Housing options range from classic Victorian and Queen Anne-style single family homes to newly constructed, modern condominiums. Quaint brick bungalows join the mix, along with several apartment complexes. Uptown also has a nice variety of loft conversions. The price range for Uptown real estate is as wide as the housing selection; lofts and newer construction begin in the high one hundred thousands and range through three-quarters of a million dollars. With an extensive variety of single family homes, condos, and lofts, Uptown offers home buyers lots of great choices.

Prices range form the 200’s up to 600k for upper end lofts.

Eats & Drinks: Avenue Grill, Strings, AIX Restaurant, Solera Restaurant and Wine Bar

Boundaries: The boundaries are Broadway and York streets for western and eastern borders.  Colfax to the south and 20th to the north frame in this exciting area.

Pros: borders downtown, close to nightlife, good eats, shopping, theatre, retail

Cons: none to think of.

Schools:

Adjacent Hoods: Five Points, Downtown, Cheeseman Park, City Park West, Capitol Hill

If you are looking for available properties in the Uptown neighborhood, why not schedule a home tour..
Are you are considering selling your Uptown home or loft, click here to get started.

Eats & Drinks: Mercury Cafe, Marco’s Coal Fired Pizza, La Fiesta

Boundaries: The boundaries are Broadway and Downing on the west and east sides, with 23rd and 38th making up the south and north boundary.

Pros: density, one and 2 bedroom condos & apartments, young professionals, walk to downtown in 15m, tree lined streets

Cons: low income housing mixed with high end lofts.

Schools: Gilpin E-8, East

Adjacent Hoods: Five Points, Cheeseman Park, Uptown, City Park West, Country Club

If you are looking for available properties in the Curtis Park neighborhood, why not schedule a home tour..
Are you are considering selling your Curtis Park home or loft, click here to get started.

Courtesy of Land Title. Data maintained by Metrolist

Courtesy of Land Title. Data maintained by Metrolist

Please weigh in your thoughts on the comments section.

Capitol Hill

The Capitol Hill neighborhood is named after Denver’s Capitol Building.  Between 10th and 11th Streets on Sherman Street, you’ll find Poet’s Row, a row of historic apartment complexes  named after poets such as Frost and Dickenson.  Alan Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac also were known to have lived here. Did you know? Denver’s nickname of the Mile High City, the 13th step of the State Capitol building is exactly 5,280 feet high. Check out the Byers-Evans House Museum at 1310 Bannock Street.  This amazing home was built in 1883 by Rocky Mountain News publisher Williams Byers.

Eats & Drinks: Governor’s Park Bar & Grill for happy hour, Watercourse Foods at 206 E. 13th Ave for healthy vegetarian fare, Denver Ted’s for the best cheese steak subs, Twisted Sol to get your INK on.

Boundaries: Capitol Hill stretches from Broadway to Downing St. The neighborhood is encircled by Colfax Ave. to the north and 8th Ave. to the south.

Pros: density, one and 2 bedroom condos & apartments, young professionals, ink adorned hipsters, walk to the People’s Fair and A Taste of Colorado. Close to the Denver Public Library

Cons: some pockets of crime and vandalism, but thats part of the urban flair.

Schools:
East High at 1545 Detroit St.
Morey Middle School at 840 E. 14th Ave. serves grades 6-8.
Moore Elementary at 846 Corona St. offers classes for K - 5.

Adjacent Hoods: Five Points, Chesseman Park, Uptown, City Park West, Country Club

If you are looking for available properties in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, let’s schedule a home tour.

Are you are considering selling your Capitol Hill home or condo, click here to get started.

A Map View of Denver Neighborhoods.

Five Points is on the rise, crime is still a factor, but if your looking for appreciation over the next 5 years, many experts say this is the place to invest. Five Points is considered the Harlem of the West, due to its long jazz history.

Eats & Drinks: Check out Tom’s Home Cooking on 800 E 26th, Herb’s Hideaway, Cervantes

Boundaries: Park Ave, Downing St, Stout St, Tremont Place. Note: The boundaries between Curtis Park, Five Points and Ballpark overlap. The hood is the neighborhoods surrounding the intersection of Washington Street, 27th Street, 26th Avenue and Welton Street, northeast of downtown Denver.

Pros: industrial loft projects,condos, Queen Anne Victorians, light rail access, loft projects,walk to lodo, rising home prices, Five Points Jazz Festival , KUVO, affordable compared to LODO

Cons: crime, although it seems stable and should get better over time.

Adjacent Hoods: Curtis Park, Capitol Hill, Whittier, Cole, GlobeVille

If you are looking for available properties in the Five Points neighborhood, let’s schedule a home tour.

Are you are considering selling your Five Points home or loft, click here to get started.

A Map View of Denver Neighborhoods.

The HOPE for Homeowners program will refinance mortgages for borrowers who are having difficulty making their payments, but can afford a new loan insured by HUD’s Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The program begins October 1, 2008 and ends September 30, 2011.

Under the program, lenders will refinance loans to 90 percent of a house’s current value, automatically giving the owner 10 percent equity.

Call the Colorado Foreclosure Hotline at 1-877-601-HOPE to learn more.

If you need assistance selling your home or navigating through the short sale process, please call me at 303-475-1500 to better understand your options.

Energy prices are on the rise across the nation. As a result, heating
costs will consume an increasingly larger portion of a household’s
energy budget. That’s why it’s important to check your home to insure
that your heating dollars aren’t being wasted.

When cold weather approaches, use this checklist of simple ways to
make your home more comfortable and keep those escalating energy bills
at bay.

Check for Leaks

Weatherstripping and caulking is probably the least expensive,
simplest, most effective way to cut down on energy waste in the
winter. Improperly sealed homes can waste 10 to 15 percent of the
homeowner’s heating dollars. Take these steps:

1. Check around doors and windows for leaks and drafts. Add
weather-stripping and caulk any holes you see that allow heat to
escape. Make sure doors seal properly.

2. If your windows leak really badly, consider replacing them with
newer, more efficient ones. Keep in mind, however, that replacing
windows can be expensive - it could take you quite awhile to recover
your costs from the energy savings alone. But new windows also provide
other benefits, such as improved appearance and comfort.

3. Every duct, wire or pipe that penetrates the wall or ceiling or
floor has the potential to waste energy. Plumbing vents can be
especially bad, since they begin below the floor and go all the way
through the roof. Seal them all with caulking or weather-stripping.

4. Electric wall plugs and switches can allow cold air in. Purchase
simple-to-install, pre-cut foam gaskets that fit behind the switch
plate and effectively prevent leaks.

5. Don’t forget to close the damper on your fireplace. Of course
the damper needs to be open if a fire is burning; but if the damper is
open when you’re not using the fireplace, your chimney functions as a
large open window that draws warm air out of the room and creates a
draft. Close that damper - it’s an effective energy-saving tip that
costs you nothing!

6. Examine your house’s heating ducts for leaks. Think of your
ductwork as huge hoses, bringing hot air instead of water into your
house. Mostly out of sight, ducts can leak for years without you
knowing it. They can become torn or crushed and flattened. Old duct
tape - the worse thing to use to seal ductwork, by the way - will dry
up and fall away over time, allowing junctions and splices to open,
spilling heated air into your attic or under the house. It’s wasteful.
According to field research performed by the California Energy
Commission, you can save roughly 10 percent of your heating bill by
preventing leaky ducts.

Check Your Insulation

1. Insulate your attic. In an older home, that can be the most
cost-efficient way to cut home heating costs. Before energy efficiency
standards, homes were often built with little or no insulation. As a
result, large amounts of heat can be lost through walls, floors and -
since heat rises - especially ceilings.

How much insulation should you install? Typical framed homes now
being built in California’s Central Valley must meet insulation
requirements of R-38 insulation in ceilings and R-19 for walls and
floors.
2. Weather-strip and insulate your attic hatch or door to prevent
warm air from escaping out the top of your house.

3. Seal holes in the attic that lead down into the house, such as
open wall tops and duct, plumbing, or electrical runs. Any hole that
leads from a basement or crawlspace to an attic is a big energy
waster. Cover and seal them with spray foam and rigid foam board if
necessary.

Check Your Heating System

1. Get a routine maintenance and inspection of your heating system
each autumn to make sure it is in good working order.

2. Replace your heater’s air filter monthly. Your heating system
will work less hard, use less energy and last longer as a result. Most
homeowners can replace filters and do such simple tasks as cleaning
and removing dust from vents or along baseboard heaters.

3. If your heating system is old, you might consider updating it. A
pre-1977 gas furnace is probably 50 percent to 60 percent efficient
today. That means only half of the fuel used by the furnace actually
reaches your home as heat. Modern gas furnaces, on the other hand,
achieve efficiency ratings as high as 97 percent. By replacing an old
heating system with one of the most efficient models, you can cut your
natural gas use nearly in half!

4. Use your set-back thermostat. California houses built today must
have them. If you have an older home, consider installing one. A
set-back thermostat allows you to automatically turn down the heat
when you’re away at work or when you’re sleeping at night, and then
boost the temperature to a comfortable level when you need it.
Remember - it takes less energy to warm a cool home than to maintain a
warm temperature all day long. Properly using your set-back thermostat
could cut your heating costs from 20 to 75 percent.

5. Reverse the switch on your ceiling fans so they blow upward,
toward the ceiling. Ceiling fans are a great idea in the summer, when
air blowing downward can improve circulation and make a room feel four
degrees cooler. A cooling draft is a poor idea when it’s cold,
however. By reversing the fan’s direction, the blades move air upward
in winter. This is especially valuable in high ceiling rooms, where
heat that naturally rises is forced back down into the room.

6. Make sure all hearing vents are opened and unblocked by
furniture or other items. This will ensure that the air is evenly
distributed through the home.

Change a Light Bulb

1. Lighting our homes can represent 20 percent of home electricity
bills and is one of the easiest places to start saving energy. If
every household changed a light to an ENERGY STAR(R) one, together
we’d save enough energy to light 7 million homes and reduce greenhouse
gas emissions equivalent to that of 1 million cars.

article courtesy of:

Kelly Rosato, AHIT(R) Certified Home Inspector
Colorado Home Inspection Professionals
http://www.cohip.com
hi@cohip.com or 303-748-1388

Pride of Ownership

• #1 reason.  You can paint the walls.  You can even tear down a wall to make your kitchen bigger. Attach perment fixtures, add a deck and create your customized personal living space. The message is its yours to decorate and be proud of.

Appreciation

Mortgage Interest Deductions

• Property Tax Deductions- real estate property taxes paid for a first home and a vacation home are fully deductible for income tax purposes.

Capital Gains Exclusion

• As long as you have lived in your home for two of the past five years, you can exclude up to $250,000 for an individual or $500,000 for a married couple of profit from capital gains. You do not have to buy a replacement home or move up. There is no age restriction, and the “over-55″ rule does not apply.

Mortgage Reduction Builds Equity

• Every month, a portion of your monthly payment is applied to the principal balance of your loan, which reduces your overall loan balance.  Ask me how this works as I have several examples of loan balance payoff.

If you would like to learn more and discuss your options in a very casual, relaxed environment, call me at 303-475-1500 to set an appt.  Take the first step, you will be glad you did.