A recent report ranks Colorado as the 4th most expensive State in the entire country and has increased every year in the rankings the last four years. Is Colorado becoming Whole Foods with high prices on everything? How should this change your investing decisions in...
Taxes, fentanyl, trans youth in sports, hunting, natural gas are among matters voters will have a say on the ballot come November. Along with these issues is the battle of the century regarding the fate of your tax dollars with the elimination of the Taxpayer Bill of...
In Colorado there seems to be a pervasive theory that the entire state should focus on a few outliers even if it means higher taxes and costs for everyone else and there is no longer a pragmatic approach to anything in Colorado. A recent example is a Colorado Supreme...
Throughout the state of Colorado property owners are paying substantially more in taxes than they should due to one fundamental flaw in the assessment. Here is a recent example: I was asked to evaluate a property in CO springs for a loan. The purchase price...
In my blog last week Is affordable housing causing the surge in ski town home prices? I asked the question what was the impact on affordable housing in relation to ski prices . I was pretty surprised at the resounding answer regarding affordable housing What...
What is the main culprit for increasing prices in ski towns? The list is endless but typically at the top is the huge increase in nightly rentals and the big bad mega passes bringing more people to the ski towns. Unfortunately, this answer is incorrect, it is a...
The appreciation over the last seven years throughout Colorado has been astounding, but now it is time to pay the piper. What cities in Colorado are most at risk of rewinding most if not all of the Covid appreciation gains? Why are “suburban” markets more at risk...
AI is the hottest term on Wall street with stocks tanking or zooming based on their AI longevity. Can the same be said about real estate? Are some real estate markets better positioned for AI than others? How exposed are Boulder and Denver to the coming AI...
If anyone were running a profitable business the way the state of Colorado operates, they would be out of business immediately. Colorado has created new programs that now lose ten dollars for every dollar in revenue. What does this mean for your taxes, real estate,...
My wife and I were out for a longer day hike when we crest the hill and got a dead-on view of a new wildfire. We knew immediately it was in the direction of our house, and it was growing rapidly. The evacuation notices immediately go out, giving some folks less than...
Take a look at the stock chart of Vail Resorts, which has lost almost 60% of its value in the last five years while the S&P has returned an approximately 90% gain. The vultures are circling with a Utah billionaire proposing a sale of Park City to stop the...
Over the last 30 years I continue to hear about the “affordable housing crisis”. Do we really have an affordable housing crisis or a leadership crisis within the ski towns. A recent proposal in Steamboat pegs the build cost of one affordable housing unit over 1.7m....
The Colorado legislature just voted for the largest tax increase in Colorado’s history. As you suspect they are framing this as a tax increase “without increasing taxes”. Essentially the new ballot initiative will allow the state to eliminate the taxpayer...
It has been an interesting year for the Colorado Legislature. After a brutal year for property owners last year, this year was not as bad with no huge bills impacting property owners. We can thank Governor Polis for putting business interests back at the...
The Pueblo wildfire grew from 40 acres to 30 thousand acres in one day at the same time fire weather watches are up and winds are howling throughout the state. Two fires start near Campgrounds/lakes and yet the fire chiefs proclaim they have no idea how the fires...
This week, U.S. News and World report again released its popular ‘best places to live’ ranking, and once again, Colorado got snubbed in a big way. Just two short years ago Colorado Springs ranked as the 3rd-best place to live in the United States in the same report...
Crested Butte, CO it the latest to propose a vacancy tax with one major shift, nightly rentals would be covered by the new tax along with second homeowners. Who knew that Colorado ski towns would be taking economic lessons from Portland Oregon,one of the worst...
In my blog last week, Should Colorado double the income tax rate, I asked the question if Colorado should increase the tax rate on higher earners. I was very surprised with the results of the survey. My base case was that this survey would be a blowout one...
Colorado property insurance costs have roughly doubled since 2020 placing Colorado in the top spot of insurance increases in the entire country. What is the top factor driving Colorado insurance rates much higher than the national average (it is not...
Colorado is losing businesses and jobs at an alarming rate. The Colorado Chamber of Commerce has been sounding an alarm for years about excessive regulation and last year more people moved out of Colorado than into the state. Not only are people leaving but...
In my blog last week, One CO town proposes to tax employers for hiring workers, I asked the question was are proposed linkage fees a good idea. I was very surprised with the results of the survey. My base case was that there would be an even split, but the...
Reading the headline, it sounds absolutely crazy to propose taxing businesses for creating jobs, but is this really a crazy idea? Is every job worth the same in Colorado? For example if someone builds a large hotel in Steamboat creating 15 jobs, should the developer...
In a stinging defeat Lakewood Colorado voters easily defeated by a 2 to 1 margin proposed zoning changes that would have allowed duplexes and triplexes anywhere in the city. The special election vote strikes a blow against those who have been pushing for more density...
Home values in Denver are falling faster than any other major metro area tracked by a key index, earning the Mile High City a dubious distinction as the weakest housing market in the nation. From the chart above it looks like Denver is in a free fall compared...
