Boulder Nightlife

May 16, 2013 by

Boulder Nightlife

Work hard, workout hard, then play even harder. That seems to be the creed of so many locals who help keep the after-dark scene in Boulder thriving with places to indulge, relax and unwind.

There are two main areas in Boulder where the selection of bars and clubs are concentrated: The Hill and downtown’s Pearl Street. While each have a distinctive flavor of nightlife, both guarantee a characteristic only-in-Boulder evening.

The Pearl Street Area

For many, Boulder nightlife revolves around downtown, with a hugely diverse number of bars and clubs found up and down Pearl Street and the blocks surrounding it. Kick back in a cozy brewpub or beer-centric bar such as the West End Tavern, The Walnut Brewery or the Mountain Sun. Sip prohibition-era cocktails at the speakeasy-themed Bitter Bar or the ingredient-obsessed Salt. Or go underground to a satisfyingly dive-y spot like The Catacombs or the Sundown Saloon. Don’t forget to check the lineup at the historic Boulder Theater; many big-name musicians love to make a stop in Boulder, and the Boulder Theater is often their venue of choice.

The Hill

The Hill is located next to the University of Colorado campus and consequently has a boisterous, student-centric nightlife scene. Beer-and-pizza institutions such as The Sink, where every inch of the walls are scrawled with graffiti contributed by guests, join swankier newcomers such as Hapa Sushi Grill & Sake Bar. At the heart of it all is the Fox Theatre, a legendary Boulder music venue that has been known to bring in both up-and-coming local and national acts as well as sell-out shows by bands such the String Cheese Incident, Rose Hill Drive, Cake and more.

Read the entire article here

 

John Marcotte

720-771-9401

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Preserving Our Environment

April 30, 2013 by

Preserving Our Environment

The Center of the Green Movement — Groundbreaking Practices Establish Lifestyle Standards

Boulder’s reputation as an environmental leader didn’t happen overnight or by accident.  Since 1951, Boulder has instituted groundbreaking sustainable practices ensuring the preservation of its land and lifestyle.   Federal research labs, an innovative university, self imposed taxation to purchase open space, curbside recycling, city-wide mandated residential green codes and a carbon taxare all firmly rooted into the community.  Shopping malls have parking spots dedicated for hybrids, the soccer team is carbon-neutral, restaurants use locally-raised produce, and kindergarteners plant trees on Earth Day.

Here are more ways that Boulder is ensuring the preservation of its land and lifestyle…

  • Smart Growth — There are 43,000 acres of open space in and around the city of Boulder. This land is preserved because Boulder residents approved a sales tax earmarked specifically to buy, manage and maintain open space. The residents made history in 1967 by being the first US city to tax itself for open space. Additionally, 65% of the land in Boulder County is protected from development. Boulder was also one of the first communities in the country to have curbside recycling
  • Healthy Living — Boulder is full of trails, shops and food that support active lifestyles. There are 350 miles of dedicated bike lanes, routes, shoulders and paths in town. The largest concentration of natural-and organic-products companies in the country is found in Boulder. The Boulder County Farmers’ Market is the largest in the state and there are 70 organizations in town that embrace the idea of local, seasonal and artisanal cooking. There are over 70 Olympians living in Boulder County who are drawn to the area because of the supportive athletic culture.
  • Climate Advancements — Hundreds of scientists collaborated with former Vice President Al Gore and were awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on climate change. Nearly 40 of these scientists live and work in Boulder.
  • Research Facilities — There are seven federal research labs and 3600 scientists in Boulder that focus on science, innovative technology and climate change. Additionally, the city itself will become a research facility as Xcel Energy and the city have partnered to create the nation’s first fully-integrated digital electricity system.
  • Renewable Energy — Along the Pearl Street Mall, most of the shops and restaurants are powered by wind and the Wi-Fi is solar powered. The City of Boulder has 193 alternative fueled vehicles. Beginning in 2012, thousands of ConocoPhillips employees will come to Boulder to train at the company’s hub for research and development of renewable and alternative energy. The National Wind Technology Center is located six miles from Boulder and much of the wind industry’s success can be attributed to the research conducted at this facility.

For more information specifically regarding the environment, visit http://www.bouldercoloradousa.com/media/green

 

John Marcotte

720-771-9401

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Things to consider before buying an investment condo

April 13, 2013 by

Things to consider before buying an investment condo

Highlights:

  • House lawyer provides tips on buying investment condo.
  • Condo bylaws, declarations and house rules are crucial.
  • Beware of poor or tyrannical management.

By Harvey S. Jacobs

Special to InsideRealEstateNews.com

Buying and renting out a condo may be the way to go for people who want to invest in property but don’t want the responsibility of owning, renovating and maintaining a single-family house.

Before buying a condo, there are three things you should learn about.

First, you should have a professional home inspector examine the unit’s components and systems.

Second, you need to study the condominium’s financial statements. This examination is designed to determine if it is solvent on a day-to-day operating basis. The financial exam should also assess whether the condo’s reserve account will be sufficient to handle any scheduled and unscheduled repairs and replacements. If the condo does not have sufficient reserves, there is likelihood that you will incur a special assessment. Special assessments can seriously cut into your profits.

Third, you should carefully review the legal documents — including the declaration, bylaws and house rules— that govern your condo unit’s use and ownership.—

The declaration will detail the condo unit’s legal existence and describe the unit’s dimensions.

The declaration also will identify the common elements (such as hallways, lobby, stairway which are used by all condo-unit owners), and limited common elements (such as storage units, parking spaces and balconies, which are generally for one unit’s exclusive use). The declaration also will spell out the percentage interest each unit possesses in the condo association. The monthly condo fees are assessed in proportion to each unit’s percentage interest. The declaration also will reveal if there are any restrictions on your unit’s sale – whether the association has the right to purchase your unit.

The bylaws outline the condo association’s rules of operation for annual meetings, voting, officer elections and the board of directors.

Bylaws also specify whether a unit can be rented, and if so, under what terms. It is critical that you confirm that you are able to rent the condo unit before you buy it. Many condo associations restrict how owners can rent. These restrictions often are approved by unit owners to comply with a Fannie Mae requirement that no more than 50 percent of the units can be investor-owned for one to qualify for financing. Fannie Mae guidelines also require that, to qualify for financing, the association not have too many delinquent condo fees.

The house rules are binding on owners and tenants. They cover things like pet policies, move — in and move-out policies, penalties for noise or other nuisances. You need to become familiar with the house rules. You also need to attach the house rules to your lease and make sure your tenants agree to comply with them. It is a good idea to add a clause to your condo lease that makes your tenants responsible for any fines the condo association imposes on you for their violations.

One of the main benefits of investing in rental condos is that you are only responsible for maintaining the condo unit’s interior. All other systems and components such as the roof, basement, HVAC, commercial plumbing repair, and electrical systems are generally the condo association’s responsibility. You are still responsible for those systems that are contained within your unit.  Another advantage is that when those systems need repair, the board of directors is responsible for making them. Granted, they make those repairs using your condo fees. But you are not necessarily the one who has to find, contract and supervise the repairs.

There also are drawbacks.

When analyzing whether your investment will generate a positive cash flow each month, you have to factor your condo fee into your mortgage principal, interest and taxes and all other expenses. Another potential negative is that a distress sale in the building can negatively impact all the other units in the condo. So if only one or two owners have financial reverses and have to sell their units at a discount, they will drive your unit’s price down as well. There is always the risk that your fellow owners will vote to prohibit or severely restrict renting the condo units. If that happens, you may have to sell at a time when the market conditions may not be favorable.

Finally, condos often suffer from poor or tyrannical management. Therefore, if you decide to invest in Boulder rental condos, you should strongly consider becoming actively involved in their governance. You should get to know the other owners, consider running for the board and at a minimum, attend every condo meeting.

Harvey S. Jacobs is a real estate lawyer in the Rockville office of Joseph, Greenwald & Laake. @Harvey S. Jacobs 2013

John Marcotte

720-771-9401

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Home Price Growth at 6-Year High

March 31, 2013 by

 

Home Price Growth at 6-Year High

home_price_growth Data through January 2013, released today by S&P Dow Jones Indices for its S&P/Case-Shiller1Home Price Indices, a leading measure of U.S. home prices, showed average home prices increased 7.3% for the 10-City Composite and 8.1% for the 20-City Composite in the 12 months ending in January 2013.

All 20 cities posted year-over-year gains with Phoenix leading the way with a gain of 23.2%. Nineteen of the 20 cities showed acceleration in their year-over-year returns. Despite posting a positive double-digit annual return, Detroit was the only city to show a deceleration. After 28 months of negative annual returns, New York came into positive territory in January.

“After more than two years of consecutive year-over-year declines, New York reversed trend and posted a positive return in January. The Southwest (Phoenix and Las Vegas) plus San Francisco posted the highest annual increases; they were also among the hardest hit by the housing bust. Atlanta and Dallas recorded their highest year-over-year gains.

“Economic data continues to support the housing recovery. Single-family home building permits and housing starts posted double-digit year-over-year increases in February 2013. Despite a slight uptick in foreclosure filings, numbers are still down 25% year-over-year. Steady employment and low borrowing rates pushed inventories down to their lowest post-recession levels.”

As of January 2013, average home prices across the United States are back to their autumn 2003 levels for both the 10-City and 20-City Composites. Measured from their June/July 2006 peaks, the decline for both Composites is approximately 29-30% through January 2013. The January 2013 levels for both Composites are approximately 8-9% from their dip in early 2012.

Additional content on the housing market may also be found on S&P Dow Jones Indices’ housing blog: www.housingviews.com

Boulder homes sales continue to be on the rise!

 

John Marcotte

720-771-9401

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Home Prices Expected to Rise at least 3.3 Percent Annually through 2017

March 23, 2013 by

Home Prices Expected to Rise at least 3.3 Percent Annually through 2017

home_prices_rising The housing recovery is expected to grow at an annualized rate of 0.6 percent through the third quarter of this year, then gain momentum and prices are projected to grow 3.7 percent between the third quarters of 2013 and 2014 until settling down to 3.3 percent annual increases over the next three years according to Fiserv, a financial services technology provider using data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

Both home prices and home sales volumes increased steadily last year, making 2012 the first positive year for both prices and sales since the housing market crash, excluding gains induced by the home buyer tax credits in 2009 and 2010.

“Although some recent real estate activity has been speculative, it seems as if buyers have more realistic expectations about housing market returns after having lived through the largest housing market crash in U.S. history,” says David Stiff, chief economist, Fiserv.

“2012 was the first year since 1997 that the housing market has resembled something recognizable as normal. For the past 15 years, home price changes and sales volumes have either been boosted by a bubble mentality or crushed by crash psychology,” continues Stiff.

“Back in 1997, housing prices grew 3 percent, just below the 5 percent long-term average rate of appreciation. From 1998 to 2006, prices appreciated at levels above 5 percent, with double-digit price increases in many of those years. Then, after 2006, the market collapsed as euphoria turned to panic. It took until the end of 2011 before housing markets finally started to stabilize. The latest Case-Shiller results show a return to a historically normal pace of price appreciation in the last year.”

The recovery in home prices has been solid and broad-based. At the end of the 2012 third quarter, prices were rising in approximately 62 percent of all U.S. metro areas, compared to 12.5 percent in the same period a year ago. Average U.S. home prices increased 3.6 percent from the third quarter of 2011 to the comparable period of 2012. Many of the metro areas that suffered the most severe declines during the housing market crash enjoyed the highest price increases in that period.

 

For more information, visit www.realestateeconomywatch.com

 

John Marcotte

720-771-9401

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The Good and the Bad of the Latest Existing Home Sales Numbers

February 19, 2013 by

The Good and the Bad of the Latest Existing Home Sales Numbers

The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) released their latest statistics for existing home sales last week, and the numbers show both some positives and negatives regarding America’s housing industry. Home sales are up and so are selling prices, but foreclosures and short sales still make up a large portion of the sales numbers.

So, what’s the good news? Even with the highly-populated Mid-Atlantic and Upper East Coast regions still being affected by Hurricane Sandy, national sales numbers were up in October. The report from NAR shows a 10.9 percent increase in existing home sales when comparing numbers from October 2012 to the same month in 2011. The national median existing-home price (S178,600, to be exact) is also up 11 percent when compared to the same month last year. That’s the eighth consecutive monthly year-to-year increase. We hadn’t seen an increase for so many months in a row since the period from October 2005 to May 2006.

NAR’s Chief Economist, Lawrence Yun, says rising home prices have already resulted in $760 billion worth of growth in home equity during the past year. He estimates that could increase to close to a $1 trillion gain in 2013. Total housing inventory — meaning the number of homes currently available on the market — dropped to 2.14 million across the country. At the current sales rate, that’s a 5.4-month supply. That’s also down from October 2011, when there was a 7.6-month supply of inventory. The median time a home was on the market before selling was 71 days in October, down from 96 days during the same month last year. And finally, according to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage fell to a record low 3.38 percent in October. Compare that to October 2011, when the rate was 4.07 percent.

So, what’s the bad news? Distressed homes still accounted for a large chunk of all home sales in October. In fact, 24 percent of all of the homes sold in October were either foreclosures or short sales. That’s a decrease from the same month last year (when foreclosures and short sales made up 28 percent of the homes sold around the country), but economists at NAR say all of those distressed properties are bringing down the national median sales price — and that’s not good. According to NAR, foreclosures sold for an average discount of 20 percent below market value of the homes, while short sales were discounted 14 percent. While interest rates continue to hover near all-time record lows, they are expected to rise in the months to come. That’s due to the looming “fiscal cliff”, increased retail sales during the holidays, and higher-than-expected numbers of new-home construction across the country. More homes being built creates jobs, and whenever Wall Street sees an increase in jobs, they quickly up the bidding on stocks and sell off bonds. When that happens, mortgage rates elevate quickly.

While Hurricane Sandy didn’t affect October numbers too much, Yun expects the storm to have an impact on sales in the future. Most October transactions were complete before the storm hit, so it’s too soon to determine how much the storm will effect home sales in the Northeast. Yun says the pause and delays in the storm-impacted regions will certainly hurt sales numbers in that area of the country, but it could also affect national sales figures as well.

SOURCE: RealtyPin.com

 

John Marcotte

www.boulderhomes4u.com

720-771-9401

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