Old Town Square Renovation

Fort Collin’s Old Town Square is one of the most desired and frequented spots in our city for locals and tourists alike. This unique atmosphere provides entertainment, shopping, and dining for anyone and everyone. Because Old Town is such a vital asset to Fort Collins, the Downtown Development Authority has decided to renovate The Square. This particular area of Old Town Fort Collins has received substantial wear and tear over the last 30 years creating much reason to renovate and modernize the highly trafficked area.   

The existing stage will be reconstructed and will include rear storage. The layout will consist of a pedestrian circulation zone including; an enlarged children’s’ play area, interactive water features, a fireplace feature, central art, and sign as well as additional flower beds. Project costs are expected to be $2.86 million and the majority of the renovation should be complete in August 2015 in time for the annual NewWestFest. 

Various activities will be held during the renovation and shops and businesses will continue to operate as normal. To learn more about the renovation as well as events taking place in the Square, visit http://www.downtownfortcollins.org/renovation.html. 

Bingham Hill and Bellvue Video Tour

Here is my first foray into the world of posting video.  My goal is to try and give you a feel for the area and provide some useful background information.  In this first video I ramble about the area you can see from the top of Bingham Hill.  I believe the video was shot in February but I can't remember the exact date. 

I will post some additional footage from this trip and try to keep the videos rolling.  If you have a specific area you would like me to highlight, just let me know.

The video was shot using an Ipad Mini, so pardon the image and sound quality.

Morning Run on Mountain

Sometimes the celestial bodies line up just so during one particular time of the year.  I believe it was last week, when I was out for a morning run on Mountain Ave and I saw this....

Nope, not the trolley coming at me.  The sunrise was directly in line with the trolley tracks and for a few seconds I had to just stop running because the sun was just too intense. 

Never know what you are going to see on an early morning run.

Mountain Avenue

If you have been to Old Town Fort Collins then you have heard of Mountain Avenue.  I am going to spend the next few blog posts highlighting streets, businesses, landmarks, really whatever I am riding past just to give a flavor of Fort Collins.  If you want me to cover something in particular, shoot me a message and I will do it.

Mountain Avenue, Old Town, Fort Collins, CO

This is not the most scenic shot of Mountain but remember it is January 24 (I took this today in our 65 degree weather).  Why is Mountain popular?  First, this shot is down one side of Mountain and you will notice how wide the street appears.  From right to left we have (1) a wide parking lane, (2) a wide bike lane with lines on each side, (3) a wide single lane for cars, (4) a wide, tree lined grass median which also has tracks for a trolley car and then the pattern repeats for the other side for traffic, bikes, etc in the other direction. 

There is also a wide grass and tree-lined space between the street and pedestrian sidewalk.  All of the trees in the median and between the street and the sidewalk are owned and maintained by the city.  Each resident is responsible for mowing, planting, maintaining the grass strip between the sidewalk and the street, but the city maintains road and utility easements in that space.  The result is a wide, beautiful tree lined street that connects the business district of Old Town to City Park (a distance of about 2 miles).   

Mountain Avenue also has a great mix of architecture with $250k homes next to $730k homes. 

If you are visiting Fort Collins on a warm day and want to stretch your legs, take a walk down Mountain Ave, you won't be disappointed. 

Wonderful Weekend Weather

How was it in Fort Collins this weekend?  Well, I met Joe for a bike ride over Bingham Hill and along Horsetooth reservoir and I did it in shorts.  It was comfortable.  Saturday was so nice it was time for some bike washing to remove the winter crude from Roadie and the Long Haul Trucker.  Again, short sleeved shirt....

We usually have some warm spells throughout the winter and I will certainly take them whenever they happen. 

Fort Collins "Downtown" is ranked #1 by Livability

The awards keep stacking up for our great downtown, but hear is a little local secret.  We do not say we are going "downtown", we are heading to "Old Town".  The locals will know what you mean and whether you are local or brand new to town, you will always be welcomed.

Here is the link to the Livability article:

http://livability.com/top-10/top-10-downtowns-2012/fort-collins/co

New Belgium is a bit of walk from the center of Old Town and not the prettiest stroll down a busy street.  If I were looking for a drink, as the article mentions, I would try Equinox Brewing, Funkworks, Crankenstein, or maybe th.e local favorite "The Mayor" which has over 100 beers on tap.

Whatever you do, just get here and check out Fort Collins.  You will not be disappointed (but do not tell too many people)...

How's the Market?

Friends, family, new acquaintances, my wife, my mom, everyone always asks this question...and rightly so.  Real estate represents a major investment and with all of the different news stories floating around out there how is one to know but to ask a professional.

Here is the tidbit that many of the large media outlets gloss over when discussing this topic.  There is a very large scale national affect to the real estate market, and we all saw that affect during the recession and the housing bubble as a result of the CDO issues that occurred.  However, real estate has a major local component.

An analogy may provide the best clarity, so here it goes:  Talking about real estate on the national level is like talking about the weather on the national level.  The nation on the whole may be a few degrees higher or lower, on average across the nation, and sure that means something, but if you are only concerned about the weather in Fort Collins, CO then you aren't really concerned that the whole nation is a degree warmer on average for the year.  You want to know the daily high's and low's for Fort Collins.  Further, if you are planning to camp at Horsetooth Mountain Park (they have a few backcountry sites but they may be closed due to the recent fire) then you would really like to know the specific forecast for the weather station there, not the high's and low's for the whole city, on average or the high's and low's for the weather station at I-25 and Mulberry.  The weather can be very different in different parts of town, much less different parts of the country.

So, back to the How's the Market question.  According to the Federal Housing Finance Authority, Fort Collins is ranked in the top 20 markets nationally for price appreciation.  The quarterly results (which combine Fort Collins with Loveland into one statistical area) have us up 1.44% for the 2nd quarter and we were up 2.21% for the first quarter.  These numbers would probably be higher if we only considered Fort Collins as Fort Collins tends to have a little higher appreciation than Loveland, but none the less, 3.61% for the first two quarters of the year (that is all the data currently available even though it is October) is pretty darn good.  I bet third quarter will continue the trend, and specific segments of our market are experiencing appreciation at an even higher rate.

With all that good news there has to be a little something else right, some gloom and doom.  The news folks would not lie to us would they?  One segment of the market is lagging a bit, as one would expect in a recovery such as this.  The high end price ranges (over say $500,000 or more) are still a bit soft.  Homes are selling, but there is not huge demand and there are still some bargains, read buyers market, to be had.

English teachers have always taught me that you have to wrap things up with a good conclusion, so here it is: CAVEAT:  These are generalities and each case in real estate is unique!!   If your home is under $400,000 and in Fort Collins proper, chances are good that you have had a good year in terms of appreciation and demand.  If your home is $400,000-600,000, depending on your location, finishes and other amenities, you are holding steady.  If your home is over $600,000, chances are things are still a little soft and you may need to sell at a discount, but maybe not.

This combination of variables means that if you have a home under $400k and you are thinking of moving up to a larger home, now is the time as you may be able to sell in a high demand market (under $400k) and buy in a lower demand (over $500k) market.  If you thrown in the low interest rates, there is a chance you could do all of this without increasing your monthly mortgage payment.

Sorry to any of my past English teachers if the quality of this composition is not up to your standards.