Rethinking life in Denver's far suburbs

Across the nation, the realization is taking hold that rising energy prices are less a momentary blip than a change with lasting consequences. The shift to costlier fuel is threatening to slow the decades-old migration away from cities, while exacerbating the housing downturn by diminishing the appeal of larger homes set far from urban jobs.

In Denver, housing prices in the urban core rose steadily from 2003 until late last year compared with previous years, before dipping nearly 5 percent in the last three months of last year, according to Economy.com. But house prices in the suburbs began falling earlier, in the middle of 2006, and then accelerated, dropping by 7 percent during the last three months of the year from a year earlier.

In Atlanta, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Minneapolis, homes beyond the urban core have been falling in value faster than those within, according to an analysis by Moody's Economy.com.

Tips to Sell Denver Real Estate Fast!

The first aspect that you need to look at is condition of the property you wish to sell. You need to step back and detach yourself from the property to get an impartial picture of what should be done to get your home in prime selling condition. Make no mistake that right now more than ever, condition sells homes.

If you find it difficult to impartially evaluate your home you should give considerable weight to what your Realtor advises. Realtors know the market and they understand what it takes for a home to sell. To catch a prospective buyer your home needs to stand out from the crowd.

Denver home values fall less than nation's

Despite all of the doom and gloom surround the Denver-area residential real estate market, the local housing market fares quite well relative to the rest of the country.
The latest report that shows this trend comes from Zillow, the company that made its name in the real estate industry by estimating the values of individual homes across the nation.

A Zillow report released today shows that homes prices in the Denver-Aurora metropolitan statistical area, the 21st largest MSA in the U.S., dropped by 5.1 percent in the first quarter from a year ago.

That is consistent with the S&P/Case-Shiller index of 20 markets released last week.

Denver Financial Center sold for $84M

But the 666,653-square-foot Seventeenth Street Plaza at 1225 17th St., at the other end of downtown from Denver Financial Center, is on the market for sale by owner JP Morgan Chase Co. with an asking price of $385 per square foot, or $250 million, according to brokers. Seventeenth Street Plaza is similar to Denver Financial Center's tower component in height and age, in that both buildings stand about 30 stories tall and were completed in the early 1980s.

Metro Denver office buildings have been attractive to investors in recent years, and continue to be, according to recent commercial real estate reports.