As Featured in West + Main Home Magazine: Horoscopes for Home

For a sneak peak into what to expect for the rest of this year, look straight to the sky.

Scorpio

ASTRO HOME STYLE - MIDCENTURY MODERN

Scorpio: In these coming months, you will find many opportunities to utilize your potential. Along with this, you will realize your ability to lift up others. Your home is a place for you to enjoy this season + state of mind, so be sure to keep it tidy and allow yourself to relax in your space.

Sagittarius

ASTRO HOME STYLE - FRENCH COUNTRY

Sagittarius: You might not have the energy to follow up with opportunities. At this time, it’s important to focus on your health. Make sure that you have a space in your home that belongs to you, where you can fully control the energy.

Capricorn

ASTRO HOME STYLE - TUDOR

Capricorn: This is the perfect time for you to start new projects, Capricorn. The small changes you make in your home, such as an accent wall or new living room decor, can make a big difference in the harmony of your space.

Aquarius

ASTRO HOME STYLE - COTTAGE

Aquarius: You will soon see a number of opportunities for growth. You should take these opportunities in stride, but be sure to wrap up your previous projects before pursuing new ones. Aquarius will also find that these next months will favor good relationships, further contributing to this period of growth.

Pisces

ASTRO HOME STYLE - MEDITERRANEAN

Pisces: Pisces, this season will bring significant change in your life. You may find that a new career opportunity will lead you to relocating, or maybe your dream home will finally go on the market. Whatever happens, accept this change graciously and charge ahead.

Aries

ASTRO HOME STYLE - CONTEMPORARY

Aries: Aries, your relationships are thriving in this part of the year. Now is the perfect time to host a big get together and spend time with loved ones. If you’ve been thinking about buying that gorgeous new dining set or sectional - this is your sign.

Taurus

ASTRO HOME STYLE - FARMHOUSE

Taurus: Professional growth is written in the stars for you, Taurus. If your home office is where you’ve been spending most of your time, hang some art to bring new energy into the space.

Gemini

ASTRO HOME STYLE - COLONIAL

Gemini: You’re itching for change right now, Gemini. A big move is in your near future, whether it be finding a new lease, buying your first home, or upsizing. If you’ve been spending your time scrolling through houses online, it’s time to get out there and start looking.

Cancer

ASTRO HOME STYLE -CAPE COD

Cancer: Cancer, now is the perfect time for you to slow down and relax. Looking for a project to benefit you? A new fireplace or spa bathroom could be just what you need to sit back and help you relax right now.

Leo

ASTRO HOME STYLE -VICTORIAN

Leo: Nothing can stop you, Leo. Now is the time to try new things and go on every adventure possible. Between events, make sure that your home is a place where you can recharge for whatever comes next.

Virgo

ASTRO HOME STYLE - RANCH

Virgo: March will be a memorable month for you. Relying on yourself + your own skills will bring you happiness this season. A great way to channel this is with a DIY project in your home, that you can admire every day.

Libra

ASTRO HOME STYLE - MOUNTAIN CONTEMPORARY

Libra: You can expect to achieve your goals this season, Libra. It’s time to sit down and figure out exactly what those goals should be. From cleaning out your basement to saving for your first down payment, now’s the time to set your sights high.

---

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

Search Homes in Colorado

Search Homes in Oklahoma

Search Homes in Oregon

Colorado mountain, resort communities are rebounding — and then some — from coronavirus-scarred 2020

Despite grim projections last spring, many of Colorado’s high-country resort communities saw waves of in-state visitors in the fall and early winter fill local coffers.

John Norton, Gunnison County’s tourism czar, was talking to his board last April. The ski resort had closed abruptly. Lodging and restaurants were closed. Visitors were being told to leave. The pandemic was triggering a panic in tourist-based economies across the country. 

A board member asked how much the Gunnison River Valley tourism community could expect to lose. Norton guessed: down 25%, maybe even 50% for the year. 

“A couple board members told me I was being overly optimistic,” said Norton, the director of the valley’s Tourism and Prosperity Partnership. “I just didn’t know. Nobody could know. The last pandemic was a century ago, right? But to end up where we did, that is something I never, ever would have predicted.”

In fact, lodging sales tax revenue from the Gunnison valley ended 2020 up 11.5% from the year before. In the town of Crested Butte, net taxable sales jumped 5.7% in 2020 to $119.9 million.

“We are all just shaking our heads over here,” Norton said. 

The worst-case scenario never happened

The sky-is-falling scenario projected in the dark, early days of the pandemic never materialized in Colorado’s high country. A survey of sales tax reports filed by 20 resort communities shows combined spending in those places fell by only 3% in 2020 compared with the previous year.

Some communities — Copper Mountain, Keystone, Breckenridge, Vail and Aspen, for example — saw steeper declines, but not nearly as painful as projected last spring, when the threat of contagion appeared poised to decimate tourism businesses across the state.

And early reports show the 2020-21 ski season will end far outperforming projections, with visitors and residents spending like a regular ski season, despite capacity limits at ski resorts, restaurants and lodges, and a lack of public attendance at big-draw events and concerts.

It looked dire last spring. A terrible March tumbled into a dismal April, with spending in the 20 high country communities down 39%. While it was impossible to tell then, those months marked the nadir of 2020, and just about every community across the mountains started climbing out of that hole by early summer. 
There are a lot of reasons why mountain economies didn’t collapse last year. Federal stimulus dollars bolstered bank accounts. Online shopping funneled more sales taxes into small-town coffers. Restaurants expanded into streets. City leaders dug deep to help. More people were eating and nesting at home, so grocers and essential retailers enjoyed big upticks in business.

Second-home owners settled in resort communities for the winter, fleeing their city homes. Short-term rentals were wildly popular with vacationers, supporting the flow of lodging taxes. 

And in general, Front Rangers flocked to Colorado’s mountain towns in the past year, enjoying the outdoors and space to roam. Those staycationers helped offset what would normally have been a crippling decline in destination and international visitors, who stay longer and spend big.

Glenwood Springs handed out $100 certificates to overnight, midweek visitors redeemable at all sorts of businesses around the city. The Glenwood Gold Community Currency program fueled a strong rebound, not just from the pandemic-related closures but from the lingering impacts of the wildfire on the city’s doorstep.

After a 91% drop in lodging tax revenue in April, the community currency plan helped Glenwood Springs finish 2020 only 4% behind 2019 — which is even more impressive considering the tourist-reliant city was inaccessible for two critical weeks in July when Interstate 70 closed in Glenwood Canyon during the Grizzly Creek fire. 

“When your economy relies on tourism and things are closed and there isn’t anything happening, it is really a slippery slope for businesses worrying whether they will make it or not,” Visit Glenwood Springs Tourism Director Lisa Langer said, noting how the Glenwood Gold spending plan has been adopted in recent months by communities like Redmond, Washington.  

Langer credits her community’s success last year not just to the certificates but also to city support, like grants to struggling businesses and providing portable heaters to restaurants with outdoor dining. 

“We all came together and it worked,” Langer said. “Very few if any businesses failed. We even had restaurants purchased and opened during the pandemic. We have businesses expanding. Talk about resiliency.”

Read the full article on Colorado Sun.

Related Links

• House Hunting Is Literally a Part-Time Job — Here’s How To Save Time on It

• Denver Restaurant Week is Approaching!

• Homesites destroyed in the Marshall fire are going up for sale. Who will buy them?

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

Search Homes in Colorado

Homesites destroyed in the Marshall fire are going up for sale. Who will buy them?

At least 10 lots in Superior and Louisville where homes were leveled by the fire are on the market. None have changed hands yet.

On a ridge in Louisville with a stunning view of the Flatirons stood a six-bedroom, five-bath home, now reduced to a pile of ash by the Marshall fire, one of more than 1,000 homes in Louisville, Superior and unincorporated Boulder County destroyed on Dec. 30. 

The lot, rubble and all, went up for sale in early February, listed at $950,000. 

It’s the costliest of at least 10 burned homesites up for sale after the fire, and after the price was reduced to $799,000, it may already have an offer. 

None of the 10 lots have sold yet, according to Boulder County officials. None is listed for less than $300,000. Many listings tout amenities like stellar views of the Flatirons, proximity to trails, and the lack of HOAs. Several mention fire debris removal is scheduled for the near future. 

Some intrepid buyers trying to navigate a supercharged housing market in a desirable area may find opportunity on burned lots, real estate experts say. (The home that stood on the Louisville view lot before the fire sold in 2015 for $1.4 million.)

But they’ll need to come prepared with cash and patience. 
Spencer Arrasmith, 30, went scouting for homesites with his dad last week in the Sagamore neighborhood of Superior, where every home burned.

Arrasmith was all set to start house hunting last summer, with a mortgage loan preapproval for up to $500,000 in hand, until a car crash knocked him out of commission. Since then, home prices have climbed, with the median price of single-family homes in Boulder County sitting at $745,500 in January. 

Friends who are house hunting in Louisville and Superior are routinely getting outbid by tens of thousands of dollars, Arrasmith said. Though he has a good job as a software developer at Ball Aerospace, Arrasmith is concerned he can’t compete for a single-family home.

That’s where the burned homesites come in. 

“The homes were wiped off the face of the planet, but in some cases the foundation, driveways and sewer lines still appear to be good,” Arrasmith said, adding that some foundations may have been damaged by high heat, and may be removed as part of debris removal programs.

“It won’t necessarily be a blank piece of land,” Arrasmith said. “A good foundation and sewer line could be a $100,000 head start.”

Arrasmith said he figures he can keep costs down by doing as much labor as possible himself. On the optimistic side, he said it’s possible he could spend another $200,000 on materials and additional labor. If all goes well, it could net him a new home in Superior for under $600,000 in a neighborhood where homes were selling for $700,000 or more before the fire. 

“It’s not like it wouldn’t come with some asterisks,” he said. “I’d be living in a disaster area. But it could work.”

So far, sales haven’t materialized. No burned homesites have yet changed hands, according to the Boulder County Assessor’s Office. In the Sagamore neighborhood, no homesites are for sale for less than $300,000, and current list prices range up to $450,000. Many listings include photos of piles of rubble, as well as photos of the homes before they burned. 

Of the nine homesites in Sagamore currently listed for sale on Zillow and Redfin, seven are listed at prices above what they last sold for when the homes were standing. Property records show most of the homesites for sale are owned by someone with a different address from the home, suggesting most were being used as rentals. 

Stephen Moe, a psychiatrist who lives in Denver, is selling two homesites he owns in Sagamore. He bought the homes in 1999, each for a little over $200,000, according to county records. He had used them as rentals since then. His insurance already paid him $450,000 each for the properties, and he listed both lots for sale on Valentine’s Day, one priced at $300,000, another at $325,000. 

“I don’t have the poignant story of someone who lived there,” said Moe, who owns two other rentals in Boulder. His rentals were overseen by property managers, and Moe said he’s not sure where his tenants wound up after the fire. 

“This seemed like a good time to sell and let someone else purchase the lots who would have more of an emotional stake in rebuilding than I would have,” he said.

Moe said he hasn’t had any offers yet, and isn’t sure if they’re overpriced, but he figured it was better to start high. 

“At first I figured maybe the lots might go for $100,000, but people around me started listing them at $300,000, so who knows what the market will be?”

He figures interest might pick up as the county’s debris removal process moves forward. The cleanup is scheduled to be complete by July, according to Boulder County. 

“I’m 60, so I’m getting older, but if I were in my thirties and had a job in the Boulder area, maybe it would be exciting to build from the ground up, design your own home, and start a family in your own place,” Moe said.

Someone like Arrasmith, perhaps. 

“It’s daunting, but an exciting idea,” Arrasmith said. “I identify with this area. It’s where I’m from. If I go after this, I’d feel like I’m helping Boulder County rise from the ashes. It would be almost poetic.”

Learn more on Colorado Sun.

Related Links

• House Hunting Is Literally a Part-Time Job — Here’s How To Save Time on It

• Denver Restaurant Week is Approaching!

• 5 Reasons Why Buying an Old House Is a Great Idea

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

Search Homes in Colorado

Denver Restaurant Week is Approaching!

Denver Restaurant Week 2022 is back March 11-20 and menus are now live!

Don’t miss your chance to secure your spot at your favorite Denver restaurants. To make your reservations, please contact restaurants directly. You can even make a night of it with our great hotel deals.

New this year, Society Insurance will honor top hospitality professionals. Nominate your favorite server, bartender, manager, dishwasher, sous chef, and more here.

The popular event aims to celebrate the Mile High City’s restaurant scene while encouraging the community to continue to support the hospitality industry.

Denver Restaurant Week will feature specially-priced, multi-course menus at some of the top restaurants throughout the metro area. Neighborhood favorites as well as new hotspots will offer one of three available price points – $25, $35 or $45 per-person.

“Restaurants are a cornerstone of Denver’s hospitality and tourism industry and a vital part of our community,” said Visit Denver President and CEO Richard Scharf. “Denver Restaurant Week was originally designed to showcase Denver’s culinary offerings and award-winning restaurant scene; and since the onset of the pandemic, we have and will continue to use it as a platform to support these businesses through the challenges they are facing and ensure they are here well into the future.”

Registration for restaurants – which will be free to all restaurants once again – opened Tuesday, Jan. 18. Interested restaurants can register at DenverRestaurantWeek.com.

Participating restaurants and menus will be announced to the public on Feb. 16, and diners will be encouraged to peruse the wide variety of restaurants and menus and make reservations early.

Visit Denver said the March dates, which it projects will be past the current surge, will see restaurants in good shape to host the ten-day event. Organizers hope Denver Restaurant Week will encourage people to return to in-person dining while still prioritizing health and safety.

Denver Restaurant Week shifted to a fall iteration in 2020 before moving back to the spring in 2021.

“Denver Restaurant Week is a longstanding celebration of our city’s fantastic dining scene and we’re thrilled that it’s coming back after a long, hard winter for our local restaurant industry,” said Sonia Riggs, president and CEO of Colorado Restaurant Association.

“Omicron caused so many of our favorite spots to close, even if just temporarily, and, with a lack of federal funding so far this year, restaurants need all the help they can get to survive until the start of patio season. Please take advantage of Denver Restaurant Week in whatever way you can – by dining out or taking out – and help do your part to keep this industry alive and well.” 

Learn more about Denver Restaurant Week + how to support local restaurants.

Related Links

• House Hunting Is Literally a Part-Time Job — Here’s How To Save Time on It

• 50% of millennials think they need $300,000 or less to retire in comfort: Here’s how much they actually need

• 5 Reasons Why Buying an Old House Is a Great Idea

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

Search Homes in Colorado

House Hunting Is Literally a Part-Time Job — Here’s How To Save Time on It

Between attending showings, meeting with lenders, trading emails with your real estate agent, and vigilantly scouring for new listings, house-hunting often feels like a part-time job.

Now, there’s actual data to back up the feeling.

A new report from real estate platform Opendoor found that first-time homebuyers are sinking a lot of time into finding a new home — and many are actually taking time off work for their search.

On average, first-time buyers missed about 14 hours of work during the homebuying process, which is nearly two full eight-hour workdays. That time translates to about $845 million in wages across the U.S., according to Opendoor’s data.

But in today’s ultra-competitive market, what’s a first-time buyer to do? Diligently staying at your desk, instead of rushing over for a showing, might mean losing out on the perfect house. 

House-shopping is a time-consuming process, period, but there are some steps you can take to help shave off precious minutes — and even hours — during your search, according to real estate agents. 

Send Your Real Estate Agent

Ask your real estate agent if he or she would be willing to go look at a house in-person, then report back, suggests Christine Hansen, a real estate agent in Fort Lauderdale.

“In this market, you can have your Realtor preview the property during the day, send you a video and, if you like it, you can go see it on a night or weekend,” she says.

Limit Your Online Searching

It can be super tempting to refresh Zillow or Redfin every five minutes — after all, finding a home is all you can think about right now. But McCullough says this can be counterproductive.

“Block off one or two hours and limit the online searching to just that amount of time,” he says. “Set these boundaries so that the search doesn’t drive you crazy or make you feel like you need to compromise.”

Understand the Timing

A big reason why the house search is so disruptive is that new listings seem to pop up at random — your real estate agent might frantically text you about a new listing right in the middle of an already stressful day at work.

But, in truth, real estate listings tend to follow a pretty stable pattern. If you can mentally prepare yourself for the day that most listings come on the market — and even block off an hour or two in your schedule — you can be more efficient (and feel less frazzled).

“Every city has a particular cycle of when new listings come on the market,” McCullough says. “In D.C., Thursday is the most common day for new homes to hit the market, so schedule your time the next day or two after to have the best success.”  

Trust Your Gut

First impressions matter. If you can tell that a home is not for you, then don’t waste a single extra minute on it, says Las Vegas real estate agent Lori Ballen.

“If we pull up to the house and immediately (the buyers) know it’s not what they want, we can leave,” she says. “If we had an appointment, I simply notify the homeowner privately that they have decided it’s not a property of interest. In addition, if we walk into a home and they realize at any point on the tour that they wouldn’t make an offer, we don’t have to complete the tour, or we move through it quickly.”

Do a Neighborhood Tour

Though you won’t be able to step inside the home at any hour of the day, you can still get a feel for the neighborhood while running other errands or on your lunch break, says Sarah Richardson, a real estate agent in Alaska.

“Drive by after work and see if you like where the place is and its general vibe,” she says.

Use Digital Tools 

Take advantage of all the digital tools and technologies at your disposal. “Walk” through the neighborhood by using street view and looking at satellite imagery on Google Maps. Watch the videos included in the listing. Click through the 3D tour of the house.

“The 3D tour will help you understand the layout of the property, the room scale, and other important details,” says Lauren Reynolds, a real estate agent in Connecticut.

Related Links

• Enhance Your Home Safety in 2022 With These Exterior and Interior Checks

• 50% of millennials think they need $300,000 or less to retire in comfort: Here’s how much they actually need

• 5 Reasons Why Buying an Old House Is a Great Idea

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

Search Homes in Colorado

Search Homes in Oklahoma

Search Homes in Oregon