There’s no doubt the Denver real estate market is hot, hot, hot! According to REcolorado, the average sold price in Denver in April was over $380k. If you were here in 2006-2008, you saw high prices then, too — followed by a pretty hard “market correction” when the bubble burst. So it’s only natural to look at news like this and wonder, “Is this another bubble?”

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The short answer: No, we don’t think so. The long answer is that many of the factors that combined to create the “perfect storm” of the 2008/2009 real estate crash — the biggest being much too lenient mortgage lending guidelines — simply aren’t in play any more. This article from Investopedia gives a concise overview.

The primary factors that *do* support sustainably rising prices are:

• An upturn in general economic activity
• A population increase and/or an increase in the number of people entering the housing market
• Low interest rates for mortgages

We definitely are seeing these factors in the Denver market. Our thriving commercial market has brought a lot of large companies to town and is bringing more. Metrodenver.org is the economic development corporation for the Denver area. When you look through their news releases, you see there are several large companies moving their operations to the Denver metro area. Here are just a few that caught my eye:

• Amazon — fulfillment center between Aurora-DIA
• SendGrid — bringing 500 employees
• Twitter — doubling their workforce in Boulder
• Virgin America — establishing a new customer contact center here in Denver and flight services from Denver

If you already live here, you know why Denver is such a cool place to live. But just in case you don’t remember, here are a few of my faves:

1. We have fantastic museums, cultural centers, theaters and symphony.
2. Every major sports team and then some.
3. Over 300 days of sunshine.
4. Great music venues (Red Rocks and Denver Botanic Gardens being my two faves)
5. Really good food!
6. We are a beer mecca.
7. Our downtown is easy to navigate (not so easy to park in), and a nice mix of work and play.
8. There are hundreds of miles of trails, pathways and parks to explore.
9. Don’t forget all of the endless things to do in the mountains just an hour away (hiking, biking, skiing, climbing).
10. The people here are laid back (some of them are likely high, LOL) and friendly in general…that’s because we are happy living here 🙂

What are your favorite reasons for living in the Denver metro area? I’d love to hear from you!