David Halterman

Previous Entries

Time on Market and Eventual Sales Price . . .

Hopeful homesellers often want to operate on the assumption that “if I wait long enough, that one special Buyer will come along . . . “ 

Is that true?  Does waiting to reduce the sales price eventually result in a higher price?  Not according to this article from the NAR 2009 Profile off Homebuyers and Sellers . . .

Tips for Hosting a “House-Concert”

House Concerts are a phenomenon enjoying a rebirth in Denver and around the U.S. It’s a wonderful idea that provides a rich and intimate experience for patrons, guests and the artists themselves.

Instead of renting a banquet room, restaurant, or concert hall, your living room (or patio) becomes the venue! You can charge a small cover (or not), provide refreshments, and generally create an intimate social and artistic experience for a sympatico audience – and yourself.

The Denver Post had an interesting article, and there’s even a website with artist registries and how-to articles at concertsinyourhome.com. Some of these tips are good ideas for staging a house-party with live entertainment, too:

• Outdoor concerts in the yard or on a patio can be lovely — if the weather cooperates. Be sure to plan for an alternate indoor location should the weather turn.
• Living rooms are ideal because they’re cozy, accessible and tend to be connected to additional rooms where the crowd can overflow. A window or fireplace can serve as a nice backdrop for the concert. Basements can work, too, or condo party rooms.
• Furniture will need to be rearranged, and all of the chairs in the house should be in the concert space. It’s OK to rent chairs, but you can keep expenses down by borrowing some from friends and neighbors.
• You can estimate how many guests to invite by first arranging the concert room with furniture and then determining how many people will comfortably fit there. Remember to leave about a 4-by- 6-foot area for the performer, duo or group.
• Don’t feel obligated to overdo it with housekeeping or cooking. Finger foods or a potluck are fine. But the host should be prepared to feed the performer(s).
• When selecting a date, try to avoid conflicting with other major local events or holidays. It also can be challenging or distracting to hold a house concert during a birthday party.
• Be picky when choosing a performer. There’s a wealth of talent out there (especially in Colorado!) so consider what genre and energy level will best suit your guests.
• Request RSVPs, and send out reminders.
• Be sure everyone involved — musicians, host, guests and the optional philanthropic charity — is aware of their commitments and responsibilities.

Denver ranks 20th for Fun!

How much fun is Denver?
Portfolio.com, a national business news website, collected data for 14 kinds of businesses, from retail stores and restaurants to gambling casinos and golf courses. Each market was graded on the volume (total number) and concentration of the businesses.

Then they grouped the results into seven categories of fun: shopping, food and drink, culture, popular entertainment, gambling, and high-impact and low-impact sports. The best scores went to markets that performed well in several categories.

Denver’s highest category ranking among is for gambling opportunities (seventh place). Go, Central City! We rank 24th for food and drink, 26th for high-impact sports (like skiing), and 28th for culture as well as 28th for popular entertainment.

Denver scored lower than average for shopping (53rd) and low-impact sports such as golf (73rd).

The top 10 cities for fun, in order, are New York, Chicago, Boston, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland (Maine), Philadelphia and Minneapolis.

On the other hand, Provo, Utah, ranked most un-fun on the 100-city index, with McAllen, Texas, and Modesto, Calif. close behind.

Full report here

Denver Sellers Making More Price Reductions

. . . and more quickly. However in other markets across the U.S., the rate of home listings where the Seller made at least one reduction in asking price declined 26% in April 2010 compared to the same month one year ago, according to research by Trulia.com.

Nationally, Trulia said 20% of asking prices for home listings were reduced at least once, compared to 27% of prices in April 2009.

The decline in the number of properties with price reductions is not necessarily a sign of home price stabilization, but could rather be attributed to sellers properly pricing homes when the properties are originally put on the market. In Seattle, the rate of listings with price reductions increased 15% from last year, and Denver had a similar increase of 5%. Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia and Phoenix were even from the previous year.

Las Vegas, San Diego, San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles showed the fewest price reductions, with rate decreases from 40-54%.

The other thing they tracked was how quickly prices were reduced: the “rate of asking price cuts”. Denver was one market in which Sellers were increasing the rate of cuts – up 19% from last year. Same with Seattle. Houston and Phoenix are also reducing prices more rapidly than last year.

Help for Upsidedown Homeowners

New measures, announced by financial policy makers at the White House on Friday, are among the boldest to date. They are aimed not only at the seven million households that are behind on their mortgages but, in a significant expansion of aid that proved immediately controversial, the 11 million that simply owe more on their homes than they are worth. Full Article here

East Side Mobility Study

Traffic!  Year after year, at the top of the list of concerns for many (most) of Denver’s central neighborhoods – certainly for ours.  Our GWHOA has a seat on the East Side Mobility Task Force, and we follow the progress of this project carefully.  Picture an area between Leetsdale/I-70 and Monaco/Yosemite - is it hard to get around?  Read about it here . . .

Lowry Vista (Landfill) and Winston Downs

Lowry Vista:  The 80-acre “Brownfield” (i.e., contaminated) redevelopment across Alameda north of Windsor Gardens.  Did you know it has already been re-zoned?  Yep.  And depending on your perspective, it’s either a beautiful thing (see  Lowry Vista), an OK thing (this Lowry Vista), or an abuse of the public trust by a well-funded and politically-connected developer (now this Lowry Vista).

One way or another this will have an impact on the Winston Downs neighborhood.