Want 40% appreciation in 1 year? 3 cities in CO to watch

With Fall in the air, it is a great time to explore outside the metro area.  I’ll bet you can’t guess which city had 40% appreciation! It seems like most investors and the media are focusing on what is going on primarily in the Denver metro area and the “ritzy” areas like Aspen.  Fortunately, there are significant values throughout the state that have great value with continued upside appreciation if you know where to look.  I put together a list of three interesting markets a little off the beaten path to watch that could continue to have appreciation in the coming years.

Three interesting markets to watch that are a little off the beaten path that should continue with their appreciation for a while longer

• Leadville
  1. Although Leadville is one of the colder spots in Colorado, there real estate is definitely very hot. A new large scale development was just announced (see Denver post article) that will substantially increase the tax base in the area.  The attraction of Leadville is that it is close to many major resorts (Copper, Breckenridge, Vail) and still an affordable option with an old western town feel.  In the last year Leadville has appreciated almost 40% and is one of the last affordable areas left in the mountains (see Trulia report)
• Glenwood springs
  1. Glenwood has done an amazing job redeveloping their downtown core. If you went to Glenwood 15 years ago many of the downtown areas were a bit “seedy” to say the least.  The entire downtown has been revitalized to make it a very walkable family friendly area (see article in Post Independent).  Prices have almost doubled in Glenwood in the last 5 years, but still “affordable” compared to up valley locations like Aspen and snowmass (see Trulia report)
• Longmont
  1. With boulder county becoming so expensive, it is forcing prospective owners to look a little farther out to places like Longmont (see an older article in timescall). The year over year increase in longmont is 23% with the average home price for the first time topping 400k (Longmont title). Longmont still has the small town feel with good schools, trails, high quality of life for many families.

Resources

• New Leadville Development: The Denver Post
• Leadville market snapshot: Trulia
• Glenwood Redevelopment Plans: Post Independent
• Glenwood market snapshot: Trulia
• Longmont market tight: Times Call
• Longmont housing trends: Longmont Title

Written by Glen Weinberg, COO/ VP Fairview Commercial Lending.  Glen has been published as an expert in hard money lending, real estate valuation, financing, and various other real estate topics in the Colorado Real Estate Journal, the CO Biz Magazine, The Denver Post, The Scotsman mortgage broker guide, Mortgage Professional America and various other national publications.

Fairview is the recognized leader in Colorado Hard Money and Colorado private lending focusing on residential investment properties and commercial properties  both in Denver and throughout the state. We are the Colorado experts having closed thousands of loans throughout the state.

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