007:  Denver's median home price of $255,200 unchanged from a year ago.

So it appears that home prices in the Denver area are within plus or minus 1% from a year ago as of the end of June.

Unfortunately, this is the most recent data available, and the effects of the Liquidity Crisis, aka Credit Crunch, which reached a crescendo in the news in the middle of August, are not reflected in the data.

No question, the Liquidity Crisis was not a positive for the Denver real estate market, and Q3 data will probably show the impact in the form of lower transactional volume. However, I believe that home prices will continue to remain flat, with no more than a 1 or 2% reduction in Q3 and Q4 2007.  Why?  Because the fundamentals that drive demand - jobs, incomes, and interest rates - remain very positive in Denver.

• Unemployment remains very low at 3.9%
• Interest rate on a 30 year fixed loan around 6.25%

Stay posted....we'll see if my predictions are accurate.

You've seen the headlines about the so-called "Bubble Markets" bursting. Home price appreciation rates and sales volume are down in markets such as Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Tampa, according to the recent home sales report released by the National Association of REALTORs (NAR) for Q2 2007.

However, the Denver market is fairing much better than the bubble markets. In fact, since Denver never experienced a "bubble" of rapidly increasing home prices fueled by speculative buyers, there just simply isn't a bubble to burst.

Denver's market is a classic "flat" market. In fact, according to the NAR report, Denver's median home price at the end of Q2 2006 was $255,200, and a year later at the end of Q2 2007, the median price remains exactly the same, $255,200. A market cannot get much flatter than that!

The number of homes that have sold in the Denver area has remained relatively flat from last year as well, increasing by a modest 2.68% through the end of July according to Metrolist, the Multiple Listing Service for the Denver Metro Area.

It is interesting to note that Denver could now be considered a bargain for housing when compared to other cities in the West that experienced a large run-up in home prices in the last 5 years.

For example, in January of 2002, the S&P/Case-Schiller Home Price Index for Phoenix was 111.6 and 121.3 for Denver. Five years later in January of 2007,the S&P index for Phoenix had skyrocketed to 220.2, whereas Denver had only moderately increased to 135.9, making Phoenix a much more expensive city to call home.

This leads me to believe that Denver, and Colorado in general, offer a relative bargain for today's home buyers, especially when you factor in the high quality of life the state has to offer.

Exposition, Mississippi, South Steele and University are the streets that have hemmed in Bonnie Brae, the name of the neighborhood that means "Pleasant Hill" in Gaelic, since the 1920s. Among its curvy streets, reminiscent of the Scottish villages that inspired them, is a circular central park, and an atmosphere as charming as its real estate.

Born in the roaring '20s, Bonnie Brae enjoyed an initial growth spurt, followed by some stunted growth until the mid-'30s, when the development of Ellipse Park gave home builders and buyers their second wind. The neighborhood is a living, 3-D hieroglyphic of Denver's own coming of age story, with some of the most interesting architecture in the city, including some well-known examples of International and Art Moderne styles, as well as Cape Cod, English Tudor, and ranch-style homes.

Today, Bonnie Brae is an old neighborhood with new blood. The Bonnie Brae Tavern on South University, open since 1934, is just a brisk walk from a sushi bar. The strip is a popular stop for tourists, University of Denver students, and locals; the median age in Bonnie Brae is 37, making for a comfortable social scene for just about everyone.

But if Bonnie Brae is one of the most sought-after neighborhoods in Denver for what's in it, what's around it seals the deal. What's around it? Just about everything. The Cherry Creek Mall and Washington Park are just a quick drive or bike ride away, as is the Denver Country Club and the amenities that scale the distance between parks and recreation and fine dining. The median home price in Bonnie Brae is in the mid- to upper-700s, a steal compared to sister neighborhoods Country Club and Polo Club. Its proximity to Colorado Boulevard makes reaching I-25 a breeze--without the fishbowl effect that too often accompanies neighborhoods with lickety-split access to major highways. And get a load of the views.

Take a spin by COhomefinder and then one through Bonnie Brae, making sure to take your time, enjoy the strip with an ice cream sundae, a bistro lunch, or a picnic in the park, and soak up the pleasantries of Denver's queen of the hill.

When Money Magazine ranked Colorado among their top ten places to live in 2006--with Ft. Collins, CO taking first place on their cities list--it's obvious that things are looking up in Colorado. That's good news for those of us who've enjoyed the luxury of long-time home ownership in Denver and its surrounding areas. But the even better news is that, although Colorado's economy, job market, and general well-being are looking way up, there are plenty of neighborhoods where real estate prices aren't.

Take for example Money's number one city, Fort Collins, which CNN Money also tapped as one of its "Best Places to (Still) Invest." It's Ft. Collins where you'll likely find a new 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom single family home in the low 300s, although with Ft. Collins's median home price at $212,000 in 2006--vs. the "best cities" median of $259,600--there are plenty of homes for sale below the 300 mark. To compare nationally, top city Fairfield, Connecticut lists a median home price of $565,000 and Colorado neighbor Scottsdale, AZ lists its median at $370,000.

A median home price in Metro Denver of about $252,000 means that the region's housing stock is now more affordable than other competitive markets. There's Westminster for example, also ranked at 24th in the Money "best places" poll, where it's easy to find 3,000 square foot homes built in 2006 and 2007 priced in the mid 300s. COhomefinder can help you find your own Colorado gem, a home in close proximity to the premiums Colorado neighborhood have to offer without all the sticker shock. A median home price in Metro Denver of about $252,000 means that the region's housing stock is now more affordable than other competitive markets. There's Westminster for example, also ranked at 24th in the Money "best places" poll, where it's easy to find 3,000 square foot homes built in 2006 and 2007 priced in the mid 300s. COhomefinder can help you find your own Colorado gem, a home in close proximity to the premiums Colorado neighborhood have to offer without all the sticker shock.