Living Littleton

   High end homes in the Denver/Littleton area are starting to rebound from their record lows.  It’s no secret that the high end home market has been close to dormant over the last couple of years, with the uncertainty in the market coupled with the difficulty in obtaining jumbo loan financing.  The good news is that we are starting to see in increase in this market for homes priced over a million dollars.  In fact, sales in this price range have risen to a level not seen in two years.  Several factors have contributed to this, the most important being the steep discounting some sellers have been forced to do, in order to get their homes sold.  Coupled with a slowly building demand, record low rates, and the beginning of some sanity in the mortgage industry,  buyers are starting to become more active in this price range.

    This increase in the high end market may pull up the average sales prices in the Denver/Littleton market.  If this happens, hopefully buyers won’t be lead to believe all home prices have increased by the announce price increase, if there is one.  As I always stress, these figures are the average prices of all the homes sold, not the percentage increase in prices.

The Ken-Caryl Ranch Community Center pool will soon be getting a water slide.  This pool was purchased with Jefferson County Open Space money and because of that, it’s open to all Jeffco Residents.  That’s also why the slide will be located at this site because Jefferson County Open Space will also be providing approximately 70% of the funding for the project.  The remaining 30% will be provided by the State of Colorado Conservation Trust.  The estimated cost of the project is $120,000.  Not only will this stimulate many of this summer’s swimmers, it will also stimulate the economy.

Recently, a group of civic minded residents got the Ken-Caryl Ranch governing bodies to approve the ranch’s first community garden.  The newly approved site will be on the east side of the present Community Center building, which is located in the east part of Ken-Caryl Valley.  This property is actually owned by Jefferson County as part of their open space portfollio, and is leased to Ken-Caryl Ranch through the Ranch’s Metropolitan District.  Jefferson County gave their OK, and now it was up to the Ranch to also give their blessing.  That blessing came just recently, but with one main cavaet, and that is the resident group needs to raise approximately $84,000 to construct an eight foot high perimeter fence around the garden site to prevent it from becoming a buffet for the area wildlife.  Fund raising has since started with pledges from a local school PTA, individual citizens, and the Ken-Caryl Ranch Foundation.  In it’s present incarnation, the garden will have a total of 4,700 square feet of actual garden area.  Of that, there will be 13 raised beds and 24 grade level beds.  If you want more information go the the web site at; http://www.kencarylcommunitygarden.org.

     I’ve been blogging on Active Rain for the last three months or so, but it’s geared more to Realtors.  As a Littleton resident, I wanted to do something more local, so this is my attempt to do that.  I don’t live in incorporated Littleton, but the unincorportated part known as south Jefferson County.  Actually, I live in Ken-Caryl Ranch and have been a resident here for the last 24 years.  There’s been a lot of changes that I’ve witnessed over those years, not only from my side of the county but all the way through the City of Littleton. 

     I think this is a great place to live, work and play, and over time I hope to comment on some of those things.  As I am a Realtor, it won’t be unusual for some of my comments to be about real estate, whether that may be about new communities or just trends I’m seeing in the market place.  I know there’s interest there because I’m always having people asking me at social functions, about the market.  I may even go out of the area, if I find something worth while to comment on.  Please feel free to ask me about anything on your mind or to express your opinions to me.  That’s what makes blogs fun.

Jerry Becker