Every time I open the news, I’m amazed at what is happening in the Colorado legislature. As a rental property owner, I cringe as it is becoming next to impossible to cost effectively operate a rental property. The new bill is titled “safe housing”. Who...
The original Colorado short term rental bill is still moving through the legislature but now there is a competing bill to also classify short term rentals as commercial properties but with a big twist from the first bill. The new bill proposes to try to tax...
Once again, as the legislature returns, the first order of business is housing. Unfortunately, there is now a pervasive agreement that only the legislature can fix the housing crisis we are experiencing in Colorado and the number one tool is more legislation. The...
New vacant building tax immediately implemented Lakewood, CO just implemented the first vacant building tax I have seen in Colorado. It seems a bit counterintuitive to put more taxes on a property owner that is already struggling with vacancy. Why did Lakewood...
Get ready for sticker shock as you open the mail and get your tax bill. As values soften throughout the state, why are your property taxes going up? How can assessed values continue to increase even though property values are softening? Why will your taxes likely...
Alterra Mountain Company has announced that it has entered into an agreement to purchase Arapahoe Basin in Colorado, from Dream Unlimited Corp., expanding Alterra’s portfolio of destinations in the Rockies. What does this mean for real Colorado ski real estate? ...
The legislature passed a little known bill to allow property owners to defer their property taxes above 4% increase starting in 2023. To get the message out, they sent out the flier above that I received this week. On the surface, this sounds like an amazing plan. ...
What does Colorado’s debt load mean for real estate prices? I was surprised to see Colorado exceed every other state in the country on both the amount of debt and debt as a percentage of income. Why do Coloradoans have more debt than others? Why is debt an important...
Of U.S. cities with more than half a million residents, only Denver’s overall violent crime (including aggravated assault, sex assault, robbery and homicide) has risen by more than 90% between 2012 and 2022, according to FBI data. What does the surge in crime mean...
With the failure of proposition HH, the Colorado legislature is on the hunt for tax revenue and nightly rentals are in the cross hairs. Not surprisingly, the recent proposal to quadruple taxes on nightly rentals recently passed out of Colorado legislative committee...
What does the increased tension between Vail and ski towns mean for real estate? Vail, the owner of major ski resorts and the epic pass, is selling approximately 86% more passes than in 2019. At the same time mountain towns throughout Colorado and the country...
Denver office vacancy exceeds 30% for first time since 1990’s In 2019 office vacancy stood around 16%, lower than the national average. Fast forward and Denver office vacancy has almost doubled to over 30%. Why is the vacancy rate so important to Denver...
Over the last several years both Keystone and Copper Mountain have appreciated at almost double the rate of Breckenridge. Why the sudden change in fate for Copper Mountain and Keystone? What big changes occurred in governmental regulations to cause the surge in...
Wow, 2023 has been quite the year in real estate. The beginning of the year started out good but as interest rates rose substantially volumes dropped off a cliff and prices began falling. What do the changes mean for Colorado real estate in 2024? Will prices have a...
A federal judge has effectively frozen a legal battle over Summit County’s short-term rental regulations — at least temporarily — after county officials filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by area homeowners. One of the claims of homeowners is that the new...
Although HH, the Colorado tax reduction initiative was ultimately defeated, there was one profound item in the legislation that will have far reaching impacts. One of the biggest changes in the proposal is that second homeowners (non-primary residents) are now paying...
With much fanfare, CO legislators met in a special session to focus on tax relief once again after the searing defeat of HH. As suspected, the agenda was filled with allot of stuff not related to property taxes (Tabor checks, low income tax credits,...
What happens now for Colorado property tax relief? Leading up to election day, millions was spent to try to convince voters to give up Tabor for small tax relief. Voters saw through the games and complexity and in the end the bill failed miserably with over 60% voting...
Big changes in store for Colorado real estate in the upcoming legislature Colorado Governor Polis, in a recent interview, called short term rentals paying residential rates a “loophole” that he supports closing. “Residential properties that work like hotels...
Colorado is expensive (as shown above for Boulder) and the legislature thinks they once again have the answer. In the last legislative session all eyes were focused on a sweeping land use proposal basically outlawing single family zoning which was ultimately...
I wrote last week about proposition HH to eliminate Tabor under the guise of property tax relief. It is a bit ironic that it was just announced that there is a new property tax initiative that qualified for the 2024 ballot, initiative 50. The new initiative would...
Property taxes in Colorado are off the charts with many seeing an increase of 40% plus in the last assessment which is considerably higher than any inflation measure. Lawmakers took up the cry from voters with a vengeance coming up with a solution that not only makes...
Joining Denver and some of Colorado's biggest ski towns, which have created strict rules for STRs in recent years, residents across Jefferson County (suburb of Denver) say they have fallen victim to an issue that has long plagued other parts of the state. Why are the...
The good times continue to roll on. Inventory is down and prices are stabilizing and still increasing in some markets. When will there be a reset in Colorado real estate prices. What happens when this cycle ends? Are there opportunities currently? Where will new...
